Blogs from Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria, Europe - page 9

So I was dying to go snowboarding again. And I did!!! Woohoo! I went to Innsbruck. I was really lucky as I met a couchsurfer, Lisa, from Austria. She was 18 and completing I guess the equivalent of the HSC. She said I could meet her and even offered me to borrow her board. How nice was that! She even gave me pointers and overall I had a really good experience with her. I hope she comes and stays in Amsterdam so I can return the favour. So the night train was unavailable to Innsbruck. I had to take a terrible combination of trains: From Amsterdam Zuid on the 16 of January, 2009 I got the train at 18:23 after work. I then switched at Utrecht Centraal for the train to Frankfurt HBf. I got to ... read more

Another day trip (had to take advantage of our train ticket). We headed off early to Innsbruck, which is just under 2 hours away on the train. The first thing we wanted to do is visit the Swarovski Kristallwelten (crystalworlds), which is in a village a little way out of Innsbruck. It was all very well organised, we hopped in a dedicated shuttle straight out of the train station and were at the kristallwelten in about half an hour, you had two hours to go through the whole thing (well, an hour to go through the displays and then an hour to hang out in the largest Swarovski shop in the world to try to talk yourself into paying their exorbitant prices) and then the shuttle takes you straight back to the train station. The displays ... read more

Sat 4th October Austria - Innsbruck The best thing about this day was hearing the kids gasp and yell whenever they saw a snow capped mountain. They were thrilled and astounded. Even the low level cloud that hung around for a long time was beautiful. One our way to the caravan park 5 km outside of Innsbruck, we noticed that all the homes have their wood so neatly chopped that we’re all convinced that’s how they buy it!!! Even the sheds for their wood is cute and neat that Kurt’s going to fire his wood chopper…. As we drove we listening to the Italian music that Kurt had downloaded in Sicily. God, it was a great day. At the moment all of us except my Mum have the sniffles, but I expect that to change soon. ... read more

We left Budapest and took the train to Vienna, spent one quiet night there before heading straight to Innsbruck to meet our Oktoberfest buddy Andy. Even though our train was an hour late, Andy was there to meet us at the station and walk us to his flat. He had a business meeting so our first night in Innsbruck was pretty uneventful. The next day (friday), Andy got off work early and took us on a walking tour of downtown Innsbruck. It's a beautiful city, much like Whistler village but without the touristy tackiness. Andy was already excited for the christmas season because all through the town people set up booths that sell hot wine, egg nog, roasted chestnuts and other christmasy stuff. The whole downtown turns into a giant, slightly tipsy christmas market halfway through ... read more

Saturday 20th September Motorcycle boots, ski boots and I should imagine women's boots. You take your right boot off with your left hand and left one off with your right hand. So here's a riddle, how the f*ck do you get your left boot off when the ankle is broken and heavily swollen if your right wrist is similarly broken and completely useless? It would seem that the days that ended best were those that started badly. If the converse was to prove true then I was always going to end today calamitously. I had a simply magical motorcycling day planned. Head south to the Italian border along the Brenner pass, cut over the Giovo pass to Merano over to the famous Stelvio pass towards Bormio, then cut back up through Switzerland over some lesser passes ... read more