City of Bells

I didn’t realise this, but Innsbruck is the home of the worlds premier bell-makers.  Which explains a lot - on our first morning we were greeted with the sound of not only lots of little cheeping birds (we’re more used to racaus calls of kookaburras and Indian Mynah birds) - but church after church chiming their bells.  We loved it at first, but by the end of Sunday Alan said: dont know if I could put up with this all the time!

Theres a bell museum too.  We gave it a miss.  Think you would have to be an enthusiast to venture in there.

But what we did instead was just perfect.  I was grinning from ear to ear - this is what I have been yearning for - what I miss in Australia - A grandiose house with park gardens.  And no crowds to fight off!  What a perfect time of year to come here.  Schloss Ambras.  

Ambras Castle - the world’s oldest museum.  A magnificent Renaissance castle set in an English park!

We had lunch in an internal courtyard - almost deserted at this time of year.

We both had soup - they do them so well here - mine a herb soup made from the castle garden’s produce.  But - would you believe it - NO BREAD!  We were left slightly less than satisfied.  There was nothing for it - we needed to return to the Old City, to a certain little Strudel cafe that caught our eyes on an earlier visit.

Alan’s was potato and meat (which he said tasted like an old fashioned Cornish pastie).  Mine was a trio of poppy seeds, ricotta cheese and walnuts, served with vanilla sauce (not to be confused with custard - this is not sweet and perfectly offsets the sugary pastry)

Next on our list of things to do: Kaiserlich Hofburg - The Imperial Apartments.  All glittering gold leaf and chandeliers.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos whatsoever.

And so ... our final evening in Innsbruck.  A pretty little city.  We will hold fond memories of its intimacy.  So we finish with a stroll through the old city again, and Alan took up the challenge to climbing Stadtturm - the City Tower.  I knew it would be beyond me - and Alan returned with sore legs, so my instincts were correct, and  he’s going to pay for it tomorrow!

Great place.  Well worth a visit.  We had 3 nights, just 2 full days really.  Could have filled another day, rather than try to squash it all into 2.

Anyway - we’ve loved it.