Driving to Venice, Stopping in Innsbruck, Austria

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Geo: 45.5331, 12.6447

Travel to Venice, Italy via Innsbruck, Austria

"That's a Keep!" How often do you hear that when driving through the Mountain Home desert? Personally, I haven't, but maybe I am just driving in the wrong areas. Well, Jared shouted that exact phrase as we began our ascent through the Alps in southern Germany on our way to Innsbruck and Venice and that stuck with me as a sign we were truly not in Idaho anymore. In case you are wondering, a Keep was a medieval type structure that slightly resembled a castle tower and happened to be a rather common site on our longest bus day yet as we wound through the Alps. The views were beautiful, but somewhat tempered by the low hanging clouds that prevented us from seeing the true grandeur of the Alps as we passed.

Approximately 2 ½ hours after leaving Munich, we entered Innsbruck, Austria for a lunch stop. We passed by the winter Olympic compound and entered city center near a beautiful park housing ancient trees that shown purplish-red from afar, but faded to a light green as you walked beneath. Manuel led us to the palace at the center of town which we learned was designed by Marie Antoinette's grandmother with a simple but elegant Baroque architecture. From there we walked through the narrow cobblestone streets to the market center to view the golden balcony that Maximillian designed for his wife so she could have a sitting area to survey the common folk of the town as they bartered and sold their wares. It was called the golden balcony because the rooftop was guilded in 24 karat gold as a display of their riches and power. Encourage by Erin and I (of course), Jared, Hannah, Kayla, Caroline, Erin, and I found the nearest tower we could climb and zipped to the top for an aerial view of the city. The views again impressed with narrow streets, roof top gardens, and towering mountains encompassing the city. Following our decent, we found a bakery for lunch, listened to the performance on the Golden balcony at 12pm, and made our way back to the bus while peeking into shops as we passed.

Nearly six hours later, we made our way into Jesolo, Italy where we found our home for the next two nights. Having been confined to the bus all day, we all felt like stretching our legs and made our way down the main street in town. Here we were greeted with the flashing lights of carnival games and shops, and spent an enjoyable couple of hours taking in the scenery and consuming Italian Gelato (absolutely delightful!) We made our way back to the hotel around 11pm and tucked in to prepare for our long day in Venice.

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Comments

[dad]

Sean, i see your "austrian look" and can't help but compare it to your recent "florida keys look". a nice complement!