A Mitteleuropaisch Sojourn - Part 5, Days 9-10: Innsbruck

While Radhika and I are relatively easy going during our vacations, and tend to take things as they come, our friend, Ravi, is much more systematic. Consequently, he had a clear cut list of all the things that needed to be done in each of Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna.

Our bucket list for Innsbruck included travelling to Nordkette, a peak just outside Innsbruck, using the Nordkettenbahn, a cable railway system, which takes you from the centre of Innsbruck to Hafelkar, a peak that is 2000 metres higher in just about half an hour; the Alpenzoo, which was touted as the highest zoo in Europe; the Bergisel Ski Tower, where the ski jumping competition for the Winter Olympics was held; and the Swarovski Crystal World.

We decided to head out to Nordkette first. The Hilton Innsbruck is well located in the heart of the city, and it was just a brief 15 minute walk to the Congress building where the Nordkettenbahn station is located. On the way, we visited a tourist information centre, and purchased an Innsbruck pass, which gave us access to all the local public transport, and a number of key attractions. Needless to say, we did not proceed non-stop, but instead took our time taking a number of photos of the city. One of the primary attractions in the heart of Innsbruck is the Goldenes Dachl (or the Golden Roof), which was designed as a kind of Royal Box from where the kings could observe functions in the city. Personally, I thought it was rather ordinary looking – other buildings in the Altstadt or Old City were just as impressive. 

 

Some Pictures of Innsbruck's Altstadt 

 

 

 

The Goldenes Dachl

 

 

The Nordkettenbahnen comprise three interlinked cable based transport systems – the first, the Hungerburgbahn, is a funicular railway that starts in the city centre, traverses a beautiful bridge over the River Inn (which gives Innsbruck its name – bruck means bridge), and then climbs up the Alps to Hungerburg. The stations on this line are amazingly modern, and designed by an Architect called Zaha Hadid, who has designed a number of the impressive modern buildings in the region.

The Ultramodern Hungerburg station

 

 

The interesting thing about the cars on the Hungerburgbahn is that they are pivoted to remain horizontal even when the train is climbing a steep incline. From Hungerburg (which is about 800 metres above sea level), you take the Seegrubenbahn, a cable car, that takes you to the Seegrube station in the heart of the Alps, about 1900 metres above sea level. There is a beautiful restaurant here, which offers panoramic views of Innsbruck and the surrounding peaks. The final leg is another cable car that takes you to the Hafelkar station (2250 metres), which is just below the Hafelkar peak. There is also an amazing mountain biking trail that can take you down from Seegrube back to Hungerburg.

When we reached the Congress station where the Nordekettenbahn starts, Radhika suddenly noticed that Avinash was not carrying his back pack. Fortunately, he remembered that he had removed it at the tourist information centre where we had stopped to buy our tickets. I promptly ran back to the centre. I need not have worried, the bag was safely lying where he had kept it. Clearly, Austria can compete with Switzerland, not only in its scenic beauty, but also in the honesty of its people.

 

Avinash... with his bag

 

... And Without It

 

After this slight misadventure, we were on our way, settling down in the Hungerburgbahn on our way to the Hungerburg station. From there, we took the cable car up to Seegrube, and the next one to the Hafelkar station. The views from here were spectacular, and I will let the pictures do the talking.

Green Hills Lower Down

The Mountain Biking Trail

And Raw Rock Faces Above the Snow Line

There was a short walking trail from the Hafelkar station to the Hafelkar peak. Radhika, Avinash, Tanvi and I decided to hike up, while Ravi and Mandavi took care of Aryan, their one year old, who was understandably not keen on moving out of the warm surrounds of the station. After spending over an hour at Hafelkar, we returned to Seegrube by cable car, and had a meal (just Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce or deserts for veggies) at the restaurant there.

While the open air seating had spectacular views, thanks to Avinash’s aversion to smokers, we were forced to settle for the inside seating. If at all I have a crib about Germany and Austria, it is the absence of a ban on smoking in public places. Passive smoking is something that I am no longer used to, and as Avinash said, it is a noxious habit that stinks up the entire area.

After lunch, we headed down to Hungerburg, and decided to walk from there to the Alpenzoo, which claims to be the highest zoo in Europe. The collection of animals was nothing to write home about, but there was a nice kids’ play area, and Avinash and Tanvi had an enjoyable time there. What we found interesting is that they even had cows in the zoo.

The Path to the Alpenzoo

A Bear

And the Kid's Play Area

Eating Ice Cream Sitting in a Basket

It was late evening by the time we got back to our hotel.  Ravi and Mandavi had discovered an extremely interesting Pizza and Pasta joint called Vapiano, which had an outlet right outside our hotel. They had an extremely interesting smart card based ordering system, and live counters where your pizza or pasta was custom made for you. After the rather unappetizing spaghetti we had eating for lunch, having an extremely well made Aglio Olio was like heaven. We all concluded that this chain has potential in India, and for all I know, Ravi may be about to take their franchise for this market. Vapiano would prove to be our favourite dinner joint for the rest of our journey.

After dinner, Radhika, Avinash and I headed out for a postprandial stroll. While heading back, we spotted a EUR 20 note lying on the ground. We debated whether to pick it up, but decided that perhaps someone would come looking for it – and decided to leave it lying there. As we walked past it, a bunch of kids walked in the opposite direction, and the note promptly disappeared. I guess even the Austrians can’t resist the allure of cash lying on the ground.

Some More Shots of the Altstadt

 

The next morning, we headed out for the Bergisel Ski Tower. This was a bit further away, and walking all the way was not an option.  But instead of taking our cars and hunting for parking, we chose to take the electric bus. (Which is powered by overhead wires like a tram or train). The willingness of skiers to risk life and limb by jumping off this sort of a fall really amazed me. In fact even in the absence of snow, there were professionals who were “dry slope” jumping, which was something I had not realized could be done. From our  perspective, the views made it worthwhile.

There were Several Three Wheeled Bikes Racing Up and Down the Road to Bergisel

 

 

Some Views from Bergisel

 

 

After spending some time at Bergisel, we debated what we should do that afternoon. I was not very keen on the Swarovski museum, which I had heard was rather kitschy, and debated whether we should go for a long drive into the hills instead. But I was promptly out voted, and so we got into our cars and drive down to the Museum. Before going, Avinash had said he was tired and not keen on going anywhere. But somehow, he seemed to enjoy the place a lot, and ended up posing for numerous photos.

 

The Swarovski Museum - Located Below the Mound of Grass in the  Background

 

A Mitteleuropaisch Sojourn - Part 3, Days 4 and 5; Schwarz Wald and the Journey to Munich

As mentioned before, Basel is at the border of Germany, France and Switzerland. And as soon as one crosses the Rhine into Germany, one is at the edge of the famous Schwarz Wald, or Black Forest – the home of the Black Forest cake, and the Cuckoo Clock. Driving through the B roads of the Schwarz Wald is considered to be one of the great driving experiences – and most sports car makers like Porsche regularly offer driving itineraries through this area. In fact, one can rent a Porsche 911 from Zurich, which comes pre-loaded with maps that take you through some of the best roads in this region. 

Well before we left India, I had spent a considerable amount of time identifying possible itineraries through the Schwarz Wald. I finally settled on an itinerary mentioned in the guidebook by Karen Brown. We decided to look for a hotel close to Baden Baden, which lies at the end of the most famous driving road in the Schwarz Wald, the B500 or Schwarz Wald Hochstrasse, which runs along a ridge with beautiful views of the forest on either side. Expedia helped us find the Hotel Rebenhof, located in the small town of Neuweier, amidst vineyards, which was not too expensive, and beautifully located. We Googled the map from Basel to Neuweier, with various waypoints. The distance was 216 km, and Google suggested a drive time of just under 4 hours. This seemed like an easy drive, and we therefore were not in a great hurry to leave.

That morning, Maami, Jayashree and Radhika set out to make Pav Bhaji, which Avinash had been asking for. While they were busy at work, I went out for one long, last walk around Basel. By the time I got back, recovered the car from the Pay and Park, and we were ready to set out, it was almost 11 am. We had planned a relaxed start, but this obviously had become a bit too relaxed.

Our first destination was the town of Todtnau, along the B319. The drive along the B319 was pretty. While the speed limit in most sections was 100 kmph, I often got stuck behind trucks, which were driving at 70-80. Once again, the precision with which the truckers drove was amazing – as this road was not much broader than a single lane old style Indian NH – albeit with much better surface and signage. We got to Todtnau, and took a walk around the centre of town. By this time, we were hungry – and so sat down at an open air café, ordered a completely sinful Schwarzwald Sundae, and also ate the Pav Bhaji we had carried. As we were walking around, we observed a roller coaster like structure on the opposite hill. It turned out that this hill was a ski resort in winter, but they had also built a rail (called the Sommerrodelbahn), on which people could travel in single cars with the speed being controlled individually.

The Todtnau Church

Radhika and Avinash

The Sommerrodelbahn

Radhika and Avinash in the Bahn

We promptly took the ski lift to the top of the hill, and after spending some time taking iPhone pictures of the scenery, took the Sommerrodelbahn down. It was great fun, and after a while, I grew confident enough to take the curves at high speed, until I got too close to the slower car ahead of me, and had to slow down. Radhika and Avinash rode down together – and opted for a slightly slower journey down. 

By the time we finished all this, it was well past 230, and we had covered only a fourth of our journey to Neuweier. We therefore decided to skip our planned second waypoint, the Schulsee, and instead headed directly to Furtwangen, the home of the German clock museum. There were some road closures on the way, which was a blessing in disguise, since we were diverted onto some incredibly beautiful L roads. I struggled to drive faster than 70 kmph on these roads, and was promptly passed by several cars driving much faster.

Cows in the Meadows

Winding L Roads

After spending an hour at the German clock museum, we headed for the town of Triberg, which is considered the best place to buy Cuckoo Clocks. We reached there around 430 – and did not get much time to examine different pieces before the shops were all set to close down.   There are two kinds of cuckoo clocks, mechanical ones and electronic ones. Most of the shop keepers claimed that even the electronic ones were made in Germany, within the Schwarz Wald. We kept one of the shopkeepers beyond her usual closing time, and managed to pick up an electronic cuckoo clock, for a relatively reasonable price. 

Triberg

  

Next we walked down to the Triberg Waterfall, which was quite beautiful. There were long walking trails around, but it was already past 630, and we did not get a chance to spend too much time enjoying them. By the time we got back to the parking lot, the town was deserted, and we suddenly realized that we were still almost 100 km or 2 hours away from our hotel, and were concerned that the hotel may give our room away. We also realized that given the isolated location of our hotel, we should be prepared for the absence of room service – and hence called the hotel to let them know we were late but on our way. They told us that they would hold the room for us, but we would need to make it by 9 PM to get dinner.

 We then routed ourselves through a set of local roads towards the beginning of the B500 or Schwarz Wald Hochstrasse, which took us past a number of small logging towns down roads where we were the only car in miles. The Schwarz Wald Hochstrasse was a fantastic road, with beautiful vistas on both sides, and full of twists and turns. It was posted with a 100 kmph speed limit, which I by and large adhered too – even if I was repeatedly overtaken by cars and motorbikes doing insanely high speeds. Unfortunately, since we were so late, we could not stop too often to take pictures – this is one of the few images we managed to capture.

We reached the Rebenhof around 830 – and after quickly checking in, walked over to the restaurant. While the vegetarian choices on the menu were limited, the chef was nice enough to whip up something special for us – even though it was almost closing time. As we had dinner, we caught sight of an amazing sunset behind us. 

Sunset at the Rebenhof

The next morning, we set out for a long walk amongst the vineyards, and through the town of Neuweier. While we had until 2 PM to check out, we finally decided to head to the town of Baden Baden, and hence left the hotel by 1130. 

The Vineyards of Neuweier

After a quick drive to Baden Baden, we walked around the quaint city centre, and then settled down for lunch. 

As we were heading back to the car to start our journey to Munich, I got a call from a German number on my phone. It was from the Rebenhof – the cleaning lady had found Radhika’s iPod in our room, and they had called my India mobile to tell us about it. Fortunately, we were only half an hour away, and hence were able to drive over and pick it up. We thanked our stars that the hotel staff had been so honest, and considerate – it would have been very easy for them to either keep the iPod, or not bother to call having realized that I had not given them a German contact number. 

We then headed for Munich – this time using the autobahns instead of B roads. We first headed north on the A5 towards Karlsruhe, and then took the A8 past Stuttgart to Munich. 

 

There were numerous sections along the A8 where road work was on – this time I was more confident, and managed to stay on the passing lane with cars (which were going at about 90 kmph against the posted 80) instead of sticking to the slow lane which was full of trucks. The sections where road work was not on were a pleasure to drive on – the lane discipline was fantastic, and I was able to cruise at about 190 kmph. Even at such high speeds (which admittedly was faster than most cars that were doing about 160), there were times when someone or the other came barrelling down towards me, before moving into the passing lane at well over 200 kmph. While Google had predicted about 3.5 hours to Munich, the speeds I did in the fast sections ensured that we made it in just about 2 hours and 45 minutes. 

As we approached Munich, we passed the Allianz Arena (the home of Bayern Munich). Our hotel, the Westin Grand Munich, was at Arabellapark, which is in the outskirts of central Munich, and hence was relatively easy to get to. After checking in, we headed out and had a delicious Lebanese meal at a nearby restaurant.