From Zürich, we caught the train to the Austrian alpine town of Innsbruck. I really love train travel – so relaxing, and a few hours to enjoy views of the mountains was wonderful.

The highlights:

Nordkette for a day of hiking, spectacular views and wildflowers.

It is impossible to capture the scale of the mountains. And the colours of the landscape – alpine grasses and rock and snow – so foreign to my eyes.

We also spent a sunny morning hiking down into the Sil Gorge (and then up to the Bergisel Ski Jump). The forest was shades of green that we don’t get in Australian forests, and I adored the bird houses scattered throughout.

The Bergisel Ski Jump is bananas – can’t quite comprehend how someone would willingly take off down it. As luck would have it, there was a guy from the Austrian Olympic team doing some demonstration jumps when we were there. I captured one on video (watch him as he takes off, disappears, and appears as a speck in the distance – it gives you a sense of how crazy it is!).

Schloss Ambras might not be at the top of the tourist must-see lists but it is a fascinating place. There are various exhibits but we hot-footed it to the Chamber of Art & Wonders, which is essentially a huge Kunstkammer (also known as a ‘cabinet of curiosities’). The Ambras Chamber is one of the most significant Renaissance collections of wonders (objects that are unique, rare, exceptional and most importantly, ‘desirable’) in the world – yes, in the sixteenth century, owning a piece of coral was a status symbol 🙂

Also at Schloss Ambras is the stunning Spanish Hall. We were there late in the day and had the light-filled hall to ourselves. The more we looked, the more detail we saw (for example, look at all the antlers and horns at the top of the windows).

Some laps at the glorious pastel-coloured art nouveau Hallenbad Amraser Straße (the pic is from their website and shows it beautifully).

Avoiding the tourist traps (!) we channeled some European Vacation with a night of yodeling, bell-ringing, alpine dancing and dancing combined with wood-chopping. As corny as it appears, we actually had a lot of fun.

An afternoon exploring the Alt Stadt, including the Rococo Wilten Basilica (below).

And the Baroque Cathedral of St. James (below), including the painting, Maria Hilf, which is the most venerated painting of Mary, and copies appear on buildings all over Innsbruck and around the world.

What we ate:

Of course we embraced the schnitzel but there were also some (bakery-related) highlights.

I was obsessed with the crockery at Kula Lab – bonus: their breakfast was outstanding.

Lunch of champions from Karaffu Coffee (pistachio cake is their signature) and sourdough meets disco at Die Brotbuben.

Other details:

Our criteria for choosing where to stay was ‘a view of the Golden Roof‘ – that certainly narrowed the choices but we found the very comfortable Kaiser Max Apartments which absolutely delivered (pic from our window below).

Innsbruck is a place where there’s a view in every direction – none of my pictures capture the scale.

All-in-all, a fantastic place to visit.