Day 66: Innsbruck to Jenbach

June 17, 2022

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The one thing our small hostel room had going for it was a great view across the river to the mountains beyond. These mountains seem a lot closer than the (equally tall) ones on the other side of the valley. The mountains in the photo are not the ones we came out of yesterday.

The River Inn runs on one edge of town. It is so big and fast that it does not play an important role in the life of the town. That is, there are no beaches or riverside promenades. The photo shows the houses on the other side of the river, making them effectively not part of the town. They are pretty, though.

We knew we had time today, because the quirks of finding places to stay put us in Jenbach for tonight, a mere 46 km away. So we set out for a bit of a closer look at Innsbruck. The "market" is always a good starting point. Innsbruck does not have a big market square, with lots of vendors bringing in produce. But there is an indoor market, which is sort of ok. We had a quick peek at it, and I was also happy because the lady in the bakery there understood my German and did not have to make any corrections. Of course when you are sticking with mohn schnecke you can't really go wrong!

We set out to find the main downtown street, which is called Maria Theresian Strasse, and on the way had a look at the general appearance of Innsbruck buildings and streets. The buildings are large and often decorated, and it goes without saying that there are no modern skyscrapers, wide busy boulevards, overpasses, or any nonsense like that in the Altstadt. In fact, perhaps because of the holiday today, the main city streets were very quiet and quite empty. One thing that was present were delivery trucks, parked with uncanny accuracy in front of the best photo opportunities!

Maybe on other days this is a bustling boulevard.

Standing in the middle of sort of nowhere is Innbruck's version of the Arc de Triomphe. Here is its story:

From right near the Arch we could see in the distance Innsbruck's famous Olympic ski jump.

Here is just one building, but nicely decorated!

Here is that main street. Maria Theresa was Queen of Bohemia and Hungary and Arch Duchess of Austria. She ruled the Habsburg empire along with her husband Franz I, from 1740.

This kind of golden roofed building is not the famous Innsbruck Golden Roof one - that is coming.

Steeples just look great against mountains!

We can't visit every church in Austria, or even in Innsbruck, but the Spitalskirche is rather devoted to the Pentecost, something that interested us since it closed all the grocery stores we might have needed, last week.

The church has painted ceilings, which are always spectacular. Some of the frescoes are from 1702, but others were renewed around 1960, replacing ones damaged in the war. Many are said (in the guidebook) to depict the miracle of Pentecost, but honestly, I can't figure them out.

One feature of Maria Theresien Strasse is those hanging brackets that depict graphically what business lies inside. How about the McDonald's one! They are really trying to blend in.

One very popular business was this bakery. Dodie waded in, to supplement my mohn schnecke with a qwark kolatsche.

And so to the real Golden Roof.

This is its story:

Here is a more zoomed out scene from the Golden Roof - note the beer delivery truck!

We actually did check out a couple of additional churches, but are mercifully skipping over them, and a lot of other stuff! But one over the top one has made it in here. It is the Franciscan church. This has a lot of fancy plaster work, marble, and wood carving, but distinguishes itself with long rows of slightly greater than life size statues of knights and ladies, kings and bishops, and such. In the middle on an elevated platform is the image of presumably the Emperor. The whole presentation seems focussed on court and power. Even though, for example, in Salzburg, political and religious power were one, you did not get a sense of that in the church. It would be interesting to learn more about how these figures came to be here. Actually there is an adjoining museum that includes this church. A visit there would have been illuminating, but hey, we don't quite have all day.

The path out of Innsbruck ran by the river for a time, or just ran through flat countryside. There was a fair amount of twiddling, following the signs this way and that, and a fair number of brief on road stretches or road crossings. Of most note was the large number of cyclists on the path, and the now familiar conflict between the whizzing Tour de France wannabees and more normal folk. "Achtung!" was a familiar shout, from those who would not want to invest the extra weight in carrying a bell!

Within 20 kms of Innsbruck we came to Wattens. Wattens is the home of Swarovski, which is in Europe a very famous maker of jewel like crystal (plus other related stuff, like abrasives). In most towns there is a Swarovski store, featuring crystal jewellery. Because of being the home base of the company (and origin town of the founding family), Wattens has Swarovski Crystal World. We passed by here in 2014 and visited the centre. At the time I remarked on being surprised that rather than being the story of how crystal is made and marketed, Crystal World is actually an art exhibit, featuring installations that each in its unique way takes advantage of crystal and light. Dodie chided me for only being concerned with machines, or maybe machines and economics vs art, but anyway I was willing to give it another go. There was also the prospect that eis could be found inside, which would be my other main interest.

It turned out to be interesting and worth it, though I am sure some would label the art installations kitschy. Since light and to some extent temperature were important to each installation, visitors travelled from one to the other by passing through very heavy black curtains. There were 18 installations, or "chambers" in the show, and obviously we can't review or describe them all here. Not to mention that is was hard to fathom what some were about. So here are some bits of photos and comments, hopefully to convey the general idea.

People enter the presentation through this fanciful fountain.

The largest hand cut crystal in the world. 310,000 carats, 100 faces, from 1995.

A refrigerated chamber recalled ice crystals. On this hot day, it was great. People were advised not to linger more than 3 minutes.

Inside a large multifaceted globe. The camera really could not capture its detail.

The ruby slippers and Cinderella slippers

These were steps with scrolling messages

The display itself was dozens of "hearts" dressed up with crystals.

The Chamber of Wonders - a kind of doll's house

A video performance by a prima donna soprano, wearing crystal studded head dress. She was very engaging!

This reminds me of our Canadian icon Bruce Cockburn and his song All the Diamonds in the World, with the lyrics "Like a pearl in a sea of liquid jadeHis ship comes shiningLike a crystal swan in a sky of sunsHis ship comes shining"

Lots of stuff like this in the gift shop.

Beyond Wattens, the path remained flat and smooth, and the scenery spectacular. At some point a lady asked about our DaBrim visors, which is such a Usual Question. The lady, Elena, continued with other UQs, and showed a lot of patience riding along at our speed. I also asked some questions, finding that she was Innsbruck born and bred, and that she works as a German second language teacher. The conversation touched on many subjects. For example, I was able to learn what snow conditions are like here in Winter, in town vs in the mountains (streets in town are snow covered only for a few weeks, most likely in January and February).

Elena, was on her way to Kufstein to see family, and hopefully do some swimming tomorrow, when it is predicted to be very hot.

Our hotel in Jenbach was predictably up a hill, but the room is wonderfully large and airy. Even better, there is a quite large and deep pool on our floor. What a luxury on a hot day!

Outside the mountains wait. Our maps show a large number of hills, right out of town. But that will be then. Now is fresh air and cool water!

What gave Meaning to Life today? A swim in a cool pool after a hot climb.

Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 3,716 km (2,308 miles)

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Patrick Parnosuch a hot June. it doesn't look to cool down either. what luck to have a pool!
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