Thursday 19 June - Saturday 21 June 2014
Switzerland has Interlaken, Austria has Innsbruck.
Both places are visually sensational.
Soaring snow capped mountains are to be seen in every direction here, and it is just beautiful. It is one hell of a contrast to the Mallee and the greenness has to be seen to be appreciated - or understood.
As was the case with Wien and Salzburg, the city is quite flat as it is situated in a river valley. However the mountains start to rise in the suburbs and you can see homes nestled into the hillsides from the centre of the city. The old town is not very large and is easily got around in a day, but there are plenty of attractions and we certainly didn"t see them all. But we did do two things of note.
We decided to check out the Olympic ski jump and perhaps have lunch at the restaurant located at the top of the ski jump. We also decided, that on our way to the ski jump, to find the tram stop that would take us to Patscherkofel the next day as that stop was located close to the ski jump, which incidently is named Bergisel. Well, we looked and we looked. We pulled out our map a dozen times to check for the supposed location, but we could not find it. We gave up and headed for Bergisel.
We paid our money and entered through the turnstile and checked out the bottom of the jump, at the "landing strip" It was covered with fake plastic grass giving it a rather odd look. I glanced up towards the tower to see a bloke on skis push himself out onto the starting position. By absolute sheer luck and extraordinary timing, we were about to watch a practice jump. The fake grass was some sort of matting designed for the purpose of replicating snow I suppose. We watched with our mouths open and cameras set on movie as this fella took off down the ski jump and landed perfectly, quite close to us. I still think they are quite mad, it looks a dangerous sport.
We made our way to the top station of the jump by way of a funicular and peered down the jump. Yes, they are quite mad.
We made our way up to the restaurant, perched up some 50 metres above the ground. Those who know Grumps will know that the vertigo kicks in for him at about 6 feet - here he was at 150 feet and his head was spinning.
We sat down in the restaurant, Gloria by the window and Grumps at the other end of the table, some 4 feet from the window. We ordered coffee and food and then Gloria noticed that a table at the front of the restaurant had become available, so we moved over there. The window was slanted outwards and Grumps swore that the floor was on a lean. Gloria laughed as poor old Grumps had started to lean in the opposite direction and his knuckles were white from gripping the table. And he still sat as far from the window as he possibly could... Never the less, the view over Innsbruck was brilliant. We could even see the sister tram to that one we were looking for, but still couldn't see the one we were looking for, even perched up where we were. After lunch, Gloria relented and we returned to terra firma, where Grumps knelt and kissed the ground in the style of Pope John-Paul II.
We resumed our search for the tram stop to find out from a tram driver that it was at the tram stop we were standing at except it was about 10 metres away on the other side of a small grassy park. The bloody map had it behind buildings on the other side of the street!
The next day was one where Grumps was able to tick one off his bucket list.
We caught the elusive tram to a place named Igls where we caught a cable car that took us about 4/5ths of the way up Patscherkofel. From there, we trudged up a steep dirt track/road that took us to the summit. Getting to Patscherkofel had been something I had wanted to do since I started to ski as a primary school child. Grumps had a smile from ear to ear. Gloria did not as it took about a hour and a half to walk up that track.
The views of Innsbruck and the number of valleys that we could see was absolutely sensational and Gloria wore out her camera taking photos. There was even one of Grumps in snow at Patscherkofel (yes, it was a dirty old snow drift, but it was Patscherkofel snow!)
If you love sensational views, mountains and mild weather in summer, then Innsbruck is a must see place. It has become Grumps' second favourite place, after Interlaken, which is only leading by a short half head....
Next stop - Munich.
