We drove like 5 hours to this famous town Innsbruck. First thing that impressed me were the very organized streets with CLEAR road signs. This is exactly the opposite from Italy! The street names were nicely displayed in manuscript fonts. But the street names were kinda difficult to pronoun. There were 2 parts of the town on both side of the canal. Most of the accommodations are situated on the other side of the canal from the town centre where the buzz is. Our 2-star hotel (Innbruke Hotel) is a small pink building with a very warm feeling and there is a pub at the ground floor. Our rooms were very clean and there is a basin with a mirror in the room too. The toilet and the showers are in the corridor and was very well lit up and most of all, clean!
After putting down our luggage, we began our exploration in Innsbruck. We crossed the canal which was lined with colorful low-rise buildings on one side and a bustling X'mas market on the other and halfway on the canal there was snow-capped mountains ranges in front of us. What beautiful scenery! Took a couple of pictures and we walked towards the much talked about X'mas markets in Europe.
The X'mas market is already alive in the day. With the cooling weather and the glittering and colorful decorations on the buildings, it was awesome! All the shops are selling things related to the X'mas season. There are stuffs like candy floss, cookies, nuts, X'mas tree decor, scarves, beanies, etc. We grabbed wurstel sausage burgers and a hot cup of cappuccino before proceeding to visit other places of interest in Innsbruck in case night fall.
We were walking across the X'mas market and unknowingly came to our 1st attraction, the Golden Roof. It was situated just inside the X'mas market. You will not know it is so famous unless you see people snapping photos in the air. It was merely a small roof which is gold in color... why is it so famous? The roof is not so high up to be any lookout point? A quick google check reveal this: "It was constructed for Emperor Maximilian I to serve as a royal box where he could sit in luxury and enjoy tournaments in the square below" Ok, now I know... after I went to the place. Haha! The next few places we went were the exterior of the Hofburg imperial palace. It looked very modern with what looked like a fresh coat of white paint recently splashed onto the building. I was still expecting it to be some old tall castle with fort and ropes thrown down from the top for the soldiers to climb up in the past. As the night was starting to turn dark at 4.30pm, we went briefly to this museum next to the palace. The museum was so small! One look and you can see the whole place. It was actually a small church which still houses the tombs of one of the king and queen of Innsbruck in the attic.
We went to this Swarovski shop in the town center and spent like an hour shopping for crystals there. The things are not exactly very cheap there but there are some small jewelries which range from 15 euro to 100 euro. There is this triple-layered cake displayed on a table with 2 chairs and all of them are made of crystals! I spent like 80 euro buying gifts for friends as well as a pair of earrings and a necklace for myself.
After we came out of the Swarovski shop, the night is already dark and the streets are filled with lots of people. We began strolling along the X'mas market. They always say "Save the best for last". We came to this stall with a long queue selling apple cider. As the weather was turning chilly, we also queued to buy a mug of apple juice. Though I think there is nothing fantastic about the apple juice but drinking something hot under the cold starry night is really amazing. The feeling is so comforting. Ahh...
Came across this colorful shop selling woven or knitted stuffs. Since I did not attach my hood on my jacket, I bought an Austrian-style beanie. A 100% woolen beanie cost 25 euro! So I settled for this half wool and don't half what material beanie which cost 10 euro. Couldn't find the perfect design in the 10 euro range but I bought it nevertheless since I probably won't be wearing it ever again. (I will not travel in winter and I will definitely not come for such long overseas training again unless it is on short business trip.)
The next day we went to Stubai Glacier about 40 min bus ride from Innsbruck town. We past by many small, quaint houses along the way and one thing I noticed are that the windows panes are either nicely decorated or they draw some designs around their window. This makes their houses looked really cheerful. It reminds me of those images from Enid Blyton storybooks. Skiers with full blown ski gear started coming up the bus. At the beginning, they looked so out of place wearing ski equipment in the bus. But as we are nearing the foot of the Stubai Glacier, we are like one of the few people in the bus without ski gear on and it is now time for us to feel so so weird. The view to the bottom of the glacier had me engulfed with excitement. There are snow flakes on the grasses and trees and soft snow at the side of the road. I was hoping it would snow.
We took a cable car up this ski place where there are beginner slopes. The place is infested with skiers of all ages - kids as young as 3 years old to grannies and grandpas. We went to this ski rental shop where there was a superb range of ski equipment available. I did not ski though cos partly I feel 4 hours is not enough for me to master the art of ski and I would not have enjoy the whole ski thingy and secondly I want to try skiing together with Superboy as both of us have never ski before. This set me to reminisce of the times we had in Melbourne during my graduation tour to Australia. We had wanted to ski at Mt Buller in Melbourne but I was running out of money that time. Anyway, the rest of spent like an hour there trying on the sizes and learning how to lock and unlock the ski. After which they walked like a duck from the rental shop to the ski slopes. But after gearing up, they looked pretty cool. As they try to even walk or stand up from the falls, I took the cable car to the highest point of the glacier. The slope at the top of the cable car station was just steps away after you alight from the cable car. I think the temperature there was like sub zero! Cool right? Haha! And I was only wearing my thermal top and my jacket.
Austria is really neat place. I would definitely visit it again if I have the chance.
