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Published: January 28th 2023
Dear All
Greetings, and a Happy New Year to all reading this! May it be filled with lots of new adventures and travels for the year ahead!
I am writing another couple of blog entries to relate another mini trip I took over the Christmas holidays, this one after Christmas and around the New Year itself. After a lovely little time in the tiny principality and micro-state of Europe, Monaco, and the Cote d'Azur of France, I was heading off this time for another lovely little time in the Tyrolean Alps of Austria and another tiny principality and micro-state of Europe, Liechtenstein! My theme for my winter travels is covering the micro-states of Europe, as well as aiming to visit every European country - not long to go now! Thus, on New Year's Eve itself, I took a plane from London Gatwick to Innsbruck, capital of the Austrian Tyrol region, to spend a couple of nights first in the Alps themselves, then head west to Liechtenstein for two more nights, before heading back to Innsbruck again for a final night. This blog entry writes up about my time in Austria, the two nights at the beginning and one at
the end - my next blog entry will write up about my time in Liechtenstein.
I must admit, I was a little nervous about my flights to and from Innsbruck - I had read a few months previously that the city's airport is one of the most dangerous in the world, being situated right in the middle of an Alpine valley surrounded by snow-capped peaks on all sides and being subject to strong gusts and winds while entering and leaving the valley. I felt comforted by the fact that only experienced captains are allowed to land planes at and take off from the airport, but still felt a slight sense of intrepidation. As the plane was coming into land, the scenery all around was spectacular - there were indeed snow-capped mountains on all sides, and we were heading into one of the deep valleys. I aimed to switch my mind off from what I had read, and instead to enjoy the scenery - it really was amazing, descending with the houses and city still several hundred metres below you, yet with snow-capped mountains higher than the plane on either side of you. The captain said it would be a
bumpy approach, and this was indeed the case, yet the amazing scenery took my mind off this. I have flown so many times in my life, and this was certainly one of the more memorable flights I have had.
We landed just as the sun was setting, and around half-an-hour late. My plan was to walk just over a mile to a nearby bus stop, to await a two-hourly mountain bus that would take me on to my destination and accommodation for the following two nights. The bus I was aiming for was due around 5.40pm - after this there was a 7.20pm one, and the final one was around 11.20pm. I was sure hoping to get the first one, and despite thinking I may miss it due to my late arrival, arrived with plenty of time to spare before it came, chatting to two friendly Bangladeshi students at the bus stop while waiting. Sure enough, the bus came, and whisked me and my backpack an hour westwards of the city and high up into the stunning Mieming plateau, to check into one of the most amazing accommodations I think I have ever checked into - the Gasthof zur
Post in the little Alpine village of Obermieming.
I just loved this accommodation as soon as I arrived - there were quite a few negative reviews of it when I booked it on Booking.com, but I trusted my instincts which I often aim to do, and felt I really landed a cracker here. It was seriously old-school, the kind of inn one would expect on such mountain passes in the middle of nowhere, filled with warmth and hospitality. It was friendly and hospitable, with none of this Boutique Hotel rubbish they have going nowadays with their eiderdown quilts and Baylis and Harding shampoo. This place was down-to-earth and solid, and reminded me of my travelling days back in my 20s where I found places in the Lonely Planet and just turned up instead of booking in advance. I booked myself in half-board, so as well as a hearty breakfast, I had 25 euros of food to choose from for each evening meal, meaning I had a hearty dinner with pudding as well. They even welcomed me with a beer on the house! The room was basic but quiet, and had everything I needed for a simple stay, with an
excellent view of snow-capped mountains from the window. The team of staff seemed East European, though I couldn't quite work out where they were from, my best guess being Bulgarian or Balkan, and were super friendly. They spoke no English, so I was straight away in the deep end of practising my German which I had worked on for the previous few months, and impressed myself with how much I could get by with it! I ended my first day with a lovely Tyrolean meal of meat and potatoes and another beer, and settled in for the evening.
I don't stay up over New Year, so went to sleep with fireworks sounding outside the window. Unfortunately, although not unexpected, I was awoken twice in the night due to it being New Year. Firstly, a group of hotel guests down the corridor had taken it upon themselves to talk loudly in the corridor around 1am - I went out and told (not asked) them to be quiet, and I was actually quite angry about it - it did the job though, and they went into their rooms and were silent after this. Just as I was dropping off again, around
2am, there were more loud voices and the sound of someone being sick. I went outside to see what was happening, and one of the waiters was staying in the room next-door to me - his older brother, another waiter, apologised profusely, and both of them were clearly drunk. They were again quiet after this, and I at last drifted off to a good night's sleep! My second night there was fine, and as mentioned I had come to expect not the greatest of sleeps on this New Year's night - these experiences had no negative effect on my amazing thoughts about the place.
The following morning, after a filling breakfast, the sun was out and the skies were blue, and I saw I was surrounded by those beautiful Alpine peaks which I could not see the evening before upon arrival as it was dark. It felt like a really special place to be, and a great way to begin 2023! I had planned a hike through the nearby area and on to a small village called Stams, taking public transport back to Mieming again. Since it was New Year's Day, there was pretty much nothing, not even supermarkets
My Guesthouse
Mieming Plateauor petrol stations, open since I had arrived the evening before, but I did find a lovely little cafe that was open that day a short walk away from the Inn. I loaded up there on fuel for the day ahead, conducting my conversation with the friendly lady behind the counter entirely in German which I was proud of (pretty much everyone I met on this day was really very friendly), and began a highly enjoyable walk drinking in the scenery all around, stopping on many occasions to gaze in wonder at the views all around, so typical of scenes from "The Sound of Music" and a lovely little Japanese cartoon series from the 1970s called "Heidi" - Alpine fields and high mountains.
There were wide open green fields to take in, and a couple of churches along the way - one had the typical onion-shaped domed spire unique to the Austrian Alps I believe, St George's Church of Obermieming, the other had a very tall pointy one, the Parish Church of Untermieming. My walk then followed a small mountain stream for a short while, before entering some woods, and then descending sharply into the Inn Valley below. Walking
down to the river, I was glad I wasn't walking uphill as it would have been a struggle. The path passed lovely little Mieming Chapel along the way, as well as countless water fountains - I noted that this part of the country had numerous little chapels and such mountain fountains, adding to the Alpine atmosphere. There were also awesome views down to the Inn River, which traverses the whole of the Tyrolean Alps splitting the region in two, with mountain ranges along its northern and southern banks, and over and beyond to the village of Stams and its famous Abbey beyond. Before crossing the river on a rather rickety wooden hanging bridge, I walked a short way to a very attractive little waterfall flowing down over the ridge and into the Inn River, reminiscent of a typical Icelandic waterfall from my summer travels.
Upon entering the Inn Valley, there was a very noticeable temperature drop, and it seemed really strange that this would happen going downhill rather than uphill. Up on the Mieming Plateau it was sunny and quite warm, while down here in the valley the sun didn't quite reach it, and the paths and roads were
View from my Room
Guesthouse, Mieming Plateau icy and slippery. After hoping in vain for the sun to come out and warm my chilled bones, I learnt from an Abbey monk that the sun doesn't actually shine on Stams over the winter until February! That seemed quite unusual, but I guess understandable given the steep sided slopes of the valley on both sides.
My time in Stams was amazing!! When originally planning this journey, I got in contact with a monk from the Cistercian Abbey there to see if I could spend my two nights in the Tyrol with them - they do offer accommodation, but it turns out they take a break over the New Year. This thus wasn't possible, but he offered to meet me in person instead and give me a guided tour of the Abbey, and I gladly took him up on this amazing offer! The Abbey is popular with visitors in the summer, but it turns out that visits, as well as stays, were also off-limits over the holiday season, so I felt really fortunate to be there. I met with Brother Leo at the main entrance, and enjoyed an amazing two hours walking around the place with him. Stams Sift,
or Stams Abbey, was founded by Tyrolean Count Meinhard II in 1273, and was upgraded in the 17th century in baroque style. We visited the monks' quarters, cloisters and dining area, and had an apple juice made locally by the monks, before heading to the magnificent basilica decorated exuberantly throughout, from its Tree of Life structure at the front of the church, to its vast painted walls and ceilings, and finally on to the Chapel of the Holy Blood, the oldest part of the monastery I believe. Currently there are only 14 monks resident there, and Brother Leo at the age of 61 was the second youngest. In its heyday, I was told there would have been around 60 resident monks, and I felt quite sad that the monastery seems to be fading away in numbers. I wondered how such a vast complex could keep going economically, and Brother Leo explained they get much of their income from its attached school and vast sporting facilities, including even a nearby ski jump, part of the Abbey's very own Ski Boarding School (I never even knew such a thing existed!).
At the end of my tour, we had a coffee and
home-made biscuits, and I bade farewell to lovely Brother Leo, heading to the nearby train station to first take a train to the nearby village of Telfs, from where I could catch a bus back to my accommodation in Mieming. It was a truly wonderful first day on this lovely little mini-trip.
The next morning I said a sad goodbye to the amazing mountain Inn, caught a bus back to Telfs, and then a local train on to another small Tyrolean town called Ötztal. Here I could connect to a mainline train to take me on to a place called Feldkirch, the Austrian gateway to Liechtenstein. My train was running 55 minutes late though, and I was very surprised at this considering it was a Swiss train and such trains are famous for their time-keeping. It turns out the train's tardiness was caused by an "international delay", as it started in Bratislava, Slovakia, before traversing Austria on its way to Zurich, Switzerland. I was reminded of how amazing trains on the continent are, for linking so many countries and capitals. In the UK, you have to either fly or float to get anywhere else (unless of course you take
Obermieming
Mieming Plateau the Eurostar!), and such international train travel fills me with wonder. When the train came it had 14 carriages, and I found the "Ruhewagen", "the Quiet Coach", which people in Austria seemed to respect much more than they do back in the UK. Unfortunately due to its late running, it split in two down to 7 carriages at Bludenz, the stop before Feldkirch, and it was just chaotic when everyone had to get off the 7 carriages that were going out of service and pack on to the remaining 7. It was very much standing room only as people, including myself, crammed on with their luggage into every available space, and thus the final 15 minutes of my journey was not too comfortable. I was happy to be alighting at Feldkirch, and took the number 11 bus right outside the station onto my destination for the day - the lovely little Liechtenstein!
Now I will skip out my time in Liechtenstein here, and write about this in my next blog. Rather than writing a whole new blog entry on my final night on this trip, I thought I'd just add it on to the end of this blog entry,
Obermieming
Mieming Plateau to summarise all of my time in Austria.
And thus, upon leaving Liechtenstein, I took another busy train, fortunately though with seating still available, back once more through the Tyrolean Alps. While my train was heading directly to Innsbruck, I actually got off along the way at a small stop called Imst-Pitztal, to do a cunning little train change onto a suburban line with vastly more seating space available and which would also stop at Innsbruck's Westbahnhof station for a short walk to my first sight in the city. Before doing such a change though, I had 40 minutes in tiny little Imst-Pitztal, and went on a lovely little short walk over the Inn River again to have a lovely picnic lunch in the grounds of the tiny Königskapelle (King's Chapel) overlooking the river with more wonderful views of the snow-capped mountains around. When the suburban train came, I had practically the whole carriage to myself, and enjoyed a much more spacious final ride into town.
Getting off at the afore-mentioned Westbahnhof station, it was a short walk to nearby Wilten Abbey, home to the very difficult to pronounce order of monks called the Premonstratensians, who I had
Obermieming
Mieming Plateau never actually heard of before visiting. Unfortunately, like Stams Abbey, it was only open to visitors upon prior arrangement, and this time I did not have the foresight to arrange a guided tour for myself here, so had to make do with a view from the outside and a visit to the abbey shop. From here, I walked a mile or so into the centre of Innsbruck, and checked into a wonderful hotel there for my one night in town. This was another place I was glad I didn't listen to the reviews for and trusted my instincts with instead, which made me book it - many reviews said how noisy it was being situated on the main road, yet despite having a street-side room, it was very well soundproofed and nothing that I wasn't used to on my travels - I think I'm going to trust my instincts more and override the negative reviews for these places in future, some people are really quite fussy when it comes to their accommodation!
I was actually really tired on this day due to over-exertions I believe on my hiking in Liechtenstein the previous day, and after a short rest in
the hotel, I just spent a couple of hours that evening walking around the city before getting a takeaway Turkish meatball, rice and salad dinner to enjoy in my hotel room before bed. Despite the tiredness, I did enjoy the walk around the city, taking in its famous sights of the Triumphpforte Arch right outside my hotel, the main shopping street of Maria-Theresien Strasse, St Jacob's Cathedral, and the Goldenes Dachl, or Golden Roof, landmark which I believe is the city's major drawcard. The structure is not so much a roof but more of a huge, several-storeyed balcony built in 1500 for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and his wife to watch the events that took place in the city's main square below. The city centre was really heaving with people, and I was glad to step out of it and continue my walk along the banks of the Inn River which flows through town, up one side of it, over a bridge, and back down the other side. There is also quite a famous row of buildings along Mariahilfstrasse on the northern bank of the river, which became on this evening the unique screen for a wonderful light
Obermieming
Mieming Plateau and music show which was beamed across the river from the opposite bank. After enjoying this for a bit, I found my Turkish meal takeaway at Innsbruck's Markthalle Market Hall, before hightailing it back to my hotel room to enjoy it before it went cold. Thus ended my final evening on this lovely little trip.
The next day, after a hearty breakfast in my hotel, and stashing away a couple of extra baps filled with ham and cheese for lunch later using a trick I'd learned in my younger Interrailing days in youth hostels around Europe (!), I took a tram to the place where I had caught my first bus from near the airport at the beginning of my journey, to retrace my steps again back to Innsbruck Airport. The flight was on time this time, and again really quite turbulent as it took off out of the valley. There is also a snow-capped mountain straight in front of the airport runway, which added to my nerves a little bit using this airport again, but once out of the valley, the turbulence subsided and it was a very smooth flight until we landed again in windy Gatwick.
Untermieming
Mieming Plateau I would like to say this brought me to the end of my travel adventures, but no - the delightful UK train drivers' union decided to go on strike on the day of my return. Whilst there is another union of rail workers in the UK who when they strike, which they often do at the moment, the train companies are still able to run a smattering of trains so it has no great impact. This latter union planned to strike on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this week. The chuffs at the train drivers' union thus completed the week by deciding to place their strike on the Thursday - when this union strikes, there are no trains, and Gatwick Airport's train station was completely closed. I had a cunning plan up my sleeve though of taking local buses, which although long actually worked out really well, but this day unfortunately weighed a bit on my mind during my trip, despite my trying to not let it. After a total of two-and-a-half hours taking a bus to nearby Redhill, then another one to Croydon, before a final one back home, I arrived home safely once more after what turned out
to be another lovely little trip involving another lovely little European micro-state.
I have one more such trip in the pipeline, a mini-trip to Italy and my final European micro-state of San Marino, coming up in February. So although I'll still be writing up about my time in Liechtenstein after this blog entry, I will still say in this one: until the next time, thanks for reading, and all the best for now!
Alex
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Thanks for the memories...
My kids learned to ski in the mountains to the south of Innsbruck. It certainly is beautiful country! I visited San Marino with my son in 2018...the most recent country I have visited. Have you been to Andorra, another mini-country?