Petersontravels

The reviews on Trip Advisor were strong, so we decided to check out the Swarovski Kristallwelten site, regardless of the fact we’ve never really been exposed to their products. This is just 10km from Innsbruck, so it’s an easy drive.

Their products are all glass, and I try to stick to diamonds and tanzanite and other precious gems when I’m looking at jewelery. Well color me surprised! This place is awesome! This giant vomiting the Carmody McKnight wine is the first thing you see as you enter (if you don’t get the reference, please go to the prior post. Are you not reading these in order? Sheesh!)

A quick note. There was a sign just inside the door suggesting wearing a mask if you were unvaccinated. There was no requirement to wear a mask, so we didn’t. A lot of other folks did, but we follow the science, and nobody said boo to us. This is how it should be!

One of the first items you see is the largest hand-cut crystal in the world…I don’t know how they got this back from Liberace’s family, but nicely done!

This artwork was apparently done by Andy Warhol? Who verifys this stuff anyway? What brand didn’t Andy Warhol shamelessly promote?

Salvador Dali worked in glass…and used a coat hanger? Does not compute. They must have paid him a fortune for the marketing.

The next room, Silent Light, had an advisory to stay no more than 3 minutes, as the temperature was -10C. Where we live, we call that “efficient air conditioning”.

Yes, that’s actual snow. What you don’t see is me in a short sleeve shirt and shorts, and I was just fine. You can see them cranking out new snow constantly. What does this have to do with glass crystals? I have no idea.

The next room is the Crystal Dome, and I actually thought this was the coolest room of all.

Then there was a Wall of Infinity room, but I didn’t quite get the same effect they were suggesting, saying it looked like large cities. Maybe it’s a matter of interpretation?

Then there was the Ready to Love room. I don’t get the Indian Bollywood theme. Very bizzare. A video of the stairs was required.

This interactive floor, called the Ice Passage, would create blocks of ice as you walked across it. Creaking and breaking ice sounds accommpanied you as you traversed the floor. As Kim said, this place belongs in Vegas!

The next room is filled with large objects you are supposed to interact with and become part of the art. Perfect for Instagrammers! Kim is standing on a spot that says “best selfie spot”. Now we are giving them pointers on where to self-promote? Sigh.

This room is called Studio Job Wunderkammer. Reminds me of It’s a Small World.

Then the weirdly named Chandelier of Grief, which is another mirrored infinity room.

Yes, it keeps going! Then there is Eden, which was supposed to depict a forest. It was pretty cool, with large colored crystals in the “trees”.

The next room was Famous, and the below is supposed to be the Pyramid of Cheops in Giza. There is supposed to be a guy getting attacked by a mummy. Glad they told me what it was supposed to be….because I’ve seen this while driving through San Francisco. It does slightly resemble the Transamerica tower…

This is 55 Million Crystals, that is basically a kaleidoscope that changes very slowly and never shows the same colors twice. It was created by Brian Eno, who I have actually heard of!

Then the Heros of Peace, which showed historical figures in what was supposed to be holograms, but they didn’t seem that high of a quality to me, as in I really didn’t see much in the way of 3D projection. It was still pretty cool though.

There were more, but I’ve posted enough. You’ll have to check it our for yourself next time you are in Austria. The outer grounds were pretty nice to visit as well. These “trees” light up at night….I wish we could have seen that, but we have to get back to Innsbruck as there is food to eat and wine to drink…particularly the latter!

This is a great area for “kids”, as there are several play structures, a Merry Go Round, a hedge maze and a 5 story play tower. Kim had to pry me away! No children were harmed in the making of this video…

I would have jumped a little more aggressively, but I’m not sure when OSHA last weight tested this, and we have about 12 more days of vacation to go that I don’t want to spend in traction!

This place even has sheep! Kids love sheep!

There is a huge gift shop as well, and it has this really cool spinning globe covered in Swarovski crystals. What kid doesn’t like spinning globes!

This was a great spot to visit, and surpassed our expectations. This is a must do…and trust me, I was wery leery of this at first, so just do it. It’s worth it.

One last shot of the Innsbruck hills as we were headed to dinner. Such a beautiful spot!

Tomorrow we are headed to Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Time to check off another country!

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!