Contents

  1. Preface
  2. San Francisco
  3. Amsterdam
  4. Amsterdam, Helmond
  5. Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
  6. Amsterdam, Bruges
  7. Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
  8. Berlin
  9. Berlin, Potsdam
  10. Berlin, Wansee
  11. Berlin, Prague
  12. Prague
  13. Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
  14. Vienna
  15. Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
  16. Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
  17. Munich, Innsbruck
  18. Innsbruck
  19. Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
  20. Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
  21. Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
  22. Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
  23. Zermatt
  24. Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
  25. Chamonix, Mont Blanc
  26. Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
  27. Barcelona
  28. Barcelona, Sitges
  29. Barcelona
  30. Milan, Venice
  31. Venice
  32. Venice
  33. Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
  34. Cinque Terre, La Spezia
  35. Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
  36. Florence
  37. Florence
  38. Florence, Siena
  39. Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
  40. Rome
  41. Rome
  42. Rome, Sorrento
  43. Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
  44. Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
  45. Sorrento, Capri, Naples
  46. Naples, Bari
  47. Patras, Athens, Mykonos
  48. Mykonos
  49. Mykonos
  50. Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
  51. Santorini
  52. Santorini, Athens
  53. Athens
  54. Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco


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17. Innsbruck

A low-hanging overcast sky kept me from seeing too much of the surrounding mountains, unfortunately. The town itself is pretty lovely, though, and I visited the enjoyable Schloss Ambras in the morning. In the afternoon I rode up the Hungerburgbahn, but not all the way to the top as it seemed to be pretty socked in with clouds. The hike up through the forest overlooking the city was beautiful, even with the gloomy weather. The Austrians waste no time with their hiking trails; they simply charge straight up the steepest available slope. I was overtaken by some astonishingly fast hikers, all carrying poles. There are some insanely wild little mountain bike tracks here, marked with very ominous danger signs, and some exceptionally crazy wooden terrain structures. I never saw anyone on these, but I would have been impressed if I had! At around 1500m elevation, I hit the clouds and turned around. Couldn't have been much more than 5°; as holes in the clouds appeared, I could see that what looked like a good amount of snow had fallen above 2000m. Looks a bit like Vancouver in winter.

Admiring the excellent view from the tower in the city center in the evening, I talked with a local economics student and a girl friend of his from South America. When I explained that I was about to start war-walking to check my e-mail, he very kindly offered to let me use his computer at his apartment. They cooked a huge pot of spaghetti for us and for his roommate and neighbors. So it was a very fine Austrian evening.

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