Crowded train to Innsbruck. The beauty of our Eurail passes is the ability to “supposedly” hop on an inner-city train without reservations and travel to any nearby (two hours or so) destination. And we were told today that we wouldn’t need a reservation to get to our day destination of Innsbruck, Austria. You can guess the rest. We hopped on the train with hundreds of other people and the train was packed. We managed to find some places to sit varying from a few seats in a “ladies’ only car,” a few pull-down seats along the aisle, and some had to stand for part of the approximately 1 hour 45 minute trip through some incredibly gorgeous scenery. There’s one photo in today’s set that might give you an idea of what this looked like. It reminded me of one of those movies where people in these developing countries are sitting on top of the train, hanging off the train, bringing their goats on board. I’m sure you can picture this.
Members of the band. We did arrive in Innsbruck in time for lunch and the first thing we did was make seat reservations for the trip back. The Eurail passes covers passage but not reservations, but it’s money well spent and we’ve made reservations for just about all other travel we’ve done. So we were excited to get to the Innsbruck station after a dinner in town and a trip up into the Alps knowing we would have seats. And of course, this train heading back was only partially full. We could have easily hopped on without a reservation and found a seat. Oh well. Peace of mind is getting more and more important.
Our main activity in Innsbruck today (other than just absorbing the scenery) was taking a series of trams and gondolas (I think that’s the term) to get the guys up to the top of the mountain. It was a great ride with even better views the higher up we got. Some boys hiked a round a bit just to say they hiked in the Alps.
After we descended the boys split into groups and chose where they wanted to eat in the old City Centre section of Innsbruck. And after dinner they walked around a bit to check things out. We actually saw and heard a group of singers and as we were heading back to the station we saw the muster of a town band with musicians dressed in traditional costumes including lederhosen. I think all the boys thought Innsbruck to be one of their favorite cities on this trip and I would agree.
Check out photos from our Europe 2013 trip.
Our main activity in Innsbruck today (other than just absorbing the scenery) was taking a series of trams and gondolas (I think that’s the term) to get the guys up to the top of the mountain. It was a great ride with even better views the higher up we got. Some boys hiked a round a bit just to say they hiked in the Alps.
After we descended the boys split into groups and chose where they wanted to eat in the old City Centre section of Innsbruck. And after dinner they walked around a bit to check things out. We actually saw and heard a group of singers and as we were heading back to the station we saw the muster of a town band with musicians dressed in traditional costumes including lederhosen. I think all the boys thought Innsbruck to be one of their favorite cities on this trip and I would agree.
Check out photos from our Europe 2013 trip.
In Innsbruck with friends.
Side Notes: It seems we’ve come just in time for the anniversary of several things in Europe. The set of trams and gondolas up the mountain in Innsbruck was celebrating their 85th anniversary this year. And just this past Sunday we were in Paris at the conclusion (we didn’t see it) of the 100th Tour de France, and earlier in Paris we had walked into the Notre Dame Cathedral which is celebrating its 850th anniversary. That’s an impressive run.
A few seconds of music from a group we heard in Innsbruck.
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