Innsbruck

Since 1990 I’ve passed through the city of Innsbruck in Austria at least three times. On each occasion I’ve been in transit by train and have never left the station. Innsbruck is located in the Inn Valley, a broad valley that takes traveler north to the Brenner Pass, one the Alp’s main gateways to Italy; or west across the Arlberg Pass into Switzerland. Both are spectacular journeys through truly stunning, snow-clad alpine landscapes. Given its mountainous location, the city has twice host the Winter Olympics; first in 1964 and again in 1976.

Last weekend, my brother Hamish took the entire family for a day trip to Innsbruck. Our one hour journey proved the ultimate test of his family-sized people wagon. We successfully crammed seven of us into the vehicle; Hamish and my sister-in-law; their two children, my parents and I. Our itinerary for the day saw us experience three of the city’s most popular sights; the Bergiselschanze (Olympic Ski Jump), the Innsbruck Riesenrundgemalde (a giant panoramic painting) and the famous Golden Roof, located in the centre of the old city.

The Bergiselschanze is hard to miss. It sits on a low hill overlooking the city. The hill, called Bergisel, was once the site of four battles fought between the forces of Napoleon and the Kingdom of Bavaria against local Tyrolean militiamen in 1809. Today a soaring ski jump dominates its crown. The jump rises 50 metres above the surrounding area. A short elevator ride takes you up to an observation platform offering an uninterrupted view across Innsbruck and the surrounding valley.

The jump track itself runs 98 metres down a 35 degree incline. Jumpers reach more than 98 kmph by the time they’re launched into the air. Ironically, the view directly ahead takes in the cluttered graveyard of Stiftskirche, an ornate 17th Century church on the edge of town. I’m sure more than one jumper has lost their nerve thanks to such a sobering sight.

Nearby is the recently constructed Riesenrundgemalde building. Inside is an impressive life-sized panorama painting of the final battle of Bergisel. The giant 1000 square metre canvas took Munich artist Michael Zeno Diemer three months to complete in the early 20th Century. The completed artwork is impressive. It’s incredibly life-like, bringing the tragedy and triumph of war into stark relief. For most of its life the painting was housed in an aging rotunda on the banks of the Inn River. A delicate and controversial relocation to Bergisel was completed in 2009.

After lunch our final destination for the day involved a leisurely stroll through the heart of the old city. Our route inevitably led us to the Goldenes Dachl, or Golden Roof, a famous local landmark. This an ornate three-story balcony capped by a dazzling gilded copper tiles. It was built in 1500 for Maximilian the First, the regining Holy Roman Emperorn as a royal box from which he could sit in state and enjoy tournaments in the town square below.

A classic Kitzbuhel winter

Yesterday Garry and I spent the day with my brother Hamish and his family in Kitzbuhel. We were blessed with postcard perfect weather which simply sent me into an unrelenting photo frenzy. I'll post more details shortly. However, here are a few spectacular images to make you weep. My brother's home town is truly magic!

Without a doubt, the highlight of our day was an excursion up the Hahnenkamm. We rode the local gondola up to the summit station to admire Kitzbubel’s stunning winter landscape and enjoy a classic Austrian lunch. Garry went for the wurst while I ordered my favourite dish, Tiroler Gröstl.

The most famous slope on the Hahnenkamm is a classic downhill course called the Streif (streak, or stripe). It’s regarded as the most demanding race course on the World Cup circuit. We walked along a ridge of the snow-clad Hahnenkammrennen course before turning back. The drop on sections of this race course are honestly near vertical. If you ask me competitors don’t ski down it as much as they free fall.

Minus Eight

We're coming to the end of two relaxing days in icy cold Vienna. The current temperature outside is a nippy -8C, with the mercury on its way down to at least minus ten. Today we both broke out our thermal undergarments and went on a shopping excursion to find me a warmer hat. We eventually found a cosy rabbit fur-lined woollen cap with giant earflaps that did the trick. Despite the arctic conditions, we ejoyed two days of regular sunshine and blue skies.


On Saturday evening we joined the crushing throng swarming through Vienna's famous Rathaus Christkindlmarkt. It's clearly a popular destination as we watched one bus tour after another pull up and disgorge more eager punters. A quick number plates poll showed buses from Hungry, Poland and the Czech Republic, along with plenty of Austria vehicles.


The Rathaus was a splendid sight decked out in Christmas lights from the foundations to its tallest gothic tower. The market stalls themselves were packed with all manner of seasonal delights; glass and tinsel baubles, miniture wooden houses and crafts I've simply never seen before. We also followed my brother's counsel and raided every food stall in sight sampling the apple strudel, apple besiel, kase krainer wurst and gingerbread. I've become very fluent in German for the purpose of ordering Kase Krainer.


More on our Vienna adventures tomorrow. We have a three-hour train journey to Salzburg during which I hope to pass the time completing a couple of blog posts. Stay tuned!

Going up the wall

I spent a relaxing weekend in Austria with family. The weather also played its part. Each day was blessed with wonderfully warm sunny conditions, providing an ideal backdrop to Kitzbuhel’s postcard-perfect snow capped alps. It’s days like these that make me envy my brother’s life in Europe. Just look at these photos. Wouldn’t you want to be greeted by these scenes your local neighbourhood?


With the weather in such fine form we spent plenty of time outdoors. Lunch on Saturday was spent at a café on the shores of the local Schwarzsee. Sunday afternoon was spent visiting Krimmler waterfall, followed by the year’s first delicious BBQ. Krimmler is said to be Europe’s largest waterfall, cascading more than 400 metres in three separate sections. You climb to the highest fall using a well marked trail. However, we elected to take the more leisurely walking path to the base of the bottom fall.


We also stopped in at the Hohe Tauern National Park museum. This stunning building, nestled in the shadow of the alps, has some terrific exhibits about the geology, flora and fauna of the surrounding area. I particularly enjoyed a short 3D film explaining the tectonic history that formed the alps millions of ago. I've never seen a clearer, more compelling explanation of plate tectonics anywhere.


Saturday night saw us venture out to watch the finals of the national indoor wall climbing competition. For several hours we watched some incredibly athletic men and women climb walls fitted with impossibly small hand grips and overhangs. At times the finalist swung on nothing more than tips of their fingers, high above the stage. Some even tied themselves in knots, making the most unlikely gravity-defying maneuvers look routine. It was an impressive sight.

Kaprun Hochgebirgsstauseen

Here’s another retrospective post on our travel adventures. Shortly before relocating to London Garry and I flew to Europe for an initial recognizance visit. At the time my company was keen to reassure Garry that our relocation would be a positive experience. We flew SWISS airline to Zurich and then on to Munich before finally arriving in the UK.

The trip to Munich was shoe-horned into our itinerary in part to allow me to meet with several key European executives based there, and visit my brother in Austria. At the time, Hamish and his family lived in Kitzbuhel, approximately two hours by train from Munich.

We flew into Munich early on the morning of Friday, 1 July. I then spent the day in meetings with the team in Munich while Garry ventured out to grab a late breakfast and explore the neighbourhood. The Munich office was located about 15 minutes walk from the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace, one of the city’s popular tourist attractions.

Nymphenburg Palace was originally built as a summer residence for, Max Emanuel, who was born in 1662 to the Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria and his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. It subsequently became the primary residence of Bavarian royalty for the next two hundred years, The complex and its expansive gardens cover more than 200 hectares in the middle of the city.

Unfortunately, Garry never got to see the palace. In a rare moment of culture shock, he abandoned plans to tour the grounds after struggling to order breakfast in a local café where no one spoke English. Instead, he returned to the office and spent most of his time hanging out in the lobby.

Once I’d completed my duties for the day, we caught a late afternoon train to Wogel where we were met by Hamish. He then drove us back to Kitzbuhel. My parents were also staying at the time, so our arrival kicked off a minor family reunion. We spent a busy weekend with the family before heading on to London the following Monday.

While we were in Kitzbuhel, Hamish took Garry and I on a day trip to the Kaprun Hochgebirgsstauseen, one of the region’s popular tourist attractions. It’s an incredibly scenic hydroelectric complex consisting of two high mountain reservoirs, Wasserfallboden and Mooserboden, embedded in the alpine landscape at 2,036 meters above sea level. 

Hamish drove us into the area via the picturesque Thun Pass. We then bought a combined travel pass that included two bus rides, separated by an exhilarating transfer on the Lärchwald inclined lift. This is the biggest open platform inclined lift in Europe and the largest track gauge in the world for a passenger rail car. It carries up to 185 passengers at a time and lifts you 431 metres over a length of only 820 metres.

During the construction phase of the Kaprun high mountain reservoirs, this was the only means of transporting heavy equipment, construction materials, and lorries into the mountains. After the completion of the dams, it was converted into the tourist attraction that we enjoyed. Likewise, the narrow winding mountain tunnels our tour buses passed through are another enduring dam-building legacy.

The multi-modal journey is well worth the effort. As our final bus came out of a spiraling road tunnel, we were greeted by a breathtaking view of Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria. It’s 3,798 metres high and is surrounded by equally photogenic snow-clad peaks. On the day we visited, everything simply dazzled in the brilliant summer alpine sunshine.