The drive from Salzburg to Innsbruck was completely uneventful. We had to go back into Germany, and we were going to attempt to take a back road through the country to get to Innsbruck. Unfortunately, from what we could tell, we whizzed right by one of the exits at about 90 miles an hour and were back on the highway we came in on. So we just followed that back to where we knew there was a road that led to Innsbruck.
Again, this was uneventful, all the way to the outskirts of the city. When we realized-- we didn't have a hotel.
Now after the pain that was driving around Salzburg looking for a place to stay, we had kind of decided that we needed to find places ahead of time. Lo and behold, a Hotel and Information Stop!
We pull in and find that the information place is closed; they have been kind enough to leave us brochures. We randomly pick one, Gasthof Weißes Rössl- a 3 star- and head for the phone.
The pay phones in Europe are annoying. They take a whole euro and don't give you change. Then I had to figure out how the hell to dial the number. Is it the 15 digits? the 12 digits? the 6? So I start longest to shortest and succeed with the shortest. And they have a room for two nights! So we book it, and almost before I am off the phone, the woman behind me shoves out of the way because apparently this was HER phone and how dare a stupid American use it. I mumbled something about blowing it out her ass as we walked away.
Innsbruck was, by far, the easiest of all the towns to navigate. We got off the highway, and right onto the road we were looking for. Save for one confusion street sign, we sailed right up to the Aldstat (Old Town) and found a place to park. Not only did we find a place to a park, we managed to find a place to park just about 100 yards from the hotel. Naturally, we didn't know that and circled the Aldstat about 3 times looking for the place when it was just where we came in. We just didn't see it right away.
This hotel was one of the old, classic guesthouses that you expect to see in the old town of an old city. The reception was on the second floor, and there was a small restaurant there. We were on the third floor (by the American way of thinking) and what a most excellent room. It had no carpet, but it was large and comfortable and had the toilet seperate from the shower, meaning in another room. A true water closet. Turns out that this place was built in 1410 as a hotel and has been one ever since. I cannot even tell you how nice this place was save that, should you ever find yourself looking for a hotel in Innsbruck, Gasthof Weißes Rössl is the place to stay. (bookable through www.venere.com plug plug plug)
Ok, Quick German lesson: "ß" - the "b" looking thing- in the German language is a double "ss" so if like me you don't have the ß on your keyboard and you can't find it to copy and paste, just use "ss". When you get to an umlat- ö - it depends on the letter it's modifying. The umlat o is said as more of "ewr", so Rössl (don't ask my why they didn't use the ß in that!) would be said more like "rewrssel" than the murdered American Rowssl. You will also see Zurich with the umlat over the u. Fortunately, we tend to say the "oo" sound for u's in English, which is the way you're are supposed to say the umlat u. Occasionally you will see Zurich written out as "Zuerich" to indicate the pronouncination. /end German Lesson.
We check into our hotel, and realizing that the aldstat in Innsbruck is not that big, we decide to walk around. We walk out into the plaza and around the same area that we had wandered around looking for our hotel. About this time I look down the Hofstrasse, and realize that I'm staring at the Imperial Palace.
Bwah?
Yes, indeed, right at the end of this steet was the Imperial Palace, known as the Hofburg (which I can never remember. I called it the Hofhaus the whole time we were there). Butted right up against the common homes.
After wandering around we found the tourist office and got The Innsbruck Card. Again, a note here. If you find yourself in a city that offers The (Blank City) Card, buy it. With this card we had free transport around the city, free entrance to most monuments, and it was good for 48 hours.
We take our cards back to the Hofburg and proceed inside to retrieve our tickets. We are the only people in the whole building, so it seems. We walk up the stairs to the first level and encounter one of the most bizarre displays I had thus far seen. It was a 3D presentation of tapestries you read that right of the triumph of Maximillian the First. Seriously. It was bizzare. We watched until we were ready to puke from the 3D.
We went into the main ball room of the palace and I think that T was finally astonished by the size of this room. It was huge. It was painted very similarly to Versailles, and I was happy to see it. We walked on through the rooms and I could tell that aside from that very amazing first room, T wasn't thrilled. Neither was I, really. I had been in Buckingham Palace and Versailles and let me tell you-- the Hofburg had nothing on them.
We did however run into the royal "thrones" which I had never seen before. They usually don't display or preserve where the Emperor took his morning piss.
About then, we had managed to take up about 3 hours wandering through the palace, so it was time for dinner. We wandering back to the hotel for dinner, which was in the very neat little restaurant on the second (american way of thinking) floor. We sat down and I looked over and there were two dogs sitting at the table next to us.
In the US, this would never happen. But there's something different around European dogs. They aren't wild, their owners walk them off the leash everywhere, and they listen to them. These two pooches just laid there, happily waiting for their masters to finish dinner. I petted them before they left, of course.
The food was, as usual, amazing. We had Cordon Blue, made with pork.
T:"Are you sure that was pork?"
Yes, that's what the menu said. Schweinfleich= pig meat. Though I did agree with his assessment of this: by far the best piece of pork I have ever had. After dinner we headed out to the center of the town for some dessert. We started noticing, right about now, that nearly everything closed at about 8 p.m. no matter what day it was. So your only choice was a bar or a restaurant or a bar restaurant.
We found a lovely little place and sat under the umbrellas in the dark (because it drizzling on and off) and had dessert. We spent about 2 hours just sitting and talking when I noticed something at the end of the street.
J:"Hey. That's a gold a roof down there."
T:"You just noticed?"
J:"Yes, I just noticed. Isn't there something about a famous gold roof?"
T:"Um, yeah. The Golden Roof."
J:"I think that's it."
T:"I think you're right."
J:Looking and pondering for a moment. "That's most unimpressive landmark I've ever seen."
We went to bed soon after.
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