Innsbruck and the Golden Roof

We went for the day down to Innsbruck. It's about a 45-minute train ride from the nearest station, Kundl. People use the train system a lot more here, especially since gas is about $5 a gallon. (€.90/liter x 3.7854 liters per gallon x 1.247 exchange rate = $4.21/gallon - okay, sue me.) A train ticket cost about €35 for Valorie and I. It's also really flexible, so you can return any time you want, and the trains run at least hourly.

Once we got to Innsbruck we did our requisite sightseeing tour/unnecessary-bus-ride-on-the-wrong-route like we had in Salzburg. These things happen when you're in a strange land and can't speak the language. I'm figuring out a lot more words than I ever expected to in a one-week stay, though.

After getting our bearings again in Innsbruck, we found Rudolph's Fountain. I have no idea why none of the other reindeer have their own fountains (or songs?). We also stumbled onto the Arc de Triumphe, or Triumphal Archway. Apparently Paris forgot to register the name as a trademark.

Passing by the Arch, we continued to the Tirol Ferdinand Museum, which promised historical artworks. From our experiences in Salzburg, we knew that modern art is a nice word for pornography (I bet I get a lot of hits now), so we were looking more for some older works. Unfortunately, the museum is closed on Mondays until June. Or at least I think that's what it said...regardless, we couldn't open the doors.

We moved down a couple blocks to the Imperial Palace. By this time I had turned all map-reading and directional responsibilities over to my spouse, for reasons we need not discuss here. Well, you can't miss the palace, but although it had courtyards, walls, and lots of doors, we were unable to figure out which one actually took you inside. After looking for a while, we gave up, figuring it probably looked much like the palaces back home.

Next stop - the cathedral of St. Jakob, which somehow translates to St. James. Like the other churches we've visited this week, it was beautiful, ornate, very golden, and cold. We liked the cold, probably more than the gold. (It has been in the high 80's-90's this whole time here.)

We headed towards the main attraction in the city of Innsbruck, the Goldenes Dachl, or Golden Roof. An audio tour through a 1-room museum gave us the background on the builder, Emperor Maximilian I, but we didn't know where to go to see the actual roof. Once we found their other one-room spot for visitors like us, it turns out that you climb up and look out the window...and can't see anything. I mean, the roof's golden, but it's a bay window, you're standing in it, and you're looking at it from the bottom. What can you see? Of course, all of the people in the courtyard outside can easily see the golden shingles above our head for free, but if you go into the museum, you can't see a thing! Strange...

The Golden Roof was close to a Golden Eagle, so since Valorie and I are both USM Golden Eagles, we had to take a picture of that. We also climbed up the city tower - 148 steps - I audited their count on the way down. ;-) By this time we walked through the pedestrian area, got some souvenirs, visited a grocery store for some snacks, and headed to our next spot.

At the Swarovski Crystal Worlds Museum, we saw some really neat crystals, items made with really neat crystals, and items that somehow must have had a link to crystals. Apparently Swarovski is the top name in crystal jewelry, accessories, miniatures, and figurines. I never heard of them. It was a really neat place, though it doesn't translate well to photos because of the lighting. The coolest part was a large dome you entered that had triangular mirrors surrounding you. It was like being inside a crystal. Of course, since we were following a tour group of British youth, it was more like being inside a soccer stadium. I think you can get a pretty good feel for it if you follow the link above and take their virtual tour.

Then we came back and wrote this.