Austria

June 10 & 11

Innsbruck, Austria

We are now in Italy! As I write this, we are on the train that left Innsbruck, Austria this morning and is making its way to Verona, Italy. We will switch trains and be in Venice late this afternoon. The Alps fly by at a speed too fast for us to truly appreciate their beauty. Even though we live in a state where we wake up and see the mountains everyday, the beauty and majesty of these mountains is truly breathtaking. But back to the main subject: Austria.

Wow, that's all I can say. I can already tell that this is going to be one of my favorite places that we visited. Innsbruck is in a valley in the Alps and it is beautiful. It was host to two previous Winter Olympics. The first day we were there, we spend most of the day wandering around "old town," where the famous (?) Golden Dacht, or Golden Roof is. I honestly don't know what is so famous about the thing, but whatever. We ate dinner at a local bar, where we were joined by a bachelorette party.

This is Monica. She was getting married the next morning. We learned that in Austria, the bride-to-be has to wear a ridiculous costume, and she is given a basket filled with alcohol and other items and she has to go around and sell them all before she can "take off this ridiculous costume, and have a drink." We bought a baby bottle of vodka off of her.

We were unlucky in the fact that the weather has not been very good the past couple of days. It was overcast and rainy both days we were in Innsbruck. This means that we did not have the opportunity to actually see the high peaks of the Alps that surrounded us. The mountain on the North side of Innsbruck has a Gondola that will take you to the top of the Mountain and there you have access to hiking and mountain bike trails, as well as ski/heliski routes and other outdoor activities. We took a trip up to the top on the second say we were there and, although the weather was clear for a while, when we got to the very top, it was raining and windy, and we could see this huge rain cloud moving right at us up the mountain. Part of our gondola trip down the mountain consisted of going straight through the rain cloud. The view from the top was just incredible. On a clear day, it would be absolutely amazing. I'd love to go back just so I could spend a week on the mountain climbing, hiking, and biking.

We have been in Italy for maybe an hour, and I am already in awe. I look out either side of the train and all I see is rows and rows of grape vines. It's an incredible sight. We are only going to be in Venice for approximately 18 hours, so I will write another post tomorrow on the train as we head to Florence.