Innsbruck

We spent two nights here. What a glorious place. We loved everything about it. Our hotel was right in the heart of it, close to the sights, shopping and the Christmas markets. The Christmas Markets were right around our hotel and we could not resist a walk through to look at all the lovely goods on display. There was a masked creature that was running around and making lots of noise, it came up to Sue and scared the crappers out of both of us. We later discovered they were called Krampus and are a horned shaggy figure rattling chains to scare off evil spirits. We spent a good few hours wandering through and trying to take it all in with the fantastic aromas of spices and foods cooking as well as the lights and colourful stalls.

Krampus

We could not resist a ride on the Funicular to get to the Alpine Zoo and then onto the Top of Innsbruck. The Alpine Zoo was halfway up the mountain and as such there was a lot of uphill paths to see all the zoos inhabitants. The otters put on a great show for us, the beavers were being lazy and stayed in bed.

We then continued on up the hill on the Funicular and then had to change to two different cable cars to continue to the Top of Innsbruck. This was absolutely breathtaking the view over Innsbruck and the mountains was amazing. Walking around the ground in some parts was treacherously iced and in others you were up to your knees in snow. All very exciting for a couple of West Aussies with bugger all experience of snow. .

We stumbled across a fantastic little Italian Resteraunt that had legs of ham hanging and a great comforting atmosphere. The owner cooked a delicious meal whilst his brother kept plying us with more food saying you must try this, here have some of this. Mind you it was all good.

We spent quite a few hours just wandering though Innsbrucks town centre which was overall lively and peaceful at the same time. Certainly we felt safe and relaxed there one of our favourite places on the trip and we were reluctant leave however Lauterbrunnen was calling.