There were three trips scheduled for this weekend, and two of them were already full. Darn, no horseback riding in Verona...this time! However, there were seven spaces available on a bus ride to Innsbruck, Austria. For less than a hundred bucks, we got transportation, tickets to the Ambras Castle, and a guide. What else were we gonna do? We haven't gotten our Italian driver's licenses yet nor freed the car to get it registered and inspected, so our options are relatively limited. We met on post in front of the Outdoor Rec center at 0630 and snagged seats on a tour bus. It was a four-hour drive, with a stop in the middle for restroom break and food (unfiltered apple juice, yum!), but ye olde Google maps tells me by car it's 3 hours and 4 minutes from here. The drive was BEAUTIFUL, and best of all, we didn't have to navigate, pay tolls, or pay for gas, which is currently running about 1.56 Euro per liter. We drove right through the Dolomites and Alps; Innsbruck is basically the first major city you get to when crossing into Austria on that route. We passed the Olympic stadium and an enormous ski jump; if memory serves, Innsbruck hosted the Olympics in 1964 and again in 1974. If I had an editor I would ask him/her to fact check that for me, but I'm too lazy to look it up myself, so we'll just assume I'm correct and move on.
We arrived at the castle around 1030, and had until about 1230 to explore. It's a midieval castle that was updated to a Renaissance one by Ferdinand II. To say that Ferdinand was a collector is a giant understatement, and I enjoyed looking at all his stuff. Even back then, he started one of the first "modern" style museums, and many of the items on display noted they were part of an inventory taken in 1596, so most of it has been around a while. The first three rooms or halls were filled with weapons and armors, of all shapes and sizes and styles. I got quite a kick out of looking at the kids' armors, but even much of the adult equipment was quite small. I've heard that people used to be significantly shorter, but it was fun to have visual evidence of that fact. We also wandered through the Hapsburg portrait gallery and Spanish Hall, and got to take a peek into two of the chapels on site. I liked that it was a self-paced, self-guided tour, but one of the pieces of feedback I gave when we got back was that two hours was really too short. I'm one of those kinds of people who can wander around museums and cultural sites for days at a time, but I think most people would agree on this one. The grounds were beautiful and though we skipped it, there's a little restaurant on site that has some outdoor seating.
After Ambras, we hopped back on the bus for the 20-minute drive down into the town of Innsbruck. I say town, but I'd guess a couple hundred thousand people live there. We parked very near to the "old" part of the city, and walked through a park to get to the proper entrance. Our guide gave us a very brief tour and explanation, and then left us to our own devices for the next few hours. We found food first; Tony had a meat dish with sauerkraut and potatoes, and I had a Hungarian goulash with rye bread dumplings. He thoroughly enjoyed his meal but I only thought mine was so-so. On the other hand, the house wine was cheap and delicious, so that was a nice offset. I think it was a cab sav/Merlot/something else blend. In any case, after that we went to the St. Jakob basilica and the Imperial house, where many of the Hapsburgs stayed when they were not in Vienna. The basilica was notable for the paintings on the ceiling, some of the first examples of perspective to paint a domed look on a flat ceiling. (Our guide kept calling the ceiling the "roof" and correcting herself. She also referred to mustard as "the friend of mayonnaise".) We popped into a speck shop and had samples, and Tony bought a gelato. There's a small Swarovski shop/museum there, and we stopped to get a look at their fly display and take note of where the free restrooms were. Unless you are a restaurant patron - and even then it's not a guarantee - many of the restrooms are pay-only. So it's always good to know if/where there are free ones. There's your European tip of the day. :) We also wandered down to the Inn River and took a few pictures. Innsbruck is an incredibly scenic town; you turn a corner and oh look! mountains. It's also very pedestrian-friendly and clean, and most people were obviously multi-lingual. I felt bad for not having a very good grasp on ANY of those languages, but since it's a popular tourist location all of the servers and shopkeepers helped us in English. Give me a year...I also made sure to get a picture of the infamous Gold Roof, but aside from looking very different, it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the rest of the buildings in the square as much as I did that one.
We sadly had to hop back on the bus around 5:30, but by then we had done a good bit of walking and sight-seeing, so it was okay. We stopped at an AutoGrill on the way back, but just got snacky type foods instead of a meal. I had leftovers once we got back to our room, which was a short and pleasant walk back from where the bus dropped us. It was in the 50s all day, and a few people who've been here longer than us complained a bit. I guess it was very nice and spring-y the last couple of weeks, but it's been gray and cloudy since we got here...until today! We stayed pretty close today and caught up on a few things, but we did go for a walk and buy some groceries. I think it got up to about 80, and the birds have been chirping and I even saw quite a few lizards out sunning themselves. Tomorrow we have an appointment with the housing office, so hopefully we'll have a better idea of what our options are by the end of the day tomorrow.
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