Warm, Snowy Austria

We've finally come to the last post of our European Winter Vacation series. I now plan on blogging about our time on the Isle of Malta much more regularly and hope to post at least once a week (famous last words).

City of Innsbruck

Well rested, Allison and I departed Vienna for Innsbruck, located at the eastern end of Austria. While we were expecting a white, snow-covered eden, we were surprised to encounter the warmest weather of the entire trip here. At one point I didn't need anything more than my sweater and a hat. We only had two days in Innsbruck and I was determined give this new, European sport of snowboarding a shot. While Allison can report on the ski resort's panoramic mountain top restaurant, all I can say about this "snowboarding" thing is that it's interesting and exhilarating at times, but a bit painful. I honestly don't see it catching on in America any time soon.

Earlier that day we shared a ride to the gear shop with an Australian couple which aligned nicely with our Number One Rule of International Travel: Befriend Australians at every opportunity. They're generally the most affable and funny folk you can ask for, and we were happy to meet up with them later for some nice dinner company.

Home to the 1976 Winter Olympics

My boarding needed some divine intervention

Me in my usual boarding stance

The next day, bruised and battered and with a few hours remaining until our train departed, we headed to the Innsbruck Alpenzoo. We weren't expecting to be wowed, but it was just a short walk from our hostel and it actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The exhibits were all well done and many of them you could even partly enter. They have a wide variety of local (alpine) animals including a menagerie of birds, a bear, lynx, alpine goats, ibex, moose, and my personal favorite, a pack of ten wolves. We were fortunate to be observing them when all of the city bells struck noon, sending them into a howling frenzy. It was pretty cool to watch.

Moose impersonation

Smiles

Innsbruck from the Alpenzoo

Alpha Male

Alpha Male

Moon over the River Inn

From Innsbruck, we caught a local train to the resort town of Seefeld where we both planned on learning to cross country ski. We got the gist of it, and while two days isn't really enough time to learn an activity like this, we liked it enough that we'll continue once we're back home. We basically look at it as a way to keep hiking during the winter months. 

Our hotel was a wonderful, family-run inn where we were smothered with food. The breakfast buffet was full of any cereal, fruit, egg, meat, cheese, and pastry that you could ask for. They don't do lunch since most everyone heads out during the day, but they offer delicious cakes with coffee and tea in the afternoon. And as for dinner, well, it was the best home-cooked food outside of Mom Pom's kitchen. It was definitely a great way to spend the end of our trip. Aside from skiing in Seefeld, we made a brief go at snowshoeing (without much success, as the terrain wasn't quite right), soaked up the European spas, and all around just relaxed and enjoyed our time in beautiful Austria - a country we'll certainly be returning to in warmer months, yo-de-lay-heee-hooo!

I whipped together this little video (4.5 minutes) that gives a sense of the town and our time spent on the tracks.

Well as I said, this is the end of our Winter vacation posting. I hope you've enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed doing it, and I wish it hadn't taken so long to post about it. In the coming weeks and months we are we are planning on many adventures in Malta and beyond. Bye for now and thanks for reading!