Salzburg to Innsbruck

At this time of year we have to expect some less than perfect weather and Salzburg was rather foggy so there was not much point in going up to the castle. We contented ourselves with wandering the streets of Mozart, shopping and eating rather decadent finger food with spritz in the Carpe Diem cafe. It is a lovely city with a charming Old Town which is looking very ready for Christmas. In the morning we took the short drive to Berchtesgaden and the Konigsee (Kings Lake), the boat ride to St. Bartholoma is delightful and the fog lifted in time to see some beautiful Alpine scenery like this at Hintersee.

We cannot help but be impressed with Austria, the scenery is obvious but everything else is also so different from Southern Europe: the language and food of course but the streets are so orderly, clean and in good repair. Rubbish is the exception rather than the rule and the farms are immaculate, not littered with rusty equipment. You do not see unfinished buildings and abandoned cars and everyone is working. I suppose that's what you get when people pay their taxes! It was a gorgeous drive to Innsbruck, we stayed at Igls, a ski area just south of the city. This is where Clare first learned to ski and we stayed in the same Sporthotel as the family did almost 50 years ago. In the evening we ventured down into the city where the Christmas season is already in full swing, like Salzburg the Old Town is charming.

Innsbruck sits in a valley completely surrounded by mountains but there is another dominating feature and that is the Bergisel Skijuming Stadium which sits on a hill. Formed at the end of a glacial moraine it appears to rise almost from the city center and at night it is illuminated to good effect. The last Winter Olympics was here in 1976 (Franz Klammer, 4 gold medals)and this stadium has since been reconstructed and it is an extraordinary place to visit. If you have ever stood at the top of a ski jump it is a frightening prospect. I don't know if the architect Zaha Hadid intended to make it even more so but as the jumper stares down the 98 meter long inrun and the 28,000 spectators surrounding the landing area the first thing he sees beyond that is the graveyard!