Beautiful Innsbruck, Austria! We both remember it as the location of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, so for us, it was always bigger than life. But what we found on this, our first visit here, was a city with a compact Old Town and lots of charm. The place name means “bridge over the River Inn,” and the river runs along the Old Town. The river has a nice walking path along it, and we took it to get to our destinations around town as much as possible.
Our hotel was in the area where many of the Olympic venues had been located — our bus stop was named “Olympiaworld.” The football arena across the street is Olympiahalle, and it is located on Olympiastrasse. We got the idea, for sure! Speaking of “our bus stop,” it was so convenient that our hotel gave us free bus passes for our entire week in Innsbruck. Apparently the city provides them for anyone staying in a hotel there for more than just a few nights. We just hopped on a bus whenever we needed. But, nobody really used the bus ticket machines to validate their tickets or tap on/tap off. Everyone seemed to get on and off at will. We wondered if any authorities ever pulled random checks to see whether people have passes or not.
The Old Town is the heart of the city. All of the historical attractions, restaurants, and sights to see are there. It is easily walkable in an hour or two. Everywhere in the city, the Alps dominate the background. Winter sports are what the city lives for. Even so, our weather was warm (upper 60s) and mostly rain-free. We were told it was a miracle that our week consisted of such gorgeous weather.
Sometimes we like to see movies in the local theaters when traveling around. In some countries, like the Netherlands, they will nearly always show movies in their original language, with Dutch subtitles. In larger cities in many other countries, such as Paris (where we saw Top Gun: Maverick, for instance), they will have some theaters that show movies in their original language. But Innsbruck, being a smaller city in Austria, only offered movies dubbed in German. So no movies for us there. We will have to wait to catch up on current ones.
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