Well while you were all snoozin’ away last night, I hiked up 7,657 feet to the peak of one of the Alp mountains called Hafelekar. Well, OK, I cheated a little bit by taking a cable car up the first 7,400 feet but I hiked the last 257 feet! Lol. So at the peak I had to do a Leo Di Caprio/Jack Dawson pose because I felt like screaming “I’m the king of the world!”
The views up there were spectacular and it was a beautiful clear day. I couldn’t believe the large number of people that were hiking and biking all the way up that mountain. There were even herds of sheep climbing up there. I guess they didn’t know about the cable car option!
I did a little hiking around the top but really just took in all the gorgeous views. I could see how creative people could really get inspired to write or paint from up there because it’s so powerful being surrounded by all those mountain peaks.
If you look closely at one of the pics (the one with the church steeple in it… of course I had to get a church pic in!) you can see the ski jump at Bergisel across the valley that I went to yesterday. And for you beer fans, you can tap a cold one at the peak!
After hanging out up top for awhile, I took the cable car down to the stop where the Alpenzoo was. They claim to be the highest zoo in Europe and I believe it. I normally wouldn’t have stopped here but since I had bought the “Innsbruck Card” it was included in the card. That card paid for itself ten times over. Those cable cars rides are $30 and the card also included all transportation and lots of other museums. So I got a cool pic of two European wolves (who knew they had their own species of wolves!) that came up really close to me. They also had a brown bear but he was sleeping and I couldn’t get a good pic of him. It actually was a really cool zoo and it was neat how they had designed it to nestle into the steep natural contours of the mountainside.
So since I had the Innsbruck Card, it had one other cable car ride included so I took the bus across the valley to the other peak called Patscherkofel. Once at the base you had to take the cable car up two levels. It has a totally different view than the other peak. They both were impressive.
Well this is my last night in Innsbruck. Tomorrow I head to a small town they call Hall in Tirol. It’s only about a 30 minute bus ride away and may even be sort of a bedroom community of Innsbruck. I’ve got pretty good timing by getting outta town tomorrow because all the locals said the weekend will be crazy due to a big bike race called the 2018 Road World Championships. I guess it’s sorta like the Tour de France and all these bikers will be finishing their races in Innsbruck Sat. They’ve already shut down lots of roads and rerouted buses. Should be interesting.
And finally for you video fans, I have a few videos of the cable car climb and descent from the mountain if you want to see them. And for what I thought was the coolest invention (you gotta love these European engineers) I saw a self cleaning toilet seat that after you flush it cleans off the seat. OK, I don’t know which would be weirder, me videoing it (I did!) or you guys asking to see it (I know some of you will!) Lol. It really was interesting. OK… maybe I have been traveling too long!!
Hope everyone had a great Thursday (I did!).
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 