It's easy to make turns at an Innsbruck-region ski area until the early afternoon and then head into the city for a few hours if so inclined.
I'd never been there before and was surprised by how big and busy it is. For some reason, I thought that it was the size of Boulder, but that's definitely not the case. While it has approx. 130,000 residents in the city and roughly 300,000 in the metro area, what makes it feel lively is that it’s a regional capital (Tirol), a university town with more than 30,000 students, a major tourism hub, and it's compact and walkable. In short, the “bustling quotient” is much higher than its population suggests.
Here are a few tourist pix from a two-hour stroll through the very popular old town (Altstadt):
Below is the Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl), the most famous landmark in Innsbruck. It’s basically a ceremonial balcony attached to a late-Gothic building covered by a small roof made of 2,600 copper tiles, which is why it shines gold in the sun. It was commissioned around 1500 by Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor, to watch tournaments and festivals in the square below, make public appearances, and show off the Habsburg imperial presence in Tirol:
The bridge at the Inn River, which eventually joins the Danube in Passau, Germany. The name Innsbruck in German literally means "the bridge over the Inn" so there's your trivia for today.
You see dozens of people walking through town to take public transport to the various ski areas. Some were clomping around in their actual ski boots instead of carrying them like these two. It's convenient enough that many skiers and boarders without cars do it from the city; however, something tells me (and it was confirmed here by
@skiandgolfnut) that it might not be quite such a breeze (?).
Anti-abortion protesters. The sign says "Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women"
Counter protesters. The sign says: “Taking on male power networks and dismantling traditional gender roles.”
And now, the most important part of the day: lunch at Berliner Döner, a chain restaurant in Austria:
In case you haven't had one, a döner kebab is a hugely popular street food that originated in Turkey; however, the sandwich version that you see in Germanic countries in Europe was developed in Berlin by Turkish immigrants in the 1970s. When I lived there in 1987, I'd eat them almost every day for lunch. Basically, it's a sandwich filled with thin slices of seasoned meat (usually lamb) shaved off a vertical rotating spit, mixed with lettuce, tomato, onions, and red cabbage, and finally topped off with strong garlic yogurt sauce.
We have several döner kebab restaurants within a half hour of us in New Jersey and they get everything right except the bread, which is crunchy and salty on the outside and soft on the inside. Even worse, they sometimes make a wrap out of it, gah!
I've avoided meat like the plague for 39 years; however, starting a few years ago while in Switzerland I started making an exception for döner kebabs because the lamb has no dead animal aftertaste. The only flavor that comes through is garlic. Finally, for €6.50, it's the cheapest lunch you'll ever find. Lecker! (delicious).
