Day trip to Innsbruck–gem in the Tyrolean Alps
I preplanned a trip to Innsbruck, an Olympic-class city about two hours away from Zell am See. I got up bright and early for the morning train, and here it is arriving in the station.
The next few photos were taken from an open window on the journey to Innsbruck.
I dramatized this next a bit.
The schedule I chose wasn’t nonstop, and halfway I switched from the regional train to a “Railjet” high speed train. It was crowded as fuq. An older British couple sat across from me, and had mistakenly only purchased reduced price tickets only good for the slow regionals.
The conductor explained that their tickets were invalid for Railjet, but they pulled the highly effective “we’re tourists” defense and he walked away defeated.
It had been hot and sunny every day of my vacation thus far, and I was already sunburned badly. It never crossed my mind to check the weather beforehand so I showed up in shorts and a tshirt, cursing my ill-preparedness for the dreary weather that rained off and on all day.
This really sucked because the only way to protect my camera was to put it in my backpack and not take any pictures. And if I can’t take pictures, I might as well not be there. Luckily I found a shop selling umbrellas pretty quick, and ended up buying a cheap one I managed to drag with me for the next few weeks (and then subsequently lost in Prague 🙁 ).
Anyway, I found myself walking through the old pedestrian district off Maria-Theresien-Straße.
One feature that immediately stuck out to me in Innsbruck was the colorful murals and decorations adoring many buildings, more often than not religiously themed. If you hover over the above image you can see what I’m talking about with the green building.
I think the only reason I took this next picture was because I found the McDonalds sign amusing. It’s funny how no matter what city you find yourself in with ornate centuries old architecture or whatever, there’s always a McDonalds which manages to locate itself on prime real-estate in a building that fits right in.
With my new fangled umbrella powers, I didn’t need to hide from the rain like all these people here.
This next panorama is of the town square. The upside to the rainy weather was that it pretty much drained the streets, allowing me to stand in the middle and facilitate my photo making. I wish our cities in America looked like this ;_;
I started walking down random backstreets away from the square, and came upon this house with beautiful Christmas-themed murals adorning the walls.
I continued haphazardly making my way to the main river bisecting Innsbruck. Here is a retro looking tour bus I found interesting.
Reaching the river banks, I took this awesome shot of the colorful buildings fronting Mariahilfstraße street on the other side.
I walked towards the bridge to cross the river, and found myself in this reflection 🙂 . You can see I’m carrying both my tripod and umbrella in the same hand, which is actually quite difficult and tiring.
Just across the bridge, I noticed this old building with battle scars in the side. I think it adds a certain rustic authenticity to the scene, and hope they don’t fix it. Also note the Jesus figure on the building’s corner.
After crossing the bridge I turned right, and this picture faces east down Innstraße. I just love how multicolored and vibrant the architecture is here, and it reminds me a lot about the famous Bryggen in Bergen. Unlike a lot of my excursions I didn’t have a map or a preplanned route this time, so I was basically just wandering around aimlessly.
Park by the river.
I’m not sure what really captivated me in this next photo here. I think it was just the novelty of seeing fire extinguishers prominently showcased in a storefront window in the same way that a store like Pottery Barn would display furniture.
I knew that Innsbruck–like most all cities I went to situated in the mountains–had an aerial tramway. I didn’t know what side of the river it was on or where it was geographically, but I made it my mission to try and find the entrance to it.
To that end, at every intersection and opportunity I favored the direction that led me higher. I don’t really keep track of street names or anything so to write about and name these photos I had to do a lot of sleuthing on Google Maps afterwards to retrace my steps. Here is a statue on the corner of St. Nicholas cathedral.
