Warum schilaufen wir nicht?

Why aren’t we skiers?

Heather and I decided last week to do an “Austria tour” since we had the free time and there were a couple of cities we just felt needed to be discovered by us before we left. The first city was Innsbruck, which is about five hours by train from Vienna. The decision was made on Tuesday to take off the next day on the trip. That was just to prove that such uptight people can still be spontaneous.

We hopped a 6:00 a.m. train and arrived around 11:00 a.m. Having already shed the idea of spontaneity, I had made reservations at the Hotel Weissess Kreuz. The hotel first opened in the 1540’s. But more important, just like every other building in Austria, Mozart once spent the night there. They did not tell us whether we had his room. That mattered very little when I opened the windows overlooking the beautiful pedestrian zone underneath with a backdrop of the mountains. It turns out that this same setting serves as a stage for every drunk feeling the urge to sing at the top of their lungs after bar closing. Triple glazed windows really do nothing to filter that sound. But I digress.

from our window

Heather and I bussed to the edge of town to an area called Nordpark and took a series of gondolas to the top of a ski mountain. Fortunately my foot has basically healed and we were able to hike in some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable. The city looked beautiful and we could make out many of the Winter Olympic venues for which the city is famous. The hike alone made the trip worth it.

looking up

on top of the world

looking down

The old city of Innsbruck is really what one expects to see when they visit Europe. Narrow cobblestone streets, men dressed in Tyrolean hats and hiking shorts, and, my personal favorite, a store dedicated to bacon – the Speckeria. Heather pulled me away long enough to tour the palace and the palace church. The self-guided palace tour took us on the most unusual route so that we went through the same rooms a couple of times and were assured of missing much of the building. Guess they wanted to make sure the tourists didn’t get too much of a taste for the good life. The church on the other hand was simply amazing. For our friend Anthony we have dozens of pictures of the statues in armor. I personally was amazed by marble carvings done on the side of a tomb in the center of the church. We couldn’t explore in depth however as the church was closing in ten minutes.

mmm, bacon! (and men in lederhosen)

armor

We stumbled across the Gasthaus Glasmalerei – a bar and restaurant adjacent to a stained glass studio. There was an old glazed wall between the dining room and kitchen and medieval painting on one of the arches on the ceiling, but the restaurant had a modern twist. Enough about the architecture (can you tell it’s Heather writhing this paragraph?); let’s talk about the meal. Curt had said “as long as there’s meat on the menu, I’m happy” when we were deciding whether to eat here. Ironically, he chose the ravioli filled with squash and a mixed salad – a decidedly vegetarian selection. I opted for a Brazilian spiced dish with mixed vegetables and pork in an outstanding sauce, with a side of rice. After devouring our delicious mains, we agreed that we needed to try the desserts. Curt valiantly took the Cinnamon Parfait with poached apples. It turned out that parfait meant frozen (but not exactly ice cream), not the panna cotta we were both hoping for. I got the hot, cinnamon-sugar coated donut holes with roasted plum sauce. To. Die. For. If you are ever in Innsbruck, find your way to Glasmalereistraße 5. You’ll find yourself in a place where locals meet for a comfortable post-work drink, the staff is outstanding – making every guest feel special, and the food does not disappoint.


It never ceases to amaze me how removed we can be from the country in which we have been living for four months now. Turns out that Thursday was a pretty significant religious holiday – Corpus Christi – of which we were completely unaware. Most businesses in the country were shut down. Fortunately, the trains were still running and hotels were open. That made the decision to leave the next morning much easier since we couldn’t visit any museums. However, Heather got up early to walk around town and came across a procession from the cathedral. The pictures are great which is all I saw. We then jumped the train for our second destination – the city of Graz.

here comes a parade! (so I followed them)

Not everyone was on time for this event

That's a lot of priests!

Graz is six hours by train from Innsbruck. That should tell you we had some time on our hands for this trip. Actually I felt as though the train trip went very fast. We went through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. The route was basically along most of Austria’s major ski areas, so valleys and mountains nearly the entire trip. It was the one time I was almost sorry to get off a train. But six hours was enough.

We booked ourselves into the Hotel Daniel. I still chuckle as it bills itself as a lifestyle hotel. Don’t get me wrong, the hotel is pretty nice and chic modern. But three problems: it is next to the train station, next to a 24-hour porn cinema, and, the most damning fault, our tv did not work in the first room we had. Obviously, they weren’t too concerned about my lifestyle.

Graz has a beautiful old city from the Middle Ages juxtaposed with some modernist architecture to give it a vibrant feel. You could tell that the city had power and wealth in its past. As I said earlier, it was Corpus Christi so not a lot was open. Heather and I took the city in by foot and really enjoyed ourselves. And then we took in a micro-brew restaurant and the trip was complete. The next morning we were back on the train for a much shorter trip home.

steps we did not take to the top

view of old rooftops

modern art