18/5 Into the Alps - Innsbruck

Friday 18 Through the Alps

Very leisurely disembarkation. We snoozed then took a final brekky on the back terrace looking out over Venice. We gave Nyoman $40 for his trouble and wandered down to the theatre at 9am. They called us on time and we collected our luggage with the least ever fuss and hiked via the monorail to the rail station. J sat there while I went and did the internet and bought lunch (like we hadn’t had enough salmon recently but it was on special).

For the first time yet, our train had been allocated a platform more than 5 minutes before scheduled departure – in fact it was sitting there 20 minutes before. So here we are barrelling towards the Alps. There is a power point for laptops so I am recharging as we go. We just pulled into Verona – home of Romeo and Juliet. This train goes direct to Munich, where we would like to have gone, but for the mega soccer game tomorrow night (Chelsea/Bayern Munich) and no accommodation. Our next trip Innsbruck (Austria) – Mainz (Germany) has 2 changes, one of which needs to happen within 8 minutes!

Here I am prattling on. A couple of days ago I overheard some American telling somebody they always travel cheap, which is how they have visited 74 countries. This set me to thinking and I figure we will have done about 21 on this trip by the time we get back. And another 17 or so different countries during the previous 6 years. No wonder my passport is knackered.

In other gossip fresh to hand, we heard that some or all of the cruise lines will stop going to Venice because of the erosion caused by their bow waves as they cruise in and out through the 9km canal. They will still send passengers there, presumably bussing them from Trieste. There were 6 big ships in at once this morning, which must bring a lot of business to the city.

The other couple from our winning trivia squad had completed 50 something cruises (all with Celebrity) during the past 7 years. No wonder they know so many answers.

Our train climbed gradually up a valley that seemed glacial in origin, between steep mountains, broad flat bottom filled with geometrically precise rows of grape vines, all bursting out bright green. Just light dusting of snow on some of the peaks but a few small castles nestling up the sides and tops of the hills. A couple of very long tunnels and then we crossed the Brenner Pass and we are in Austria and the snow lies in broad sheets. Innsbruck is beautiful as a little city in itself and is also surrounded by glorious snow-capped granite mountains. They say there has been bad weather for 2 days but tomorrow will be 30c. Gezundheit! We had better get out there before the snow melts.

Catastrophe on the luggage front – the Epic suitcase thingy has broken 3 of the 4 wheels. Short term we will have to split the load and carry it, then we will have to either hire taxis to carry crap or buy another bag with wheels or a trolley. I got to carry J’s rucksack to the hotel (18kg) plus a small backpack in hand – don’t know how she does it.

Walked from the train station to the hotel.  Beautiful historic town surrounded by snow clad mountains.  Can't wait to go exploring tomorrow.

Our hotel Innsbruck Gasthaus is the pink one on the left.

J:  Found out this morning via TV that Mt Etna on Sicily has had small eruptions 24 times in the last 12 months with no obvious warning signs.  Thank goodness I didn’t know that before I went there or I never would have felt as relaxed as I did.