Hello to Innsbruck, Austria

Today (Tuesday, Jan. 28) it was time to bid good-bye to Italy and the friendly staff of the Hotel Touring Dolomites. We had a very good and special time there. The breakfasts and dinners were wonderful. The various other guests we met (Austrians, Swiss, Dutch, even some Americans, though certainly in the minority) were all very interesting. The roof-top stainless steel pool and sauna were wonderful amenities, especially the strong whirlpool jets in the pool. The ski out to the lift and walk back to the hotel was convenient and invigorating.

There was a street we could access in order to load our luggage into our car from the same floor as our room.

Brock had quite a time finding this street. It was a crazy, narrow residential road only wide enough for one car, but traffic was moving on it in both directions! Throw in a bunch of pedestrians and skiers using this road too, and you get the picture!

Our 71- mile drive from Santa Cristina to Innsbruck, Austria went well. It took about 1-1/2 hours with some stops, and we drove through some snow on the way.

"Innsbruck" means bridge over the river Inn. Here we are on a bridge over the Inn River:

We also learned that Innsbruck became the capital of all Tyrol in 1429, and the center of European politics and culture during the 15th century. In more recent history, Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976.

As for our travels, we accomplished our missions of getting some laundry done in a laundromat, obtaining more Euros, checking into our hotel (the Hotel Innsbruck, of course!), and finding some lunch.

Our hotel seems nice, and it is well situated for many interesting local attractions. In fact, our room overlooks a street that's a part of the Old Town Innsbruck. This is essentially a network of narrow streets for pedestrians only, lined with decorative shops; the area is extremely old.

I think that building on the corner (above) is really gorgeous! Here is a closer-up photo of that building:

We walked the long way around to the Old Town for lunch at an Italian restaurant (Il Convento), had some fun doing a little bit of shopping after lunch, and then were delighted when we discovered how close our hotel was to all of this.

Here is the Hofburg Imperial Palace, which serves as one of the boundaries of the Old Town:

We found an interesting fountain that featured a statue of Leopold V, and we enjoyed the details of this fountain:

Brock's mother, Martha, was fond of saying the expression "My Left Foot!" We don't really understand what that meant, but we found a sculpture that seems to embody that expression:

For dinner, we started at a German restaurant, but it was too crowded, boisterous and loud. We instead opted for dinner at the Sacher Cafe, which inhabits part of the Hofburg Palace. (We know of a Sacher Cafe and Hotel in Vienna and also in Salzburg.) It was wonderful, just what we were after, and there was only one other couple in the place. After our meal, we enjoyed a piece of Sacher Torte, of course!

This was a fitting end to a happy day!