Innsbruck, Austria (first day)

I want to write a lot more about Interlaken, but since we have been so busy I will tell you about our first day in Innsbruck, Austria while it is fresh in my mind. We took a 7:05am train from Interlaken, Switzerland this morning, which took us via Bern and Zurich to Innsbruck Austria. We got to Innsbruck at about 1:25pm, so it was a pretty long train ride. Luckily our European East rail pass kicked in with no problems (one of the attendants at the Interlaken West train station knew nothing about this pass).

We checked into the Hotel Heimgartl, where our host Margaret checked us in. We had such a great experience at our last hotel, we were already assuming this one would not be as good. It is not bad, we had a hard time just finding available accommodations at a decent price here in Austria due to the soccer tournament, so we are not complaining.

As we have been doing in many of the cities, we start with a recommended walking tour (from the Lonely Planet travel guides) which usually lasts about 1.5 hours. We got caught in some rain, and bought cheap umbrellas, but then it cleared up and turned out to be a nice day. We checked out some of the local gift shops, the Golden Roof, the Hofgarten, St James Cathedral, and of course the excitement of the soccer games buzzing all around town.

We then sat and chilled at a cafe (Invinum) in old town for a couple of hours, to pass the time, as we were meeting our friend Doris (a student/teacher we know here in Innsbruck for a real Austrian dinner). When we met Doris, she brought us to Gast Haus Gruber, she translated the menu for us and made some recommendations. We started with Schhultz Krapfen (spinach and cheese dumplings). And then went on to another traditional Austrian dish (forget the name) with beef, ham, potatoes, onions, and topped with a fried egg; this was really good. Although, I think I should have ordered the pork cordon bleu with fries..saw some people at a nearby table that got this...damn...out-ordered! No the dish I got was really good!  This was served with a salad of cabbage, very similar to Cole Slaw (or sauerkraut) and was very refreshing.

Our first day in Innsbruck has been great, we have seen so much. We have 1 more full day here before we move on to Salzburg (I can hear the sound of music now). Tomorrow we plan to head up the mountain and do a few hours of hiking, weather permitting. (by the way this posting is not getting to the site immediately, as we do not have Internet access at this hotel, which we don't love :)).