City Hotel Goldene Krone Innsbruck

... we had finished at the zoo, the sun was trying to come out and the snow had completely melted off the trees.

We caught the bus into the old city where I was determined that I was going to have some genuine Sacher torte so went to Cafe Sacher which is home of the original Sacher torte (it originated in Vienna). Sacher Torte is actually chocolate cake with a layer of jam in the middle ...

... where the snow had stuck. We then went to the Hofkirche which was the church which has the tomb of Maximilian I (although he’s actually buried in Vienna where he died) and 28 bronze figures that were commissioned by him. They are of people who he saw as being important during his lifetime, including King Arthur of England. The bronze was painted black as some stage although certain parts of the statues have been polished by people’ ...

... 2 dozen times...Merrialy we stroll trhough Italy and enter Austria...

At 4 AM, our alarm in the cabin goes off. YIKES!! No sleep. I am worried that I can not wake the boys. In thirty mins we are in Innsbruck. They both bounce out of bed instantly. Funny, they can do that when they want.

We are given a breakfast, given our passports and before you know it, we are off the train. They share stories about rolling ...

... with, which was most of us. Again, the trip was so much more than we expected and I'm sure we got more than double our money's worth. We found our train easily and had a good trip back to Vienna. We had just enough time to have some lunch and we then caught the train to Innsbruck, arriving here at 6.30pm. The hotel is only a ten minute walk however with our cases, we spoilt ourselves and took a taxi. We are planning to visit the Crystal ...

This was a lovely little place we stopped at on the bus tour to the castles. Unfortunately, being Sunday, most everything was shut (except for the souvenir shops that is). They have a woodcarving school there that I plan to stop at for a weeklong course on the next trip. But of course it was shut that ...

... as well as our friend Christine, a fellow Aussie who we met in Egypt - and of course, be given a very-in-your-face refresher course in 20th century history. More on that next time. Until then, Chris and Caroline P.S. Leah: Happy Birthday for the other day ...

... but in the end decided to see if she began to improve over the weekend now that it was a lot cooler and she would be able to sleep properly again. She has turned into a cuddly girl at the moment, and still doesn't want to play. Jess has found some new friends, or should I say surrogate grandparents. Next to us, is a wonderful English couple on their way home from Italy too, who Jess keeps going to visit, and chat too, and pick wild strawberries with! They are lovely ...

... you will have a great time!!!! then on my way and i caught the about 2 some hour train from Munich to Innsbruck....WOW beautiful!!!! the town is surrounded by snow capped mountains...simply stunning. so i set out to find a bed and breakfast recommended in my guide book as the hostel was supposed to be a bit of a way out of town....walked there and they were booked...she gave me a couple of places to call...but i still have trouble with pay phones abroad so i didn't ...

Another work conference for my parents brought us to Oberammergau for a week. We stayed in the cutest little wooden cottage - like the whole thing ceiling to floor and including flowering window boxes was made out of wood! Totally picturesque like you've read about in Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Aromatic town bakery. Absolutely enchanting.

Sadly, I dont remember much about Austria. Too bad because I have read so much about it lately as the music and art centre of Europe in the 1700s, I'd love to check that out.
I asked my dad recently if we had been there before. He said, 'oh yes, many times, we loved it'. Hmm, what a pity. I suppose it still counts because the images of scenery must be in my mind somewhere... curse this short memory of mine!