Vienna marked the most eastern point of my trip. From there I headed west. Our neighborhood really does get around. In Innsbruck I stopped for one night to meet up with 2 of our neighbors off on another cycling trip from Innsbruck to Italy. The timing was perfect, and it meant my close to 8 hour train ride from Vienna to Switzerland was broken into two smaller chunks.
I felt like I was thawing out in Innsbruck from the long busy days before. With no particular destinations in mind we simply strolled around the old town stopping for a few photographs, an ice cream, and eventually a bench in a shady park where we caught up on the happenings of the neighborhood. In the old town we saw the golden roof Innsbruck is known for, though I didn't realize I was taking a photo of it the first time. I was simply interested in the Medieval looking balcony that the roof happened to cover.
After my friends caught up on a little sleep from their many hours of traveling we had dinner at a casual restaurant, which thankfully had an English version of their menus, and surprisingly also organic food.
The next morning I bid them farewell on their bicycling trip and then started out for the short venicular train and cable cars to the 2nd highest point on the mountains above Innsbruck. It is really amazing what people have designed that can climb so high up the steep slopes. If I'd had more time before my train I would have taken the foot paths down the mountain, but as it was I simply enjoyed sitting back in the sun (despite the breeze) and admiring the view for half an hour before catching the significantly more empty cable car back down the mountain.
From the main train station I had a wonderful view of the Olympic ski jump (although with many electric train lines in between). I can imagine the thrill in your stomach going off of it if you could make yourself plunge down that slope. It was on to Switzerland and not an Olympic medal for me though.
