Wed Aug 30 Innsbruck to Munich

Sarovski Crystal Museum .
The grounds included this maze and fountain.

Our last day in Innsbruck and we drove to the Sarovski Crystal site outside of town. It is a huge tourist "museum" next to the factory. The exhibits display colored lights and crystals.
One takes an interior tour and ends up....at a gift shop full of crystal products.
This place was packed with people!

In the afternoon we drove out of the mountains to Munich so as to be near the airport the next day. It rained and made the scenery seem even greener.

We stayed at the "Tulip Inn", four km from the airport. The airport is far out of Munich and the very very small town containing the Tulip Inn was really isolated and surrounded by cornfields.

That evening, we borrowed bikes from the Inn and enjoyed riding around town before nightfall. There were sidewalks to stay out of the speeding cars' way.

We ate dinner at the Inn restaurant and when I ordered a salad, out came a large bowl-- full to the brim, with shredded cheese and unidentifiable shredded sausage! No green anywhere. I ordered a house salad and mixed the two together! Much better.

The hotels have great breakfasts 'bars" with all kinds of breads, proteins, and strong coffee. It was often the best meal of the day. The morning of our departure, Thursday, we borrowed bikes once more and visited the local tiny store. After purchasing a few chocolate bars for friends (not on diets) and some unique after dinner stomach liquor, we were happy to make our final European pedal back to the hotel, check out, and be on our way to the airport.

It was an eventful and terrific trip!
Thanks again to everyone for your support and interest.
Sierra

Tues Aug 29 Innsbruck

Cable Cars, Cows, and Castles

The tour bus whizzed us thru the narrow streets of Innsbruck, up to the mountain tourist town of Igls, and dropped us off at the base of the cable car, Patscher Kofel.

We rode two separate cars up and got off at the base of a quaint single chair lift which was supposed to be running to the very top. However, for the next 95 minutes our feet hiked us to the top. The path faced north and we eventually ran into light snow. The other hikers just smoked and drank a little to keep going.

I was freezing but it was such a wide view and scenic hike!


The cows did't mind the cold at all. Each one had a loud bell on its neck.
After reaching the top of Patscherkofel, we bought more postcards and strong coffee at the inevitable gift shop which appear at the end of every tourist's path.

The 1.5 hour hike down to the start of the cable car down was gloriously easy and increasingly warmer, which pleased me! In the tourist town of Igls, we bought just one more souvenier for friends and the bus sped us back to our very modern hotel in Innsbruck. The tour busses dominate the streets like bulls and the cars dodge out of their way!

On our walk (oh my aching feet) back to the hotel, we climbed the Old City Tower again and took this photo of the famous Gold Roof place.

We also saw this totally silver painted woman standing on a pedestal, in the town square. She was a mime and only moved when a tourist put money in her coffer. Very unique.


After a very brief snack, we walked back to the bus station and rode out of town to the Schloss Ambrass and Kunsthistorisches Museum. Archiduke Ferdinand II had the medievil Ambrass Castle converted into this Renaissance Castle for his wife! The castle is full of unique stuff from all over the world. He has a bizarre painting of a boy with facial hair like an animal and exotic money boxes that are built like huge doll houses Renaissance style. The grounds were exquisitely kept and hosted white peacocks! We rushed thru the castle and took the last bus back to town. The hotel had a huge room with a unisex sauna, steam room, and thin water beds under changing colored lights. After some time in that room, we passed out after a great Tuesday in Innsbruck.

Monday Aug. 28 Innsbruck Tourists

I bought a 48 hour Tour Innsbruck Card which was basically a challenge to see how much of the city I could tour and visit "for free!" This city photo was taken from the old City Tower after climbing 145 steps around and around up to the lookout on top. The ski jump is visible in the distance.

Their Alpine Zoo is the highest zoo in the world and was set in very natural and seemingly humane conditions. The animals were at very close viewing range and it was fun! It rained again but that made walking cooler.

Later in the afternoon, we took the tour bus to the Olympic Ski Jump area and walked the 455 steps up to (and then back down from) the restaurant at the top. The views were 360 degrees and covered the entire valley. The Inn River runs thru the valley, as it also does in Imst.

Sunday Aug 27th

Speed Finals and off to Innsbruck

The Americans did amazingly well in Speed as the results show on the link page!

The last day of Worlds is a great day of trading stuff with climbers from other counties and getting to know some kids, now that the pressure is off. I traded my USA Team shirt for a Swiss Team shirt, which had lots of cologne all over it, but it came out in the wash. :)

Later that afternoon, we hiked down the Rosengarten-Schlucht trail (4km along a terrificly steep and rocky stream) and then drove the rental Fiat via the autobahn to Innsbruck. It rained the entire time. No wonder it is SO green over there.