Monday 30th December 2024 Bratislava
Up at 7:00 as we have a 9:00 am walking tour of Bratislava.
Headed out at 8:45 and it is about minus 2 but feels like
minus 6. Also it is very foggy. Did an interesting walk through the older parts
of the town including the Church of the Annunciation, which is the oldest
church in Bratislava. Passed by quite a few interesting sculptures – some to
commemorate specific events, others just art works. The guide’s microphone
device ran out of battery (because of the cold) but someone suggested he swap
the batteries from the spare passenger device and that solved the problem. The
tour was supposed to be 2 hours but was only 1 ½ hours but that was OK as we
were very cold. We probably didn’t take in as much from this tour as we could
have because we were so cold – think it’s the fog that making it so unpleasant.
.jpg) |
| Some interesting sculpture in Bratislava |
.JPG) |
| Bratislava Christmas Markets before they opened. |
 |
| Executioners Lane |
.jpg) |
| St. Martin's Cathedral |
Back to the room and some diary recording.
After lunch Les dug out his thermal underwear and we
prepared to head out again. The ship is moored right in the city so it’s easy
to come and go as we please. Walked to the Bratislava Castle which was a steep
uphill climb which Les did not handle too well. Mind you, if we had followed
Google directions, we would have been going through a construction site then
bush-bashing up the side of the hill! Looked around the outside of the castle
but did not go inside as there really wasn’t any need – think most of it was
closed for the holidays. But wandering around the gardens was nice and we saw
enough that way. Back via Trinity Church, which had been recommended by the
guide, but it was closed.
 |
| Bratislava Castle |
 |
| What pub do they have in Bratislava, Slovakia? Scottish of course |
Warm drink for afternoon tea to help us thaw out.
Watched/Listened to the Port Talk in our room before heading
into the restaurant for dinner.
Tonight’s entertainment was a talk about the Viennese Coffee
Houses. Very interesting talk.
Tuesday 31 December 2024 Vienna
with Shore Excursions
Another earlyish morning as we have to be ready for a shore
excursion at 9:00 am. We arrived in Vienna overnight (actually early morning).
Ready and outside to hop on a coach. The port setup at
Vienna is fairly well developed with a concrete riverbank that allows at least
7 or 8 ships to dock in a row. We also found out they dock next to each other
as the Viking ship doing the tour in reverse is docked on the riverbank and we
are tied up to them. To get ashore we walk through their ship. Today, since
there are 2 Viking ships there are 8 coaches for the tours plus some people
going into town via the Underground Subway!
 |
| Yes, it was a bit cold this morning. The 'sundeck' on the Viking Var Cruise Ship. |
 |
| Viking Tor (left) and Viking Var (right) moored in Viennia. Originally, we were due to be on the Tor but due to high water it could not make it back to Budapest in time so ships were swapped. Both were moored in Vienna for the same two nights. |
The tour is a bus tour around part of the Ring Strasse which
is like a ring road around the centre of Vienna. We then got off the coach and
started a walking tour through town. The walking tour took us through the
Hofburg (another Hapsburg palace complex – we didn’t go inside the buildings,
just inside the complex), past the Spanish Riding School where we could look
into the stables for some of the horses, inside a church, then on to the
Graben, which is the main shopping street that leads down to the St Stephen’s
Cathedral. As it is New Years Eve it is very busy in Vienna as there are
concerts both indoor and outdoor tonight, including one in the square outside
St Stephen’s, and all along the streets around it. Also they have a concert on
New Years Day that is broadcast to millions of people world wide (but more
about that tomorrow). The weather is cold and there are occasional snow
flurries which is making Joy happy. We were then given some free time and we
found a bakery where we had hot drinks and pastries before heading back to the
main square to meet the guide and get the coach back to the ship. Since we’d
spent a fair bit of time in Vienna on our 2022/23 trip, we didn’t feel the need
to go sightseeing.
 |
| St Stephen's Church, Vienna, New Years Eve morning. |
After lunch we headed out again to explore and see the
lights in Vienna City – don’t need to be out very late to do that. We caught
the subway to the city, wandered about for a while, Joy got some glühwein so
she could keep the mug (she had a choice, either a mushroom or a pig, so she
went with the mushroom as the pig was really weird). The crowds were building,
and there were sections around the Graben where they were teaching people how
to waltz. And there were lots of people actually waltzing! Only in Vienna? Saw
the lights before struggling through the masses to the subway station and
caught the subway back to near the ship and walked the last bit to the ship.
Warm drinks when we got home.
 |
| Glühwein Pig Cups |
 |
| Joy's Glühwein Mushroom Cup |
 |
| Vienna New Years Eve Afternoon |
 |
| Vienna New Years Eve late afternoon. Get me out of here!!! |
Port talk in our room again before dinner. Joy had wiener schnitzel with potato salad and sacher torte for dessert. Les had wiener schnitzel with steamed veg but for some reason his schnitzel was at least twice the size of anyone else!! He had key lime pie for dessert.
 |
| Joy's Weiner Schnitzel.... |
 |
| Les' Weiner Schnitzel!!! |
While we were having dinner another ship arrived and docked next to us so we are between 2 ships now. The new ship is a bit noisy with its engine running to supply its electricity, etc. Would have been better without it but it didn’t disturb us too much. We heard several fireworks and as Les had to get up at 11:45 he heard the new year in even if he did not see it.
There were festivities on the ship to see in the New Year,
and we suspect quite a few people may be up for that, even if we are boring old
farts.
Wednesday 1st January 2025 Vienna Free Day
We slept in this morning and did not wake until 9:00am which
is fine as there is only a café breakfast from 6:00am to 11:00am or a Brunch
from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Seems they have given the staff a bit of free time
today, and that’s fine by us. Of the ones still rostered on, it looks like some
of the staff had a good night last night. Good luck to them. We spoke to the
lady that cleans our room and she confirmed she had a good night. Spoke to a
couple of passengers who also seem to have had a good night.
 |
| Blueberry Pancakes for New Years Brunch! |
As it was a free day we went for a walk into the local big
park where they have a ferris wheel and some ‘Winter Markets”. It’s called
Prater, and the ferris wheel dates from 1897. We have found out that on the
western side of the bridge in Vienna there are 12 ships docked in 4 rows of 3
ships. There are also probably another 6 or 8 on the eastern side. So much for
winter being the quiet time of the year for cruises.
At the markets we had- Joy – eggnog, Les – Kinderpunch and Joy and Les shared a cheese langos which is a deep-fried bread type thing with grated cheese added to the top. Very yummy but not very healthy!!
 |
| Joy finally found some Egg Nogg. Les had Kinder Punch so we both ended up with cups which we kept. |
 |
| Cheese Langos |
There were
quite a few people out and about at the markets, and that may well be because
they were telecasting the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic. It’s a
really big thing and broadcast world-wide. To get a ticket, you have to put
down a deposit, and go into a lottery. On the telecast, it’s not just the
orchestra, but also ballet performances, opera, and who knows what else (we
didn’t watch the whole thing), and the people at the market were happily
standing around watching it. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the reason
they were there in the first place. Again, only in Vienna?
 |
| Crowd at Winter Markets watching the New Years Concert. |
 |
| They are strict on what you cannot bring into the park!! |
By now it is about 1:00 pm so headed back to the ship and had another warm drink. Les had a snooze even though he was planning to walk around the track on the top of the ship. Joy has been knitting and doing Facebook posts.
Watched and listened (it was on in the ship’s lounge, but we
could watch on our TV) an ‘Enrichment Lecture’ on the Austrian History. Again,
another interesting presentation even though we missed the first 10 minutes.
Writing the diary and it is 6:39 and the ship next to us has
just departed. Peace and quiet!!!!
Thursday 2nd January 2025 Viking Cruise –
Wachau Valley and Grein
We moved on last night. Still amazes us that they can
navigate in the dark. Left Vienna and headed to Linz, Austria. Cruised through
the Wachau Valley which is one of the prettiest parts of the trip along the
river as it has hills, lovely old villages, castles, churches, etc all along
the valley. Much of the other scenery has been relatively flat. It was also the
first time we got to go through a lock in the daylight (in fact it was the ONLY
time from 11 locks that was during daylight hours!).
The morning started with some fog but fortunately it lifted before we got to the Wachau Valley but it was still overcast and cold. We went up onto the sundeck to watch the views float past as we cruised up the valley and while the view was good it just got too cold once you take into account the breeze caused by the ship moving along, so we moved to the lounge where it was much warmer. Whenever something was really interesting, we could pop outside, then come back into comfort when we wanted to. Had a set of seats to ourselves so did not have to converse with anyone.
 |
| Watching the river from our cabin |
 |
| Too cold to play putt putt this morning, or any other morning for that matter. |
 |
| It was cold overnight. The coffee is frozen solid as is the bottom of the coke bottle. |
 |
| Wachua Valley, Danube River |
 |
| Wachua Valley, Danube River |
 |
| Wachua Valley, Danube River |
 |
| Wachua Valley, Danube River |
 |
| Wachua Valley, Danube River |
 |
| Wachua Valley, Danube River |
Les went up to the sundeck when we went through the lock. It is amazing how they work and the skill of the captain in manoeuvring the ship in and out of the locks.
 |
| View of the lock wall from the sundeck. When the water had been let into the lock the sun deck is about 5 or 6 metres above the lock wall. |
In the afternoon we docked at Persenbeug-Gottsdorf where those that wanted to do the walking tour of Grein (which was most of us) disembarked and went to Grein by coach. Grein is a little village of about 2000 people, but it is very pretty and quite interesting. There we toured the main town square in the old part of town and went to the Stadttheater where we were given some history of the building. It used to be a granary but back in 1791 it was converted to a theatre. Many special features from the past can be seen here: original restricted seats, which could be opened and closed with a small key. This worked by folding the flat seat part up to the backrest and locking it in place. People would buy the seat for the whole year and be given the key for their seat. A Klosett (toilet) separated from the auditorium only by a curtain, so it was possible to sit on the toilet and stick your head through the gap in the curtains so you did not miss anything (since back in the day the performances would go for 4 – 6 hours, this was important). There was also the Gemeindekotter (a prison room right next to the theatre hall). The other guests used to bring food for the prisoners otherwise they would make a noise during the performances. They call this ‘blackmail’. We were also given a performance by a local on his home-made musical instruments and sang songs from the medieval era.
 |
| One of the lockable seats in the theatre. |
 |
| A homemade Medieval Musical Instrument. It sounds a bit like a bagpipe and is a form of 'Hurdy-Gurdy'. And you thought that name was just made up! The handle on the side is wound while the fingers on the other hand play the 'keys' which are on the front (near his knees) |
Next we went to the castle ‘Schloss Greinburg’ overlooking the town. The road up to the castle is narrow, steep and several hairpin bends which was interesting since we also had some snow around. A guided tour of parts of the castle and then back down the windy road and to the wharf in Grein where the boat was moored. For those that stayed on board the ship they got to see the ship go through a lock.
 |
| Schloss Greinburg. The patterns are from small stones of different colours. |
 |
| Schloss Greinburg. The patterns are from small stones of different colours. |
 |
| Inside courtyard of Schloss Greinburg. |
Just after we all arrived back on board we started cruising again but by this time it was already dark.
 |
| Went through another lock at night. This is how close it is to our cabin handrail. |
Friday 3rd January 2025 Viking Cruise - Linz and Mauthausen
Arrived in Linz overnight and up for an early start today as
we have 2 tours to do. Some of the guests (most actually) went to Salzburg via
Mondsee. This was a 9-hour trip but they got back late (found out later this
was because one of the passengers got lost and they had to find them before
they could leave). As we had been to Salzburg a few years earlier we gave it a
miss and instead did the 2 hr Linz Town tour which started with a short tour in
one of those little fake train and carriage tourist buses. The town tour was
interesting and then walked back to the ship after Joy had checked out the wool
shop! Also in one of the buildings they had the whole floor of the building
with an aerial photo of the town in very high definition and it was amazing. It
covered an area probably equal to 2 basketball courts.
 |
| Transport for trip to Linz Town Tour. |
.jpg) |
| Linz Town Tour |
.jpg) |
| Linz Town Tour |
.jpg) |
| Linz Town Tour |
 |
| Part of the Aerial photo of Linz on the floor. |
During our walk around the town it was trying really hard to snow on us.
After lunch we headed out on the Mauthausen Memorial Centre
tour. Mauthausen was a concentration camp in Austria. As recorded on their
website “From 1938 to 1945, the Mauthausen concentration camp was at the
centre of a system of over 40 subcamps and was the main site of political,
social and racist persecution by the National Socialist regime on Austrian
territory. Of a total of around 190,000 people imprisoned here, at least 90,000
were murdered.” You might be like us and never heard about this place
before however to give an example of what it was like Auschwitz and Dachau
concentration camps where level 1 camps and had the saying ‘Arbeit macht frei‘ which means ‚Work makes one free‘.
Mauthausen was level 2, which is worse and their saying was (unfortunately
cannot remember and will have to search more later) but essentially they
were worked to death to save having to build a gas chamber. They cut granite
from a quarry to build parts of the camp but also for other Nazis purposes. Prisoners
were forced to carry roughly-hewn blocks of stone – often weighing as much as
50 kilograms (110 lb) – up the 186 stairs, one prisoner behind the other. From
September 1944 there were also women and children enslaved in the camp.
 |
| Mauthausen Memorial Site |
 |
| Mauthausen Memorial Site. The depression on the front left is a swimming pool that the prisoners had to make for the Concentration Soldiers/Guards, etc |
 |
| Mauthausen Memorial Site and examples of the rocks the prisoners had to carry. |
 |
| Mauthausen Memorial Site 'Stairs of Death' that stretch from the quarry floor along the edge of the trees to the top. |
 |
| Mauthausen Memorial Site. Close up of the 'Stairs of Death' |
We could not say it was a happy, pleasant tour but was very sobering and worth doing. After this we had a very quiet ride back to the ship. There were only 9 of the guests did the tour. We won’t go into any more detail about the camp as this is not the right place but if you are interested you can Google it.
Trivia Point: We
finally found other Australian passengers today (only taken 8 days).
Technically they are New Zealanders but they migrated to Australia about 30
years ago. They were a couple and their two daughters one of who was also born
in NZ.
Saturday 4th January 2025 Viking Cruise - Passau
Another overnight cruise and this morning we are in Passau.
Went through 3 locks overnight. We are getting very close to the end of our
river cruise but we still have 1 more day to go. When we arrived in Passau we
docked at Passau Landau which is about 5 km from Passau town itself. We were
told that we needed to dock here to replenish the ship for the next cruise. We
were also told, when we booked the cruise, that this would be where we dock for
our dis-embarkment so we had researched how to get to town. We had to let the
crew know what our transfer arrangements were and we had completed the form
that we needed a taxi to take us to the station. This form had to be handed in
by 12:00 pm on Friday. On Friday night ‘Port Talk’ we were told that the ship
would be moving from Passau-Landau to Passau on Saturday at about 12:30 pm.
This meant we needed to change our transfer request as we are within walking
distance of the station. That also meant different colour baggage tags! They
had people transferring from 4:00 am through to 9:00 am.
But back to The Passau Town Tour. We were placed on buses
which took us into the town and then did a walking town tour for about 1.25
hours before we had free time. Included in the tour was looking at the river
levels during flood time. There had been a flood in early 2024 but the 2013
flood got to at least 5 or 6 metres above the street level. The locals often
have no furniture on the ground floor because of the floods.
The walk took us through the old part of town. Passau is
important because it is at the confluence of 3 rivers – the Danube, the Inn and
the Ilz. As well as seeing the markings for the various flood levels over time,
there were also quite a few decorative buildings, and of course a cathedral!
The cathedral is pretty big, and was originally gothic in style, but most of it
fell down at one point and only the back section of it stayed upright. So after
it was rebuilt, the back is still gothic, and the front and the inside is very
much baroque. It also houses an organ that has over 17,000 pipes, soon to be
increased to 20,000!
 |
| Passau Streets |
 |
| Passau Streets with Flood level markers (hard to see). |
.JPG) |
| Passau Flood Level Marker which is just above and between the two windows on the curved corner in the previous picture, |
 |
| St. Stephan's Cathedral, Passau |
 |
| St. Stephan's Cathedral, Passau |
 |
| Yes it snowed (lightly) in Passau |
We had free time, of course, after the cathedral, which we filled with warm drinks and strudel at a local café. Very large pieces of strudel. The café was very elegant and so were the prices. Cappuccino, warm milk and 2 strudels (apple and apricot, but they were pretty big and we should probably have shared) with no cream or sauce was 20.60 euros or about 35AUD.
 |
| Passau Morning Tea!! Should have shared 1 strudel instead of 1 each! |
We
then walked to the spot where the three rivers merge and then headed back to
catch the bus back to the wharf. We underestimated the walk and we were running
out of time. If we missed the bus we would have to wait until 1:00 for the ship
to dock in Passau town and Joy had another tour in the afternoon so needed to
have a quick lunch beforehand. So Joy walked a bit quicker and got to the coach
and managed to get them to hold the coach for Les. He made it only 2 minutes
late. Normally when they say 11:30 that means in their words “wheels moving at
11:30”. After this effort Les decided his possible town walk that afternoon was
cancelled and would stay in the cabin and catch up on some things and rest.
 |
| Passau from our cabin balcony. |
Back to the ship and an early light lunch with Joy having
Salad and Les having Pasta (ie no starter and no dessert). After such a big
morning tea, and with Joy knowing she would be eating a bit of chocolate in the
afternoon workshop, this was a good idea. Then at 2:00 Joy headed out for her “Artisanal
Praline Chocolate Workshop” at Simon’s factory. The boss and one of his
assistants gave the workshop. He is 4th generation in the business,
which is his family business. They originally made gingerbread and candles, now
they make gingerbread and chocolates (mostly pralines). Joy learnt all about the
history of the company, where they get their chocolate from, how they make the
pralines, and the difference sorts of flavours and how they decide what to
make. She also got to taste quite a lot of the chocolates, as well as drinking
a hot chocolate made purely with milk and chocolate (yum). In the workshop, she
got to decorate the moulds for the pralines (with chocolate that was made in
all sorts of colours, like red, blue, green, yellow,…). The assistant then
showed how the tempered chocolate was poured in to make the outside of the
praline. When that had set (in the blast chiller), she then showed how the
nougat was put into the pralines, and then finally after that was set, how to
put the bottoms on. We didn’t get to do any of that, because although it isn’t
a delicate operation (lots of chocolate continually pouring over the moulds),
it is also quite a skilled job. We did get to box up our own pralines, and I
think we probably would have failed that test as it’s weirdly difficult to do
well. Came back to the ship with 25 chocolates in a fancy box. She had made 21
of these herself. She was very happy with the tour. She also bought some Lebkuchen
(gingerbread) for Les however we will share them.
 |
| The fruits of Joy's labour. |
 |
| The Chocolate Praline class. The person in red is the Program Director from the ship. As this was the first time this activity had been done, he needed to try it out!! |
Sunday 5th January 2025 Passau to Innsbruck
Well the time has finally come when we need to depart the
ship. When we woke in the morning it had been snowing and was just very light
snow now. Our last breakfast so Les decided to have an omelette. They make the omelettes
fresh to order in front of you and most mornings the queue had been too long to
bother but this morning the chef was standing waiting so Les had ham and cheese
omelette. It was beautiful. They certainly know how to cook scrambled eggs and
omelettes. You could also order ‘eggs anyway’ but we never bothered. Pancakes
and French toast on several days though!
By now it is snowing harder, and we have to get our
suitcases to the station. As we were ‘self-transferring’ we were able to leave whenever
we wanted as long as we were out of our cabin by 9:00 am. We could wait in the
lounge if needed. Any way we had planned on a 10:30 train to Munich and then 1
hour layover before a 1:30 pm train to Innsbruck. As we were ready early we
headed to the dock but had to get our suitcases up 1 flight of stairs and down
the gangway which we did not really want to be doing in the snow but we had a
crew member move them for us. He actually lifted both suitcases (weight about
17 kg each) and climbed the stairs and down the gangway. When he realised we
were walking to the station, he wasn’t very happy, but in the end just warned
us to be very careful and not slip over. So we then headed to the station in
the snow, both on the ground and falling (the snow, not us!). We were lucky as
about ½ of the distance was through a car park under the road system that went
over the bridge. Several times we had our suitcase wheels lock up as they were
clogged with snow and ice or with the grit they lay on the footpaths. Anyway,
we made it to the station in plenty of time to get the early train which left
at 9:19 am and arrived in Munich at about 11:40.
 |
| Les heading to the Railway Station in Passau. |
 |
| Viking Var and snow in Passau |
 |
| Suitcase once we made it to the Railway Station, Passau |
Reflections on the Viking river cruise:
· * Excellent cabin, with plenty of room for us, and
we probably didn’t need to balcony with it being a winter cruise so not much need
for sitting out there. Some cabins have what’s called French Balcony, where the
window opens completely to make it like having a balcony but there is not extra
space outside, and that would probably have been fine. And heated bathroom
floors including in the shower.
· * Excellent food, and plenty of it. Some
complained that unlike on an ocean cruise there isn’t food available at any
time and there isn’t room service, but honestly, there is no need. There is so
much food at mealtimes, and outside of mealtimes there is tea and coffee always
available, along with pastries most of the time, what is there to complain
about? We were amazed at how much most of the people we sat with at meals were
eating. Many of them ordered multiple starters as well as mains and desserts.
· * Definitely not worth getting the beverage
package unless you are a serious drinker. If you want to socialise in the
bar/lounge, you have to pay for those drinks (only the drinks at meals are
included), but it was only 6.50 Euro for a glass of wine, so think how much
you’d have to drink!
· * So many Americans!
· * The excursions are very well organised
· * Excellent crew.
Once we got to Munich we wanted to have a sit-down café
style lunch as the plan was for a simple light tea that night – being Sunday
most shops are closed in Innsbruck (not just Innsbruck, but across Austria and
Switzerland…) so we would be limited with what we could do. After putting our
luggage in some lockers, we looked around Munich station but could not find
such a café with most being takeaway places, so headed outside the station. It
is now light rain (not snow) and after a short walk found an Italian restaurant
which was a bit more upmarket than what we planned but could not be bothered
searching any more (with memories of our search in Potsdam!). Les had grilled calamari
with potatoes and spinach and Joy had gnocchi with ham. Both meals were very
good, but Joy was glad Les did not get the gnocchi as it has chilli and was a
bit spicy.
Back to the station and got our luggage from the luggage
lockers and headed to our platform for the train to Innsbruck. As we are in 1st
class had to walk the whole length of the platform and even then, we got on the
carriage at the end so had to drag the suitcases the length of the carriage.
One day we will pick the right end of the carriage! Settled in on our reserved
seats for the 1.5 hour trip to Innsbruck. The snow is becoming less as we
travel further from Munich and then we soon started seeing the Alps but it has
been a warm start to the season and the snow is not as thick or as far down the
mountains as normal. We had 2 fellows sit a bit down from us and they appear to
have not booked seats but that was OK as there were vacant seats. But one
fellow thought it was OK to sit in the seat for someone who had booked
Innsbruck to Bologna and take his shoes off and put his feet on the seat
opposite him! The hide of some people! As it was it didn’t matter as the
“Innsbruck to Bologna” part was cancelled due to a technical issue and replaced
by bus transfer. Glad we did not have to go there as the train was going to
take from 3:15 pm to 8:15 pm, or about 5 hours. By bus it would have been about
the same but not as pleasant.
As we are staying about 1 km from the station, we decided to
do shopping for tea before we headed to the hotel apartment. We had trouble
finding the only open supermarket as the Google image shows it at ground level
however it is actually below ground level in the main train station. Joy stayed
outside to look after the suitcases while Les went in to get the stuff for tea
and breakfast. The supermarket was packed. After about 10 minutes to find the
half dozen or so things we needed, Les queued to get out through the checkout
which was going past the breakfast cereal so he could get some cereal as it was
the only way to get to that aisle. Sent Joy a text to say he would be about 10
mins to get through the checkout. After Les made it out we walked to the accommodation
and at sometimes we had a very strong tail wind pushing us up the slight hill.
Settled into the accommodation and had a relaxing cuppa. Joy
is not feeling the best and has started coughing a bit. Just have to see how
she goes. Watched cat videos on Youtube on our TV before a relatively early
night.
Monday 6th January 2025 Innsbruck Rest Day
The original plan was to go to Swarovski Crystal World today
however as Joy is still not the best we have decided to swap and have a rest
day today (although we had sort of decided that a few days ago as the cruise
was more full on than we thought it would be.)
Joy is feeling a bit better but her cough is worse. As we
have not had any proper laundry facilities for about 13 days we planned to head
in to the laundromat in town and then do the rest of the grocery shopping UNTIL
we found out today is a public holiday in Austria. It is Epiphany and we could
hear the church bells ringing and ringing. We checked and the laundromat was
open so we headed there and did the washing and drying (for those that can be
tumble dried). We found out the bigger supermarket we planned to use was
closed, but that the one we visited the day before was open so we braved the
crowds and did shopping for the next 2 days (knowing we had to carry it and the
washing back to the accommodation). The supermarket was not as bad as yesterday
but was still very busy.
Back home for lunch and then Les did some diary and Joy
listened to podcast and we both had afternoon naps. After we had afternoon tea
Les was back to try and catch up on the diary before we forget what we had
done!!
Tuesday 7th January 2025 Innsbruck
Swarovski Crystal World
Set the alarm for 7:00 as we are heading to the Swarovski
Crystal World today. Need to leave the accommodation to catch a tram to the
station and then the shuttle bus to Swarovski Crystal World at 10:20 which will
get us there just before 11:00 am.
The weather is showery with bits of snow mixed in and cool
but not cold like the last few days. We have a Welcome Card that gets us free
public transport so catching the tram was easy. When we arrived at the station
it was also easy to find where the shuttle bus waits as there was a sign! There
was about a dozen people on the bus including a woman who has obviously had
Botox injections in her lips and was doing selfies pictures in the coach!!!
Arrived at the Crystal World and got our audio devices and
headed off on the tour. Spent about an hour wandering through the exhibitions
and the store which is a bit like the duty-free section of the airport!! The
prices for somethings were reasonable but some were very expensive. Joy has a
few Swarovski Crystal animals at home and was hoping to get one this time, but
they did not have many and those they did have were much bigger and fancier.
Might have to check the store in Innsbruck itself (the Crystal World is 40 mins
from Innsbruck city). After the tour we headed to the restaurant for lunch.
While having lunch we both agreed that the tour was very disappointing as it is
more an Exhibition Gallery and nothing about what crystals are, how they are
made, how they turn them into jewellery, etc
 |
| Swarovski Crystal World. Entrance on left and yes that is ice on the pond. |
 |
| Swarovski Crystal World and one of the better displays. |
Caught the shuttle bus back to Innsbruck and did the last of the shopping at the big supermarket that is on the way home that has been closed for the last 2 days. Grocery shopping without the crowds. Heaven!
Wednesday 8th January 2025 Innsbruck Ski Jump and
Sill Gorge
A late start as we slept in until 8:45. We then headed to
Sill Gorge and the Ski Jump. The Sill Gorge winds its way around the back of
the Ski Jump. Took a tram from near the accommodation to the base of the hill
below the Ski Jump. At the start of the track to the Ski Jump area the sign
showed that some of the side tracks in the Gorge were closed due to
construction work but that the main track was open. So we climbed the steep
hill to the Museum near the Ski Jump and a good view over Innsbruck.
 |
| Innsbruck |
The Sill Gorge track starts at the car park of the museum and it said the track was closed “For Winter”/ Not happy. Asked the lady at the museum if she knew if the track was open and she said Yes but was not very convincing. So we decided to walk to the other end of the track and see if there was a sign there. If not we would walk it and if we got caught we would plead ignorance. So we walked around the base of the Ski Jump and we could see they were dismantling grandstands, etc. Found out that on Friday and Saturday they had the 3rd round of the 4 Hills Ski Jump competition. We found the other start of the Sill Gorge track and it also had a “closed for winter” sign and was very icy so thought it was not a good idea. We decided to follow the road we were on and found another road joining it and a lady walking her dog. She said we could walk that road all the way round but after a while we did not like the look of the road or track so walked back and eventually walked down a very steep hill and caught a tram back into town. Stopped at the supermarket to get cereal, chocolate bar and juice. We were then heading to the bakery for rolls for lunch today and tomorrow and some treats for a/tea and dessert with the cream we have, but the bakery was closed. It only trades from 6:00 am to 12:00 noon. We found another bakery which was about 500 metres extra to get home, but that was fine, as we got to see a different part of our local area.
Late lunch and
relaxing afternoon before heading out at 5:00 for a walk to see if the
Christmas lights in our area were still lit up. In short, no they weren’t.
Walked to the Sill River and back in a loop.
Thursday 9th January 2025 Innsbruck
Up at 7:00 am this morning as Joy has a Whatsapp video call
with girlfriends back in Australia at 8:00. Managed to finish most of her
breakfast before the call started so she just finished the rest in front of
them. Real friends don’t care!
After the call and when we had made some lunch we headed to
Schloss Ambras by bus. Schloss (Castle) Ambras is the first museum in the
world. If you are interested in knights’ armour, you have to see this place.
There is however much more and is a very impressive collection of items and
some beautiful rooms, so the Schloss is impressive both as a castle and as a
museum. The collection was put together by Prince Ferdinand and on display over
450 years ago. The Schloss is also surrounded by parklands and has some
waterfalls (Les was happy however had not brought his tripod!). Sat in the sun
in the park for lunch but it was still cold – mind you, it is winter, so no
surprises there.
 |
| Schloss Ambras and Suits of Armour. |
.jpg) |
| Schloss Ambras. Even young girls had Suits of Armour. |
 |
| Mountains from Schloss Ambras. |
 |
| Schloss Ambras. Carved from 1 piece of timber. Very impressive. |
 |
| Don't like to be rude but this is a lady!! |
 |
| Schloss Ambras. Very impressive room. Obviously, money was not an issue to the owners back in the day. |
Walked back to the bus stop and caught a bus back into town. The bus was 2 minutes late (they track them on the app) and we think the driver was trying to catch up those two minutes within the next few stops, or was a frustrated rally driver. Next stop was “Glockengießerei Grassmayr - Glockenmuseum" which is an award-winning museum of bells in the famed Grassmayr Bell Foundry, with a bell-ringing sound studio. It is amazing the different size and types of bells they had. The place still makes bells and surprisingly we were able to enter part of the workshop area. Wouldn’t happen in Australia with Occupational Health and Safety. Also saw a video showing how they actually make the bells. There were also bells dating back to the 1500’s. You can play some of the bells as well as one where you stand in the upside down bell and hit the bell and you can feel the vibration through your whole body – very weird feeling.
 |
| Glockenmuseum, Innsbruck showing how bells are cast. |
 |
| Glockenmuseum, Innsbruck. You stand in the bell and have the red ball strike the bell. Sends vibrations through your whole body. |
 |
| Glockenmuseum, Innsbruck. Another weird experience. When the ball is hit it sends vibrations through you even though you are not touching it. |
Next we headed into the older part of town and checked out many of the older buildings including the Gold Roof which is a building that had gold coated copper tiles. Personally found it a bit underwhelming and think many of the other buildings are more impressive.
 |
| The Gold Roof, Innsbruck |
 |
| Many other more impressive buildings in Innsbruck. |
Also, as we were walking around, we saw many HUGE sculptures of characters out of fairy tales. They are a bit scary, actually, and could traumatise children!
 |
| Huge sculpture, Innsbruck |
Had afternoon tea at the Strudel Café Kroell with Joy having hot chocolate, Les having warm milk and we shared some carrot cake which was really nice.
 |
| Afternoon tea in Innsbruck. What do you eat in a Strudel Cafe? Cake of course!! |
We then headed to the river to view the many colourful buildings on the other side of the river. Walked to the station to catch the Funicular up the other side of the river for views over Innsbruck. The Funicular starts underground, comes above ground to go over the river before going underground again and then above ground for the steep climb up the side of the hill. The carriages are designed so that regardless of whether the track is flat or steep the seats and floor are all still level. Great views of Innsbruck from the viewpoint at the top. From here you can take a gondola up to the top of the mountain, but we did not do that. The funicular ride is about 10 minutes each way and cost 13 euros per person return (about 20AUD).
 |
| View of Innsbruck from Hungerburgbahn Funicular. The Ski Jump can be seen in the centre of the photo on the other side of town. |
Joy had been to Innsbruck way back in 1988 on her first trip
to Europe, and the only thing that stuck in her memory was the ski jump. Will
have to go back to her photos to see what else she saw back then and if it has
changed.
When we got back to the station we walked into the centre of
town and caught a tram back to our accommodation. We are occasionally getting
people standing up and offering us their seats on the trams. Do we really look
that old? Mind you, we don’t argue with them and take the seat offered!
We have to pack today as we move to our next destination
tomorrow being Zurich.
 |
| And what do you buy when you travel 1/2 way around the world to Innsbruck? Glassware with a Cockatoo on it!! No, we did not buy it! |
No comments:
Post a Comment