Innsbruck, Austria

With Friday and Monday as national holidays in Switzerland (and Austria), we decided to take a trip to Innsbruck via train from Zürich. The trip took about 3 1/2 hours and went through the small principality of Liechtenstein (32,000 people) before crossing in to Austria. The entire trip was through the mountains and was spectacular views of snow-capped peaks, green mountain valleys, rushing waterfalls, and beautiful lakes. We were happy with our reserved seats after seeing the train fill up with other holiday travelers. The kids spent the ride looking out the window and reading books. Innsbruck is a city of about 130,000 people and hosted the winter Olympics two times. We stayed in a hotel near the Ambross castle with an impressive view of the mountains. We wandered around the old part of the city and saw the "Golden roof", part of a building that has real gold on the shingles. We also took a carriage ride through the downtown- Elisabet kept asking if we could go because we were seeing them everywhere. When we finally relented and hopped on, the look on her face was worth the ride alone. We toured the imperial palace where some of the Kaisers and Kaiserins of Austria lived and saw an impressive ballroom with a painted ceiling and ornate chandeliers. We visited the Alpine zoo which is filled with animals seen in the Alp region- Ibex, wolves, moose, lynx, yellow-bellied toad, and some of the birds we have on our "to see" list. We ate some typical Tirolian meals of potatoes and meat- actually all the food we had was quite good. The kids loved the wiener schnitzel and Hanna ate it every night. Yesterday we took the bahn to the top of the ski mountain- two different trains up and then a gondola to the top. There were still a few skiers out with their short, spring skis. We met a girl and her dad going up for a couple runs and found out the mother was from Missouri and they met at Southeast Missouri State- kind of a funny connection. They had lived in Innsbruck for 5 years and the girl who was 9 was picking up a British accent at school, despite the American accents of her parents (her dad was Austrian but spoke perfect English). She and Leif struck up quite a conversation when we ran into them again going down the mountain. At the top we saw some Alpine Chough and Alpine Accentor birds (exciting for any birders reading this). Hanna was wearing sandals as we trekked across a snowfield to look off towards the north- it was cold, but not unbearable at the top. The Alps are around 2000-3000 m in the Innsbruck region so they are really breathtaking. We haven't gotten tired of the views here! We also visited the Swarovski crystal "museum" which was mostly a tourist attraction, but Travis and I enjoyed trying out their new line of binoculars. The kids played outside on the playground while we waited for the bus and it was actually quite hot! Probably 75 degrees, but most people were still dressed for winter with jeans and sweaters! We must really look like Americans now with our shorts and baseball caps. We took a quick tour of the Landesmuseum and looked at some Roman artifacts from the region. We are realizing we need to do some more reading on the history of Europe and the different countries. It's so amazing to go into churches and buildings that are 800 years old, and also to think of the history dating back to the Romans and before Christ. This morning we walked the grounds of the Ambross castle and saw some Gray Wagtails (very cool!) in the mountain stream. Leif's favorite part were the peacocks displaying on the steps to the castle. We took the bus to the main train station and had our first experience of mis-reading the public transportation info. Luckily we had left plenty of time before our train departed so the LONG time it took us to get to the station was only a minor inconvenience. The trip back was packed again with travelers and the kids passed the time watching a movie while Travis looked at a few MR images a horse feet and I read a book. Not a bad way to travel. Sorry the pictures aren't so great. I see there was a smudge on the lens and we were also low on batteries. We're getting ready to leave for Italy with Kate on Thursday. First Venice and then to the Cinque Terre. Should be another adventure......