World Youth Climbing Competition

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

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.

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