We took a night train from Prague which got into Munich early in the morning. We switched trains and headed off to Innsbruck.
As you may have guessed by reading our other pages, our high paced sight-seeing couldn't last. There are no major museums, and it is not a hub of tourist activity, non-skiing activity, anyway. So, we decided to take a little break in Innsbruck.
Innsbruck was a beautiful town once the sun came out and we could see the
mountains. We walked around Altstadt (Old Town) visiting the charming stores
and botiques we found there.
We went to a museum in town that featured folk art of the Tyrol region of Austria. Innsbruck is the Tyrol's provincial capital. There were costumes, tools, furniture and other handiworks on display. The museum also boasted a large collection of Christmas cribs. We'd never heard of them before, but they seemed to be ornately carved wooden cribs, that could double as sleds if they needed to.
For other sources of culture, we decided to see a movie. We'd already seen 'Men in Black' but liked it enough to see it again. It was funny even though it was 'Men in Deutsch'.
Speaking of culture, Innsbruck is home to Kaiser beer. Not wanting to neglect this important part of Austrian heritage, we were obligated to try some. We found that, much to our suprise, we enjoyed their "dopplemalz" variety, which tasted much like a molassas soda. We also tried a different kind, whose name we forget, but which had a vaguely familiar flavor. We eventially identified this mystery taste as a suprisingly nonoffensive artificial banana.
Now we were well rested and ready for our night train to
Venice.