Monday, June 14, 2010

Saturday 12 June 2010 Vienna to Innsbruck

Saturday 12 June 2010 Vienna to Innsbruck (Train)
We travelled to Innsbruck on the train today.  We managed to pack one of our front panniers in with the others so we had less to carry once the bikes are loaded onto the train.  It's a common fact that cycle touring is great when your riding your bikes but painful when you need to move all those bags and your bikes by train or airplane.

The train trip was OK although we are now little more nervous about Monday's trip as today's train ran about 15minutes late.  We wouldn't normally care about that except we have two changes of trains on Monday and there is only 10minutes to make the change and carrying our bags, retrieving the bikes and then racing to the platform, packing the bikes and then clambering aboard may take all of those 10minutes.

We were a little worried that Innsbruck wouldn't look too flash at this time of year, it's summer and it is a ski town but when we arrived (actually quite a few kilometres out) we knew it would be great.  The mountains soared and the views were magnificent.

We had booked into the 'Basic Hotel Innsbruck' and it was cheap and with a name like that it was with trepidation that we rode our bikes through town toward our digs for the next two nights.  We were both very surprised to find a newly renovated and equipped hotel with modern conveniences and even a normal toilet.  Austrian toilets are an odd design but I will leave that subject there.
The view from our hotel room...not bad for the 'Basic Hotel Innsbruck'

Same view zoomed in

A stroll through the old town saw us in lovely surrounds but tainted a little by the tourists and the vendors that prey on them.  Yes I see the irony that we are ourselves tourists but I'm sure you know what I mean.



We had coffee in a street cafe and the tour guides trapsed past holding their little flags  with their little herd of sheep people following along listening on their ear pieces to the commentary.  Aside from that though Innsbruck is very nice and we also enjoyed some yummy pizza and pasta at an Intalian restaurant.

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