Innsbruck splendor

Sunday, September 15, 2013

We enjoyed our coffee and leisurely morning getting ready to go visit Innsbruck. Felt good to sleep until the next morning instead of lying awake during the night.

The drive down to Innsbruck was picturesque and, at times, steep. We saw signs noting a 16% grade and that there were five truck escape ramps. When we arrived, it was still early for a Sunday morning, and the streets were pretty empty. We chose to park in an underground lot, which turned out to cost $19.27!!   (14.5 €). We were right on the Inn River, only a few meters from the historic old city. The valley itself was amazingly beautiful, with mountain peaks rising on both the north and south of us. 

We strolled into the old city and happened to be right in the most famous square. We saw the city's symbol, the Golden Roof.

The roof has 2,657 guilded copper tiles. It was added to the Hofburg palace in 1500 so that Maximilian I could watch street activity below. The square was pretty empty when I took this photo, but later when we returned it was very busy and a men's choir was singing there.

They were excellent! After a few songs in four-part harmony, they were usurped by another performance just above them in the balcony below the Golden Roof. These were a small band, and they played Baroque pieces.

We felt lucky to get to watch these impromptu performances -- to be part of the local culture.

The rest of this square is equally beautiful. In the photo below, you can see 1725 Rococo opulence on the left side, called Helblinghaus. Janet and I also commented continuously about all the window flower boxes everywhere - in Garmish, Scharnitz, along all our roads, and here in Innsbruck.

Between our first and second visits to this square, we window shopped in and around narrow streets in the old city, and eventually made it out into the wide avenue in the photo below (Maria-Theresien-Strasse).

Once the St. Jakob Cathedral was open for visitors following their Sunday services, we peeked inside and were understandably amazed at its grandeur. I took the following photo, but it's difficult to capture its opulence.

A gold pulpit, gold alter, ceiling paintings...it's just too much to comprehend. We then walked across the river to look for a smaller restaurant. However, our search came up pretty empty due to it being Sunday. As we walked eastward along the river, we finally did come to a Greek restaurant that looked inviting. We seemed to be the only ones there, but we loved the food and the Italian owner.

We later visited the Hofburg, the ruling family Hapsburg's palace. This is the banquet hall, with full-panel paintings of Maria Theresa's 16 children. She ruled in the mid 1700s, and felt that her daughters had equal standing with her sons -- a new concept in royalty. I took the next photo out one of the windows, showing the courtyard with the mountains beyond.

Interestingly, the Hofburg Palace was connected to the cathedral, whose twin towers you can see off to the left. During our tour, there were numerous family trees shown, and I thought it was interesting to see the lineage from Maria Teresa clear down to Archduke Ferdinand who was assassinated in 1914 that sparked WWI.

Our final tour in Innsbruck was this Hofkirche ("court church"), where Emperor Maximilian I was supposed to have been buried. He designed this crypt, but he died before it was built. His grandson finally did build it, and it's quite the tourist attraction, but they never moved Max's body here. So, it's empty!

We decided to depart Innsbruck and drive on the regular road (that paralleled the autobahn) eastward to see up close the small towns along the way. Janet read what the highlights were in the various cities we passed through, but we didn't stop to really look at anything. The scenery was spectacular, with attractive churches, medieval castle ruins on hilltops, and green hillsides. One site we passed was a large Swarovsky crystal factory; Janet was not familiar with this brand, but later we did see it many times.

Eventually it was time to head home so we headed for the autobahn. As we crossed over it toward the onramp, I noticed a sign for Tratzberg Castle which I had read about in the guide book. So, we followed signs for it and finally arrived there after thinking we might be lost since the road was so "backwoods" and narrow. We walked up to the tram loading area, and soon there came a little Thomas the Train that transports visitors to the schloss.

We hopped on the train, but then the conductor came to tell us it was now closed for the day. So, we had just missed this castle that was first built in the 16th century when it was a true fortress. Now it is a Renaissance palace. But regardless, we drove to the autobahn and back up the mountain to the ski resort town of Seefeld to look for a restaurant. We found one, where again we were the only patrons. A fellow's smoking tainted our air, but we stayed. Janet ordered goulash and I ordered what was stated to be a typical Tyrolean dish - gröstl. It was grilled potatoes, vegetables, and a fried egg on top. 

As you can see, we ate everything. The beer was good too. We then headed on back to our time share.