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Don't know what I did when booking but first part of our train journey from Venice to Verona was in executive class. Hilarious, beautiful carriage, with a boardroom, massive seats and enough legroom to fully stretch out. Not many people in this carriage and those that were, obviously business men and women in suits and discussing business type stuff. They definitely looked down their noses at the two tourist types who wheeled in their 3 suitcases and 2 backpacks!
Changed trains at Verona and still an adventure as it was a Harry Potter type train with the little 4 seat rooms. Andrea and Garry had an elderly American couple who had lived in Palmerston North for 2 years with them, they chatted the whole way and Stephen and I scored a whole wee room to ourselves, we caught up on a nap or two and read our books. The scenery was fairly awesome as well and not as many tunnels as I had anticipated.
Arrived in Innsbruck early afternoon grabbed a cab which drove for less than 2 minutes to our hotel and charged us 10 euro for the pleasure, settled in and then went for a big walk
around the beautiful old town of Innsbruck. It was a relief to be somewhere that had less than a quarter of the tourist population of Venice and Rome and the majority of tourists appear to be young fitness types, biking and hiking. Very reminiscent of Whistler Canada or Queenstown NZ. Innsbruck is gorgeous, surrounded by the AustrIan Alps with quaint beautiful buildings. I was feeling a little under the weather so Stephen and I eventually headed back to the hotel for a nap before meeting Andrea and Garry for dinner. Found a family type restaurant where we had to eat inside for the first time in ages as it was raining! Food choices are very different to Italy but still enjoyed our meal of snitzel and potatoes with strawberry pancakes for dessert, I think the poor young waitress was completely befuddled by the crazy kiwi people but she did very well. Went for a wee walk round the corner in the rain to a bar where the boys had a beer before heading home to our respective hotels, ours has a casino attached so had a quick gamble came out even, machines are hard to follow and mostly not in
English, then upstairs to bed.
Day 2
Planned to meet Andrea and Garry at noon so after breakfast we decided to go for a walk, everything except cafes and ice cream shops were closed, thought maybe it was Sunday and had our days mixed up..... nope.... Eventually worked out that the church bells had been ringing on and off all morning. when we got back to the hotel we asked what the holiday was - nobody knew, they all knew they had the day off but not why. We eventually googled it, apparently it's ascension day, celebrated 40 days after Easter.
Met Andrea and Garry as planned, we went looking for the vehicular (little train that goes part way up the mountain), was supposed be raining but must have had it all overnight so was hot and clear, found the vehicular station bought our tickets, standing room only, bit nervous, especially as it headed underground before going up, up, up. Then climbed aboard the gondola which travelled further up the mountain, it went way way up, up up, I kept my eyes toward the mountain, and to the side, don't really like the feeling of hanging over
Innsbruck
Exploringthe side of the mountain in a little enclosed box with 30 odd of my new best friends. Amazing how many people were hiking and mountain biking up the mountain way below us, I heard a girl say it was a 4 - 5 hour walk, so not for the faint hearted. Safely made it to the top and the view once outside the little metal and glass box was spectacular. Andrea and Garry chose to go up a further gondola which went a little higher but Stephen and decided we were happy where we were and stayed at this level, enjoyed a hot chocolate and a plate of hot chips and took in the view. A little snow on the ground and the slight breeze certainly had a bit of a chill to it however was comfortable enough in shorts and light cardi.
Once Andrea and Garry came back we caught the gondola and vehicular back to Innsbruck and went to find a cafe for a late lunch. On the way we found a shop with colourful syphon bottles full of alcohol on the wall. The very nice young lady kept offering us tasters, would have been rude
Innsbruck
Such a pretty town to refuse, picked out some nice bottles for her to fill for us and we left with some chocolate and caramel creme.....hmmmm ...... Yum! Walked Andrea and Garry back to their hotel so they could grab their bags and catch a taxi to the train station as they are moving on to Munich where theybus tour. We will catch up with them again in Ireland in a few weeks time.
Took the long way back to our hotel to get our bags semi organised ready for properly packing later then ambled down for a pre dinner drink at a sidewalk bar, had just about finished our drink before opening my handbag for something and realising my wallet wasn't inside, a wee panic while Stephen paid for our drinks and hurrying back to the hotel only to find my wallet hidden under some clothing ...phew!
Headed back down town and found a restaurant for dinner. Had just ordered our meal when we were joined by a group of about 8 young German men on their annual drinking and socialising long weekend, they were all half cut particularly the young guy next to me, very funny though, he spoke very
Innsbruck
Interesting architecture rudimentary English the one next to Stephen was more sober and his English was excellent. They explained some of the more obscure food on our plates, shared some of their pretzel and cheesy type dip with us, told us what we should do in Munich and were very interested in what we were doing in Austria. They knew lots of Austrians and Germans who travelled to NZ and Australia but had never knew anyone going the other way! Finished our meal and drink, received a hug goodbye from the young guy next to me, and home for a cuppa and an evening packing ready to move on to Munich in the morning.
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