One of the top things to do in Innsbruck is to go up to the Top of Innsbruck, which is the top of Hafelekar Mountain, looking down on the beautiful city. Fortunately, the departure point for this adventure is right in the middle of the city, about an 8 minute walk from our hotel.
The “no mask Austria” policy came to a screeching halt here. Not only do they demand you wear a mask, but you have to wear a specific mask they call a FFP2 mask, much like an N95. My cloth mask was “nein, nein nein”! That cost us an extra 2 euros each, and they didn’t fit well, but they were psycho about it, which was so odd since everywhere else is incredibly lax.
The trip to the top of the mountain is actually three legs, and I have to say, the websites don’t do a decent job of describing what the 40 euro ticket covers.
So, the ticket covers all three legs, the first being the Hungerberg Furnicular which departs from downtown Innsbruck.
The design is pretty cool, and the Austrians are very proud of it. The same person that designed the Bergisel Ski Jump building, Zaha Hadid, designed the exterior of the furnicular stations. Geek mode activated! – I think she stole the design from the Land of the Giants spaceship, the Spindrift. I built a model of this when I was a kid. The below is not my model…mine looked like crap.
Did you know the guy who starred in Land of the Giants, Gary Conway, owns a winery in Paso Robles? It’s called Carmody McKnight. I went there hoping to meet him, as I was a huge fan of the show as a kid. He wasn’t there, and that’s likely good, as his wine sucks ass. I mean really really bad….as in how could you do this to grapes? I understand the local hospitals use it to induce vomiting.
Wow, did I get off track or what? Back to Innsbruck! Interestingly, the furnicular starts off by going underground to clear some roadways.
It then pops up next to the river and crosses a cool looking bridge. By the way, everything about the furnicular was overly engineered…I think the budget was unlimited, and they just went to town. As in “let’s make an Audi and a BMW furnicular…yeah, that’s it!”
You depart at the top at Hungerburg, the city where Suzanne Collins comes from….and you wondered where she came up with the book titles?
This end is looking more “Star Trek, the Next Generation” than “Land of the Giants”. No, I won’t go down the rabbit hole again, but I think it’s safe to say that Zaha watched herself some sci-fi.
The longest leg is next, the gondola up to Seegrube. If you do this, bear in mind that each leg of transportation leaves every 15 minutes, on each quarter hour. If you take too long to walk from the furnicular to the gondola, you are waiting another 15 minutes. In the below photo, you can also see the other option to get to the top.
The interior of the gondolas are quite large. I think they are limited to 27 people, but it wasn’t crowded in October. Note the strict mask wearing. Also note we are just over 2 hours from Dachau…so don’t fuck around!!
The last leg is the gondola from Seegrube to Hafelekar.
You arrive very near the summit of Hafelekar mountain. The summit is to the right.
There is plentiful hiking around the area, but the wind was blowing about 50 mph, and pretty damn cold, so we only walked around to a few of the viewpoints. Incredible views from the top!
This is the view towards the north side of the mountain.
Looking back down on Innsbruck. Keep in mind that I took this photo with a full blast of wind trying to rip my phone out of my hands! If you click on the photo and zoom in towards the middle (slightly right) you can see the Bergisel Ski Jump on the other side of the city.
That’s the summit of the mountain in the background. You can hike up quite easily if it’s not blasting 50mph.
One more view to the north. This area is called Karwendel, Austria’s largest nature park.
The view of Seegrube before boarding the gondola down.
We did a little more hiking on the way down at the Seegrube site, as the wind wasn’t howling, and it felt at least 10 degrees warmer. What a difference 1000 feet makes! Despite the lower elevation, the views remain incredible.
I liked the view looking down the furnicular track. Impressive how steep the tracks are in some parts.
I love the view of the river that runs through Innsbruck, called the “River Inn”. I had to check twice, but yes, that’s the name. Sounds like a hotel to me. Did they just phone this one in?
Right across the “River Inn” from our hotel are these beautiful homes, with the exceptional background view of the Austrian Alps.
Later that night we were walking around Old Town and two of the most notable features are lit up beautifully. The first is the Old Tower. The ageism in this place is extreme!
The second is the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof). Oh my god do the Austrians love this place! I seriously don’t get it. It’s the city’s most famous symbol, simply because it’s old, and contains 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles installed by Emperor Maximilian I to mark his wedding to Bianca Maria Sforza in the year 1500. The Emperor had this built to defuse rumors regarding Imperial financial difficulties….as in $3.5 trillion equals zero.
The big ripoff to me is that none of the roof tiles are original. As a matter of fact, only 6 original roof tiles exist, and they are in the museum. I think there were a lot of sticky fingers in Austria back in the day.
Tomorrow we are headed to Swarovski Kristallwelten, which is supposed to be pretty cool according to various internet sources. Thanks for reading!