Innsbruck and the Austrian Alps

Innsbruck is a town in the West of Austria in the state of Tyrol. It was in July 2007 that we spent a fantastic few days there, exploring not only the town of Innsbruck but the heights of Austria's famous Alpine range of mountains.

The name, "Innsbruck," comes quite literally from the German for "bridge" or "crossing" over the River Inn. The river is a slate grey colour, due to the chalk in the area and flows right through the centre of the town.

The town has known a rich and vibrant history, from Roman times and even before, due to its strategic importance as a crossing point of the Alpine range. As we can see from the photographs, the centre of the town has a Medieval look and feel to it and the many churches and museums can take some time to explore. 

There is an amusing tale which we still often refer to and relate regarding our experiences of eating out in Innsbruck.

On the evening we arrived, we sat outside a large restaurant/cafe in the town centre and were attended to by an extremely competent and friendly young waiter. We noticed at the time that he appeared to be the only waiter on duty but the efficiency with which he conducted his many tasks was remarkable, considering how busy the cafe was.

Over the course of our stay, we visited this outlet several times, to use its Internet cafe, its bar, its restaurant again and even its ice cream parlour. On each and every occasion, we were attended to in the various areas by the same waiter! It appeared to be the case that he ran the establishment himself but not once did we see anyone receiving poor service.

This young man was extremely thin in stature - no wonder! It remains the most perfect example of multi-tasking we have ever witnessed. We wondered whether he was actually cooking the food he served, as well...?

There are a great many hotels and guesthouses both in Innsbruck and the surrounding areas, largely due to its popularity as a Winter Sports' centre. We stayed in a guesthouse some half hour's walk outside the town itself, in an uphill direction, and the photo to the right shows the town from just around the corner from said guesthouse.

The walk downhill to the town was very pleasant, either by road or through the woodland trail, but the steep climb back up ensured that the bus service was on occasion very welcome!

Whatever time of the year you visit Innsbruck, it is virtually essential that you take a trip up one of the Alpine peaks in a cable car. The day that we chose to do so was scorchingly hot at the foot of the mountain - but it wasn't long before we stepped out into a world of snow...

As we had plenty of time, we decided to go down the mountain from the stage of the restaurant on foot. There was a clear, zig-zagging path, which appeared to go all the way to the bottom.

Unfortunately, it was only as we neared the bottom that we hit problems. The path branched off in many directions and we had to ask for guidance on several occasions. Eventually, the path ended altogether and the final part of our descent was made down a very unstable, scree slope.

The morale of this story is: cable cars are provided for a reason!