Finishing Out the Year

Our last stop in Austria, and our last trip of 2012 was to Innsbruck, Austria. This small ski village was so beautiful. From the center of town, you can see the mountains jutting up into the sky in every direction.  Travers and I arrived by train, a short ride from Salzburg. When we arrived at our hotel though, they told us that some of the rooms had flooded due to a burst pipe or something, so they were putting us up at another hotel a few blocks away. We were a bit hesitant and thinking this was going to be a disaster, but to our delight, the hotel was closer to the center of town, so it ended up working to our advantage.  As always, we dropped our bags, and immediately headed back out to explore. We were only there for a day so we had to make the most of it.  We walked the 2 minutes to the center of town, and were able to see the last Christmas Market that was open in town.  We grabbed two vin chauds and continued our walk.

We strolled through the narrow cobblestone streets, walking past the famous Golden Roof Museum, and stopping into another brewery for some more Austrian beer!  It was getting darker now, and some festivities were going on back in the main part of town. We watched some musicians play music, and the Golden Roof had some entertainment going on in the upper balcony as well!  We watched the show with all the other people, then found a a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.  With a couple margaritas, and some tasty Mexican food in us, we continued walking around and stopped at a few more bars and restaurants and tried to mingle with the locals.











The next morning, we had just a few hours before we had to catch a train to Munich for our flight back home.  So we decided to head up the mountain to take in some views of the city below.  We walked past the center of town, towards the river. Following the river, we walked to the base of the funicular that would take us up the mountain. The walk along the river was breathtaking. The combination of the river, and the blue sky and the mountains covered in snow were just breathtaking.









We took a bridge to cross the river, and then waited for the next funicular to take us up the mountain. Once up there, the sun was shining so bright that a lot of the photos didn't come out very well, but the views were still amazing.

We decided to have lunch up on the mountain, and being that it was our last Austrian meal, Travers got the traditional goulash soup, and I got a traditional Austrian sausage.  Taking in the views a bit more, we knew it was time to go.  So we headed back down the mountain, grabbed our bags from the hotel, and headed to the train station.  It was a quick stop in Innsbruck, but we both want to go back and take our ski gear with us so we can enjoy the mountains even more.  This small village was a wonderful way to wind down after a week long trip in Austria, and it was a great final stop to all our travels in 2012.