Innsbruck, Hall in Tirol and The Brenner Pass

Innsbruck:
We saw Innsbruck before the Grossglockner Road and it has taken me over a week to decide how I feel about it....or maybe I already knew, but admitting that my husband was right by suggesting we limit our time there was too difficult. Although, now that I think about it, it was Rick Steves who called it "stale strudel", my husband was only quoting him, and being bested by a famous travel writer is easier than publicly admitting your husband is right....even if he is.

Innsbruck gets it's name from the Inn River that runs through it and the German word for bridge (Brücke). As an aside, I don't know what they are feeding this river, but I've never seen a river run so fast. Actually, the Danube runs pretty fast too, but the Inn River is a tributary of the Danube so the Inn must give the Danube its extra kick. The river is a milky blue color which I attributed to copper and salt, but I unfortunately didn't bring along the water testing kit Santa got The Boy last Christmas when he turned up on the Naughty List.

The old town is lovely with cute and reasonably priced shops. There is even a strudel shop with outdoor tables, nice wait staff, and according to its sign, "The most extensive selection of strudel in Innsbruck" (I studied the sign for several seconds, before my husband pointed out the English translation directly beneath the German), and the strudel there wasn't stale at all. But the old town is small for such a big city. Also, the new town is overtaken by too much loud, fast traffic to make walking fun, and too many 1970's style buildings to feel quaint.

Of course, the Olympics were here so I'm sure the ski slopes are to die for, but it's summer now and Innsbruck isn't worth your time with prettier places like Hall in Tirol next door.

Hall in Tirol:
On Rick Steves' recommendation (in the book, not in person), we stayed at a lovely and somewhat inexpensive ($130/ night for the four of us) guest house named Hotel-Gasthof Badl. Not so brief aside: the TomTom lady can't find this place. She will send you to the heart of an industrial center where you feel Rick Steves has betrayed you. When you reinput the address, she will tell you to go back to the more quaint area, then turn left into a building. I would give her the benefit of the doubt here and say the building was new, but it definitely predates the US Civil War. When you get frustrated, park, then one of you gets out of the car to find it on foot while the other inputs the address for the third time, the TomTom lady gets a sense of humor and tells you that you will get to your destination if you circle the block and park where you are. (If you are wondering why I didn't try the internet or Google Maps, I did. It wouldn't connect.)

Once the frustrated pedestrian comes back, you exchange some not so nice words with each other (because you need to yell at something human), you decide to just drive around to look for signs while staying near the river, then you input the address for a fourth time, the TomTom lady appreciates that you're serious this time and brings you to the guest house.  I don't know if everyone goes through the same ritual, but the front desk lady said navigation systems have trouble finding them.  If so, it's a bit like finding Smurf Village.

Once/if you arrive, the staff is very nice, but don't ask about the dog, Max. Max is dead. He died just after Rick published his book so it's nobody's fault and they're very nice about it, but Leo is there now. He is a Bernese Mountain Dog which is as big as a Newfoundland with the coloring of a Rottweiler.  He's got a sweet disposition, but you wouldn't want to offend him by asking about his predecessor, especially in front of his girlfriend, Lilly.

The guest house also has a very large cat named Morris. If you're thinking Morris is orange, you're thinking like an American.  This is an Austrian cat. He's a gray tabby. He likes to sit on a table marked reserved in the smoking lounge which you can see in his picture below.

Breakfast is included in the price of the room. So is internet access, a balcony, 3 beds and views of the mountains and river from all windows. As soon as we got checked in, I laid on the bed and tried to figure out if the mountains in my right eye window were nicer than my left eye window. I determined the right eye window mountains are probably best, but I attached a picture of both so you can make your own call.

The guest house is separated from Hall In Tirol's old town by a covered wooden bridge over the Inn River and is massive compared to Innsbruck's because, surprisingly enough, Hall In Tirol was a big deal when Innsbruck was just a bridge.  Apparently the folks in Hall In Tirol used to force any merchants going through (by river or road and the Brenner Pass is not far away) to stop to both pay a toll and give the people of Hall first dibs on their goods. Because it was wealthy 700 years ago, the old town is huge with narrow, cobble stone streets, squares with fountains in the middle, and ornately decorated buildings on the side.

I was sitting on a bench in one of these squares near dusk one night thinking about something I could say to redeem Innsbruck on my blog when (I swear this is true) a music school whose windows opened to the square began practicing, and a friendly pedestrian said good evening, then commented on how beautiful the choir sounded. (I posted a video of the square and the music on my Facebook page, but for some reason I can't post it here.) In any event, that was the nail in Innsbruck's coffin. Hall in Tirol is only a few minutes away from Innsbruck, but miles better.

One more thing about Hall before I leave is that it's a short train trip to Innsbruck and the trains run every hour. So, if you just need to check the "I was there" box it's 20 minutes there, 20 minutes back, and leave yourself an hour or two to walk to and from the strudel place, and pick up a 9 Euro Tirolian Peasant hat next door (they have them in green or red).

The Brenner Pass:
I was really excited to go over the Europa bridge and through Brenner Pass.  I don't know if the romanticism of traveling over the same ground that centuries of Romans traversed (the pass, not the bridge) was the only reason, but it was definitely the clincher.  However, unless I missed a sign somewhere, you go over one, then through a tunnel for the other with very little fanfare or options to stop to take pictures.  I'm still glad we did it, but you probably wouldn't depend on this drive being the highlight of your day.

The first five pictures below are of Innsbruck.  The sixth and seventh pictures are left eye mountain and right eye mountain, respectively (though taken from a non reclined position).  The rest are mostly Hall in Tirol with the last two being Morris and the Europa Bridge.

© 2012 Nicole Wirth
Author of:  Letters to Salthill