Petersontravels

We sadly left our newly beloved Val Gardena in the Dolomites and headed north towards Innsbruck.  Traffic on a Sunday was pretty bad, and every time we hit a backup it cleared without any noticeable cause.  I hate it when there isn’t a crash to gawk at!

Now that’s more like it!  Give me a reason to slow down!  No, this isn’t in Austria…good old Southern California.

We arrived in Innsbruck rather early, so we stopped near the Bergisel Ski Jump. First we took a hike around the mountain the ski jump is located on.  Along the way, this platform juts out over a canyon in dramatic fashion.

The Bergisel Ski Jump platform in the background

It took us a little bit of a hike to find the entrance since we went around the mountain top.  The wind was howling, so the ticket office told us the furnicular that normally takes you up and down to the top was not operating.  On the plus side, the normal entrance fee was discounted by half (to 5 euros each) due to the inconvenience.  Not a bad deal, until you start hiking up!

The Olympic flame and circles.  This was the venue for the 1964 and 1976 Winter Games.  All of the medal winners are identified by plaques on the flame platforms.

This site was used for ski jumping dating back to 1927.  The current building in the below photo was built well after the 1964 and 1976 Olympics, opening in 2002 for the 50th Anniversary of the “Four Hills Tour”, which runs in Austria every January.

Outside of the annual Four Hills Tour, the site is used as a summer training site for ski jumpers using the facility without snow.  I can’t imagine how bad the carpet rash would be if you didn’t land correctly!

This is the view from the restaurant at the top of the facility.  The food was ok, but they close at 5:00 PM.  What a waste of a gorgeous night view!  Also, when we walked in, there were signs about wearing masks, but not a mask in sight…not even for the staff.  Green passes?  We don’t need no stinking Green Passes!  Quite the shift from Italy.

Here is the launching site for the skiers.  How does anybody get into this in the first place? I can’t imagine.

We then drove to our hotel, which was an event on it’s own (but still not quite as scary as that ski jump).  I will say that Trip Advisor steered us in the right direction, as our hotel, the Goldener Adler, is excellent.  The location in old town Innsbruck can’t be beat, and the resturant and wine selection are outstanding.  They also have the best stemware I’ve seen on the entire trip…all Austrian Riedel!  The link to their Trip Advisor page is below.

Goldener Adler Innsbruck

One quick note on Innsbruck and Covid…just like with Bergisel Ski Jump, this place is WAY different than every other place we have visited so far.  Not sure if it’s an Austrian thing, or just an Innsbruck thing, but there are signs that say to wear a mask, but nobody wears a mask.  Masks are quite rare in stores and restaurants, as well as in our hotel.  Nobody on the staff is wearing them, and nobody else is expected to wear them.  Maybe they’ve just had enough of the bullshit theater of masks?  I don’t know, but I’m a fan!

Tomorrow we are headed up to the Top of Innsbruck!

 

 

As we were visiting Passo Sella yesterday we saw a curious looking lift going up to a spot on the mountain.  We decided to come back and check it out, as Passo Sella is only about 20 minutes from our hotel.

I was surprised we had to pay for parking at the top, but it only turned out to be a few euros in the end.  Motorcycles get to park for free?  I guess they figure the motorcyclists will just drive around a barrier anyways, but it just seems wrong to me.  These guys terrorize you at every turn, passing when they shouldn’t even think of passing, and they get free parking?

Here is what we came back up here for.

When we showed up at the ticket counter, we were told the guy selling tickets was “at lunch”.

Fortunately we only had to wait about 5 minutes.  Seriously though…come on Italy!

Here we are crammed into our “coffin” lift.  I know, nice selfie…for once!

Here is what these little 2 person coffins look like.

Crazy?  Yeah!  They literally pick you up and shove you into the thing!  I felt like a starlet on a date with Harvey Weinstein!

A view to the west on the way up.  You can see the hiking trail if you so choose to skip the lift.

The view from the top.  This stuff never gets old!

The view to the north was a completely socked in with clouds, so we had some lunch in the hopes it would clear up.  If they don’t have goulash and beer, it’s not a refugio!

The weather cleared by the time we were done, but it was only about 40 degrees at the top, so we didn’t stay long.

One last selfie attempt before heading down.  Not too shabby!

The views to the east on the way down are excellent.  Fortunately the coffin has a small window facing that direction so you can take an unimpeded photo.

Felt a little leery hanging my phone out the window…no way it survives a fall if I drop it up here.

One last view of a “coffin”.  Hate to be stuck on one of these for a long time!

We drove back to our hotel and still had some time to kill, so we tried to find the trailhead to a waterfall we could see from our balcony.  This is a viewpoint across the valley on this fruitless effort to find the trailhead.

We finally parked close to our hotel and found access to the trail to the waterfall.

Took some calve busting work, but the upper view of the waterfall is worth it.

Tomorrow we are off to Innsbruck, Austria.  We will sorely miss the Dolomites though….this was the highlight of the trip for us…so far at least!