Snow Covered Hills

April 3, 2011Innsbruck, Austria

sorry for the delay in posts, but life got a bit hectic.

We arrived to Innbruck rather late, so we didn't see too much, but in the morning I woke up to mountains that were even closer to me than the ones in Bolzano.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I don't even know how to describe it.  I've never seen mountains this beautiful or this close. 

A shot of the mountains.

Innsbruck was mostly a site seeing day, because we didn't have too much time.  I'm really  bummed I didn't research better, because apparently anyone can bobsled down the Olympic bobsled sledding hill thing.  Although, I think it might just be sledding, because I can't imagine them letting inexperienced people bobsled, especially after what happened to a professional in the last winter Olympics.

The first monument I saw exiting the train station was the Triumphforte: Innsbruck's arch of triumph.  The Arch was created to commemorate the marriage of  Maria Ludovica and Emperor Leopold II.  The other side commemorates the death of Emperor Leopold the I, who died during the wedding celebrations.

Triumphforte

After that we made our way to Old Town.  I really liked the architecture of Old Town and the colors.  

My attempt at an artsy picture.  But at least it shows the pretty houses with the mountains.

In Old Town we saw the Golden Roof which was built in the 15th century. It was built so Emperor
Maximilian I could sit on a balcony and watch the sports in the square below him. The Golden Roof is one of the top attractions on everything that I read before going to Innsbruck, but in my opinion it was one of the least exciting.

I also went to the Jesuit church which was beautiful inside.  On the ceiling there are paintings representing four continents.  This can also be seen in St. Ignatius in Rome, so maybe it's a Jesuit thing.  I'll have to look into it more. The architecture was of the Baroque style.  I found the inside to be much prettier than the exterior.

We went up to the cupola of a tower to see what was proclaimed as the best view of Innsbruck.  Here I felt so close to the mountains it was amazing.  I could see over all the rooftops and just take in the city.

From the Cupola overlooking Innsbruck.  I felt super close to the mountains.

I saw many other sites such as the Imperial Palace, a few more churches, etc, but I really loved just wandering the streets and enjoying the view of the mountains.

Random Street in Innsbruck.

I quickly found my favorite part of Innsbruck when we stopped at the river. I loved how the colorful houses looked against the mountains and behind the river. 

I really liked the mountains behind the houses behind the river, but it was hard to take a picture of.  I have about 54 on my camera in the attempt.

Not looking my best in my layers, but it proves I was actually there I suppose.

Before heading back we saw a parade in the main square.  It was cool to see traditional Austrian attire. We tried asking around to see what the parade was for, but we found no answers.

We saw a random parade.

The journey back was long.  We had to take a train to Brenner (the border), then catch a train to Bolzano, then back to Rome.  It was about half the price to do it that way, but I ended back in Rome at 6am Monday morning: enough time for a (much needed) shower before getting to my first class.

1.  For the whole day I had the song Danke Schoen stuck in my head.The only problem with that, besides annoying me to death all day, was the only line I know is Danke Schoen, darling, Danke Schoen.  Imagine that playing nonstop whenever you heard someone say Danke.

2.  The culture was so peaceful and the city easy to navigate. 

3.  People actually still wear the drindl and the Lederhosen.