Springtime is the best season to avoid Innsbruck. It's still cold and rainy, and you don't get the benefit of either warm Alpine summer or the beautiful blanket of winter.
I am here because my office sent me, my first international business trip, albeit as a courier. I didn't get much sleep the night before, and I was out the door before six for my 7am train. Actually, I was very nervous because the package I was delivering represented several thousand euro of work and had to be delivered by that particular time or was nothing (and may still be for naught, but we'll see. Fingers crossed). The other concern was my phone was out of credit, so I couldn't make any calls.
At the station, I found an early opening kiosk and bought more phone credit, grabbed a few pastries and jumped on the high speed train to Munich. Changed trains in Munich's bright and airy station (Stuttgart has the ugliest train station I've ever seen, but it's working on it), and jumped on the slower train to Innsbruck.
It may be a bad time to visit, but the ride in from Munich is lovely, winding through Alpine valleys, past sleepy towns and misty, forest covered mountains, green, green, grüen.
In Innsbruck, I hopped in a cab and sped off to the office where I was delivering the package. Easy to find, went in, got a receipt and then I was officially done with my duties here.
From the office towards the outside of the city, I walked in towards the city center. It was raining lightly, and continued for the entire time I was here. It didn't influence in the slightest my impression of this damp, miserable little city.
Actually, I liked the city. The way the city grew out from its nearly medieval Altstadt old town, the density and feel remind me a bit of northern Italian cities, like Florence and Milan. There is something a but more fun and dynamic here than Stuttgart, even though the size is much smaller.
Of course, it is a huge college town and surrounded by snowy peaks filled with ski resorts so it's kind of a giant aprés ski village which adds to the feeling.
For a small city, there's a lot of contemporary architecture here. Works from both international stars and locals alike. The city seems oddly contemporary, with only buildings from very old times to the 1960s, and then a slew of work from 2000s onwards. Of course, it could also be that they had a bunch of postmodern architecture and tore it all down.
I stopped first for lunch at a kind of cafeteria part of a local grocery store. Bacon wrapped pork loin with hash browns and vegetable soup. Served with Zapfen Pfaff, the local lager, as light and effervescent as they come.
I wandered around most of the day. I stopped into a David Chipperfield designed mall which was actually very nicely integrated with the city and small and interesting inside. There was a new urban plaza with some nurby warps and, in place of a splash pad or fountain, giant rotating sprinklers for the Tyrolean tykes.
I stopped for coffee at Konditori Katherine in the Altstadt, a nice modern renovation in the ground floor of a building which must have been several hundred years old judging from the low, Gothic stone arches and vaulting. Nearby, a McDonald's was nearly as subtly integrated, with the major signage mostly concealed by the low vaulted colonnade.
The biggest attraction, for reasons which still baffle me, was the "golden roof", a bright copper roof over a large protruding room, part of the imperial apartments. It is not particularly big, not particularly beautiful, and yet tour groups flock to it. For me it falls into the Prague clock tower category of "town needs a central focus for tourists to photograph, preferably located in the center and surrounded by amenities."
The Altstadt, with its narrow, winding streets, cobblestones, and positively ancient construction reminded me strongly of the old center of Florence. This old city, too, was filled with souvenir stores, expensive restaurants, a Starwood Resort owned hotel or two, and a wide variety of boutiques.
My pack was weighing me down, so I crossed the turbulent and opaque turquoise Inn river to find my hostel on the opposite side. Gasthof Innsbrück is actually a budget hotel which feels a bit nicer than it actually is. An old, old building, with wood stairs and banisters, old bad oil paintings on the walls, lit by florescent tubes. It was somewhere between Wes Anderson and Quintin Tarentino, but less interesting. The hostel rooms are above the hotel rooms, which presumably come with private bathrooms.
Staff were nice, spoke English and sent me a confirmation email after I booked it. The room cost about €40 a night, super cheap for the location. For a hostel room it was great: my own private room with a table, TV, sink, and even towels. Great location, and breakfast was included with the room.
I was actually exhausted and so I took off my waterproof boots to let my feet breathe and took a short nap. A well located hotel room is priceless when you need a moment to use a bathroom, recharge, change clothes.
I finally got my chance to see the site where I had devoted much time in the past month, and I spent some time walking around it, taking photos and comparing the reality to what I'd seen and read on the computer.
For dinner, I went to the Triebhaus, a very bohemian place I'd stumbled across in my research, part museum, part bar, part performance venue in a concrete octagon tower. I grabbed two beers and some pizza while enjoying the scene. Wish Saori had been able to come, she would have really enjoyed it.
Wandered back through the Altstadt at night. It's a shame they didn't use any kind of uniform lighting. It was mostly dark and closed for the night, with a scattered array of different lamps and storefront lighting.
Jumped in the shower down the hall and collapsed into bed.
I am here because my office sent me, my first international business trip, albeit as a courier. I didn't get much sleep the night before, and I was out the door before six for my 7am train. Actually, I was very nervous because the package I was delivering represented several thousand euro of work and had to be delivered by that particular time or was nothing (and may still be for naught, but we'll see. Fingers crossed). The other concern was my phone was out of credit, so I couldn't make any calls.
At the station, I found an early opening kiosk and bought more phone credit, grabbed a few pastries and jumped on the high speed train to Munich. Changed trains in Munich's bright and airy station (Stuttgart has the ugliest train station I've ever seen, but it's working on it), and jumped on the slower train to Innsbruck.
It may be a bad time to visit, but the ride in from Munich is lovely, winding through Alpine valleys, past sleepy towns and misty, forest covered mountains, green, green, grüen.
In Innsbruck, I hopped in a cab and sped off to the office where I was delivering the package. Easy to find, went in, got a receipt and then I was officially done with my duties here.
From the office towards the outside of the city, I walked in towards the city center. It was raining lightly, and continued for the entire time I was here. It didn't influence in the slightest my impression of this damp, miserable little city.
Actually, I liked the city. The way the city grew out from its nearly medieval Altstadt old town, the density and feel remind me a bit of northern Italian cities, like Florence and Milan. There is something a but more fun and dynamic here than Stuttgart, even though the size is much smaller.
Of course, it is a huge college town and surrounded by snowy peaks filled with ski resorts so it's kind of a giant aprés ski village which adds to the feeling.
For a small city, there's a lot of contemporary architecture here. Works from both international stars and locals alike. The city seems oddly contemporary, with only buildings from very old times to the 1960s, and then a slew of work from 2000s onwards. Of course, it could also be that they had a bunch of postmodern architecture and tore it all down.
I stopped first for lunch at a kind of cafeteria part of a local grocery store. Bacon wrapped pork loin with hash browns and vegetable soup. Served with Zapfen Pfaff, the local lager, as light and effervescent as they come.
I wandered around most of the day. I stopped into a David Chipperfield designed mall which was actually very nicely integrated with the city and small and interesting inside. There was a new urban plaza with some nurby warps and, in place of a splash pad or fountain, giant rotating sprinklers for the Tyrolean tykes.
I stopped for coffee at Konditori Katherine in the Altstadt, a nice modern renovation in the ground floor of a building which must have been several hundred years old judging from the low, Gothic stone arches and vaulting. Nearby, a McDonald's was nearly as subtly integrated, with the major signage mostly concealed by the low vaulted colonnade.
The biggest attraction, for reasons which still baffle me, was the "golden roof", a bright copper roof over a large protruding room, part of the imperial apartments. It is not particularly big, not particularly beautiful, and yet tour groups flock to it. For me it falls into the Prague clock tower category of "town needs a central focus for tourists to photograph, preferably located in the center and surrounded by amenities."
The Altstadt, with its narrow, winding streets, cobblestones, and positively ancient construction reminded me strongly of the old center of Florence. This old city, too, was filled with souvenir stores, expensive restaurants, a Starwood Resort owned hotel or two, and a wide variety of boutiques.
My pack was weighing me down, so I crossed the turbulent and opaque turquoise Inn river to find my hostel on the opposite side. Gasthof Innsbrück is actually a budget hotel which feels a bit nicer than it actually is. An old, old building, with wood stairs and banisters, old bad oil paintings on the walls, lit by florescent tubes. It was somewhere between Wes Anderson and Quintin Tarentino, but less interesting. The hostel rooms are above the hotel rooms, which presumably come with private bathrooms.
Staff were nice, spoke English and sent me a confirmation email after I booked it. The room cost about €40 a night, super cheap for the location. For a hostel room it was great: my own private room with a table, TV, sink, and even towels. Great location, and breakfast was included with the room.
I was actually exhausted and so I took off my waterproof boots to let my feet breathe and took a short nap. A well located hotel room is priceless when you need a moment to use a bathroom, recharge, change clothes.
I finally got my chance to see the site where I had devoted much time in the past month, and I spent some time walking around it, taking photos and comparing the reality to what I'd seen and read on the computer.
For dinner, I went to the Triebhaus, a very bohemian place I'd stumbled across in my research, part museum, part bar, part performance venue in a concrete octagon tower. I grabbed two beers and some pizza while enjoying the scene. Wish Saori had been able to come, she would have really enjoyed it.
Wandered back through the Altstadt at night. It's a shame they didn't use any kind of uniform lighting. It was mostly dark and closed for the night, with a scattered array of different lamps and storefront lighting.
Jumped in the shower down the hall and collapsed into bed.
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