Innsbruck: Swarovski World

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Finally Swarovski World. Purchased a 24 hour pass with the Innsbruck Card to go out to Swarovski World at Wattens. Next bus due to leave at 10.20 am and we had an hour and twenty minutes to fill in so walked into city centre for a look around.

When we had booked to come here I was having a look at pictures on the internet and the buildings reminded me of the song "Little Boxes". As we were walking along the street the lyrics hit me again: "There's a green one and a pink one, and a blue one and a yellow one" (see picture below). OK, I know they are not exactly little boxes, nor are they made of ticky tacky, but you get what I mean... Pretty place with so much detail on the buildings and I can just imagine it would be quite magical when covered in snow. The Old Town was a lively area with Market, music pumping and people everywhere.

By the time we got back to catch shuttle bus there was standing room only and 1/2 hour later arrived out at Wattens.

After planning to come here for so long, I have to admit to being more than a little disappointed. We entered through the Giant which took us on a tour of different displays from the forest, the mechanical room, crystal room etc and I did not really get the point of what was perhaps intended. Was really difficult to take any photos as it was so dark in each display area. They did have some nice areas where they had on display bustiers, shoes, horse, dresses etc adored with crystals which were really beautiful but as for the rest - no not really. Their were another family that we spoke to who said exactly the same thing.

However, the shop was amazing. The beautiful figures made out of larger crystals and the smaller adorned with many crystals. Enjoyed having a really good look around.

Had a chat with a couple on the bus going out to Wattens and they were telling us that they had caught the cable car up to the top of the mountain for a look and that there was only man made snow up there but said that it was totally worth the visit. The ski season is coming later and later in these areas - so much for the disbelievers of global warming! So we decided not to go up to have a look and instead went and spent more time down in the old town square. By the time we got there it was incredibly busy, people everywhere, music blaring and even here, vehicles parked across the access routes into the market square to prevent an attempted attack like the one in Berlin.

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Photos

Innsbruck
"Little Boxes"