I can’t believe we are here, but I’m grateful we are! With Jen’s pregnancy (planned trip to Taiwan) and Ray’s punctured knee (planned hiking trip in Alberta), I’ve canceled more trips than traveled this year.
We flew to Munich and with a former flight attendant as a seat mate, had a delightfully entertaining flight. We were treated very kindly by all the flight attendants who stopped by to hug and chat with her. After 11 hrs, we arrived in Munich and proceeded to what I assumed was the main railway station, only to find the central station was a 20 min ride away. This story seems familiar! We still arrived with several hours to spare; the station was clean, safe and organized. We nodded off through most of the 2 hr ride and I set my alarm to make sure we didn’t sleep past the Innsbruck stop.
Our room at the AC Hotel Marriott overlooks the old town “Altstadt” with a beautiful backdrop – the jagged spires of the Nordkette range. Old Town is charming and quaint, especially early in the morning before the tourists descend upon it.
When in Austria, dine on strudel. The Strudel Cafe is tiny but serves a wonderful assortment of strudels sweet and savory. We chose 2-plain apple and plain cherry, the pastry thin and light and the fillings not too sweet. It is not unusual to meet other travelers from the Bay Area and the other couple in the cafe was from Sacramento. They were planning to hike the upper ridge at the top of the cable car line.
We went up the funicular, the first ride in a series of 3 but were told the cable car was closed due to technical issues. When it started up again, we were undecided about going up as the cloud cover appeared so thick. It really was a $100 gamble but after looking at the live cameras, decided to chance it. We got lucky. The second segment takes you to Seegrube. We were above the cloud cover, with a spectacular view of Innsbruck encircled by the Inn River. This is the view skiers get as they descend! Innsbruck was the site of the 1976 Olympics and we can see why it is such a jewel of ski locales. .
The last segment takes you to Hungerbuth at 6.300 ft in elevation. There are no ski lifts here but the scenery is jaw dropping beautiful. We stay for several hours and finally head down as the clouds close in around us.
The afternoon showers have passed and we end the day with a walk along the riverfront.
