The awesome thing about travelling in Austria is that they have these tourist cards in their cities. I've used them before in Salzburg and Vienna and so when we found that Innsbruck had them too, we decided to get one. So as soon as we got in on Saturday 27th, we purchased one (€35). It covers all public transport, travel on the sightseer bus, trips on the cable cars up the mountains and entry to a number of attractions.
This meant that we didn't have to worry about any extra money regarding getting up to our accommodation or travelling around the city. We had a great time, except that once again it was VERY cold at times. On the first evening Chris managed to find out that the temperatures the next day were ranging between -1 and -9, plus then the windchill factor, and some sites had put the low at -16!!! My sister was not impressed!
Day 1: We grabbed a bus directly outside our accommodation to the other end of the run - effectively across the valley floor to the other set of mountains across from us, to a place called Iglis. It was quite a quaint lovely place. It was the start of some ski runs, so needless to say we had plenty of skiiers and snowboarders on our bus. After finally working out how we went about getting onto the gondola/cable car (nothing seemed to be in english) we went through and up the mountain with all the skiiers and snowboarders. The views on the way up and at the top were magnificent! The day was spectacular - lots of sunshine and blue sky with no clouds, and plenty of snow to walk on and throw! We had a wander around, some mulled wine, took some photos and headed down again. We went Ice Skating at the bottom of the cable car - quite a differnt experience this time being surrounded by snow and mountains in the background. We then went on a tram through the outskirts of Innsbruck, again looking all wonderful. We checked out the new ski jump - man it is huge! Unfortunately there was no one using it only some guys doing maintenance for this weekends competition. We went back across the valley to another funicular and cable car (Nordkette funicular and cable car) and went to the top. At 2250m you can see a lot! Including a wonderful sunset. But it was literally freezing! Adele & Kirsten couldn't handle the cold at all, so Chris and I ran (literally) up to the top to get some awesome photos. We did see a temperature gauge in the most sheltered part of the lodge that told us it was -7! Away from there it was a lot colder, believe me!
Day 2:We decided to go to the Alpine Zoo. It was advertised as over 2000 animals, birds & fish, with 150 different species. Unfortunately included in those numbers were cows, sheep and pigs! So, although we did get to see a bear, bisson, wolves & bobcats, the zoo was a bit of a let down for us all. We headed into the old town of Innsbruck and it was quite a cute little part of Innsbruck. This is where every corner you turn you get a snow-covered mountain at the end of the street - just gorgeous! We then jumped on a shuttle bus out to the Swarovski Crystalworld. This was beautiful. All the different ways in which crystals are used was great to see and then some beautiful jewellery as well. I bought some earrings that I thought looked fab. We managed to find a supermarket for some snacks & wine (at €1.69 that's still cheap in NZ terms) before heading to our Gasthof. For dinner I had a typical tyrolean dish - Tyrol Grostel. It was a mix of sliced beef, onion & potato with cabbage salad (after it arrived I found it was actually lettuce salad, much to my delight) and had a lovely taste, despite it being very salty. We finished our day with a night of cards and yahtzee, along with our wonderful cheap (but lovely) wine and snacks.
Day 3: We had a late start today - we needed to repack things in order to have only 2 bags to check in. (I'm guessing my head wasn't screwed on when I booked this leg). So we put much of the heavy stuff in hand luggage (easyjet doesn't seem to care how heavy they are!) and left room in the suitcases for some wine (according to Adele & Kirsten it was too good to not grab a few (8!!) bottles to take home). On our way to the train station we went via the supermarket for these bottles. :-) After putting our bags in the locker, we wandered around the town again, checked out the markets (way overpriced and too breakable for me), had some Grostel & bratwurst (potato & sausage) along with the rest of the Innsbruck people & headed to the airport.
It was the first time any of us had arrived into Gatwick airport in London. So it then took us a further 45mins (after waiting for our luggage for 45mins) to find out and get to the train station to head into London central and home to their house. Unfortunately London hadn't warmed up any while we were away either, so it was still quite freezing to get to the house.
But we all agreed, overall, we couldn't have asked for a better white Christmas break.
