Ever since he visited in college, Tim has talked about the beauty of Innsbruck, Austria and dreamed of returning. Turns out it’s just a 2-hour train ride from Munich, so the day after our Bavarian Alps excursion, he, Clare and Danny returned to the hauptbahnhof and caught an early morning train to Innsbruck. Laura, weary of train rides with no phone or wifi to entertain (a luxury the rest of us enjoyed), wasn’t too keen on the idea of this day trip, so I agreed to stay back with her and enjoy more of Munich. While I would some day love to see Innsbruck for myself, I don’t regret our time together - it was delightful!
After a leisurely morning, a welcome break from the previous few mornings, Laura and I grabbed pastries from a couple of the kiosks in the Hauptbahnhof (I told you I like that word) and then figured out how to take a combination of U Bahn and tram to see yet another palace! Given our reliance on Tim for all things navigation and planning, the family expressed some doubts about my ability to get around the city. We showed them! Laura was an excellent partner, and together we flawlessly executed the trip to Schloss Nymphenburg!
We decided that, while similar to Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin, this was more impressive, especially with the water feature in the front. But…it was also quite similar on the inside to what we had seen, so we didn’t spend a ton of time there.
We meandered our way back to the hotel area, and opted to lunch in a place across the street. She was craving bratwurst, so we shared a traditional German lunch, including a beer for me. Quite tasty!
After lunch, we had decided to check out the pool in the hotel’s spa. It was SO COOL! The spiral design made it seem deceptively large, and the portion under the skylight had a window that showed the reception desk - but when you were in the reception area and looked at the window, you would never know it was the pool. We passed and extremely relaxing 45 minutes or so here, and primarily had the pool to ourselves.
We returned to our respective rooms to take our time getting cleaned up, and then headed back to the Marienplatz area to grab a beverage, shop, and catch the Glockenspiel’s performance before dinner. Candidly, the Glockenspiel was a bit underwhelming, but I suppose hundreds of years ago that was more entertaining? However, Laura delighted in our trip to Zara, where I realized she is quickly becoming a teenager. Heaven help me. It took us several tries, but we finally found a restaurant where we could sit outside (my requirement) and eat schnitzel (Laura’s requirement). Frankly, I wasn’t sure what she would think of schnitzel, but turns out she fell head-over-heels in love! (Admittedly, she doused it in ketchup.) To this day, that is Laura’s answer to the lamb Danny ate in Montreal a few years back!
Speaking of Danny: While we girls were hanging out in Munich, the other three had a grand time in Innsbruck, and I’m pleased to report that it was every bit as magical as Tim recalled.
They took the cable car from city center up to the peak, where they had magnificent mountain vistas (and Danny stayed securely in the center for the most part). Clare and Tim hiked up to a higher point - where is was around 50 degrees, by the way. Worth every step, they report. Tim said the best part is that there was significant cloud cover on their way up, obscuring the view, but the clouds literally parted as they finished their lunch and were ready to explore.
Danny and Clare absolutely loved Innsbruck, and were definitely pleased with their decision to get up early and ride the railways.
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