After having some fairly decent weather throughout our Autumn holiday, our second day in Innsbruck was a huge disappointment. With plans to take the cable car up to mountains to experience the incredible view, we woke to dark clouds and heavy rain.
city tower
We decided to start our morning with a climb of the City Tower with the hope that the rain would soon subside. The walk up to the top of the tower was quite enjoyable with its old spiral staircase and magnificent stonework and ancient doors and whilst we couldn’t really see the mountains, we did have a view of the colourful buildings throughout the town. At the top, you are able to stand on glass and look down to the spiral stairwell below – a little reminiscent of the glass viewing spot on Tower Bridge in London though of course no where near as high up!
nordkette
After our pleasant trip, we decided to just risk it with the Nordkette (or the Innsbrucker Nordkettenbahnen cable cars) as we really wanted to go up the mountain and this was our last day in Innsbruck. We walked across the river (which by now was dark with mud) and walked a long way through the main residential area to get to the station to take us to the cable cars. You need to take the furnicular to the cable cars but we crossed over the river and had to walk a long way down the river until we found a bridge to cross back over to the side of the river as started from and walk approximately half the way back again. If we had just walked towards the Hofgarten, we would have been there in less than 10 minutes.
Either way, we finally got to the Nordkette furnicular where we were able to take the short journey to the cable car which took us to the highest point at Hafelekar. The journey to the top is via two cable cars so you do have the choice of stopping part way at Seegrube Nordkette. Despite the fact that we could see NOTHING at all from the cable car, we chose to go all the way which would have been quite thrilling if we have even the slightest of views.
At the top, it was extremely cold. There was deep snow and a bitter wind so whilst we bravely stepped outside onto the mountain, we soon retreated into the only restaurant at the top and enjoyed a warming treat. It was hardly our most successful trip but what can you do when you only have one day and the weather doesn’t come to the party?
alpine zoo
We decided to try to make the most of the day with a trip to the Alpine Zoo on the way back. It wasn’t on our agenda as firstly, I am not a fan of zoos other than for their conservation work and secondly, it did seem just a little zoo so hardly worth a visit.
However, we did love this little zoo. It rained throughout our visit but we did see some interesting animals up quite close. The otters were cute, the brown bear was totally delightful, we enjoyed seeing the moose and the ibex felt like they could jump down off the rocks and join us at any moment. The zoo is home to over 2000 animals representing 150 alpine species including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish as well as a little farm. We has a surprisingly enjoyable time at this very beautiful zoo and were thrilled as the mist started to lift as we were leaving, allowing us to experience a little of the view from our high, mountainside vantage point.
Our trip back to the old town was much quicker than our journey there and we were able to enjoy a little more shopping and browsing as the rain started to lift. Along the way, we found an old restaurant at the end of Herzog-Friedrich-Straße where we decided to treat ourselves to a traditional Austrian meal. What a choice! It turned out to be the highlight of all the restaurants we experienced throughout our entire trip.
The restaurant building itself is steeped in history. Dating back to 1180, the original part of the building served as a defence tower. Downstairs, the restaurant is lovely and modern with light timbers and red checked table cloths but upstairs it is a different world. The Frundsberg Room (or Frundsbergstube) is a stunning, original room with ornate carved old timbers, intimate raised recesses and chandeliers.
I’m not sure if it was my confident request for a table in German (noting I only know a few phrases in German but made great effort with my pronunciation) but we were told immediately to go upstairs to this amazing room where it seemed only locals were seated. They clearly thought we were Austrians because they gave us menus in German and the other guests upstairs all smiled and greeted us warmly as if we were friends.
It soon became evident to us that we couldn’t understand anything at all on the menu so, despite the gorgeous décor, we decided we should leave. At that point the lovely owner/waitress realised we couldn’t read the menus and apologised profusely – well as much as she could because her English was very limited – and gave us English menus. We were so glad we stayed! Karl and I ordered the venison which was totally divine and Nick declared the chicken the best he had ever tasted by far. Everything was totally beautiful, the service as exceptional – and the other dozen or so guests all farewelled us warmly as we left. It was a wonderful last evening in Austria.