Innsbruck; Saturday, 07 January, 2017

It was a very early flight, so thankfully I’d come down to Gatwick the night before, but even then, it was still 04:30 when my alarm went off and I stumbled through the shower, got dressed and headed for the terminal building.

A smooth journey through the airport, a comfortable flight and an early arrival into Innsbruck meant that I was already standing outside the hotel in the city centre at 10:30. They didn’t have a room immediately available so I left my luggage with them and went off into the city.

First stop of the morning was the tourist information centre to pick up an Innsbruck card which would give me free entry for all the museums I might want to visit, the public transport, sightseeing bus and some of the nearby cable cars into the mountains.

Just a short walk from the tourist information centre was the old town hall and its impressive tower poking it’s head above the tightly packed streets of the old town. As it was open for taking in the views I went inside and climbed the 130 or so steps to the top and wasn’t disappointed as there were excellent views across the city and the valley floor to the impressive mountains rising on either side.

Back down at ground level I wandered through the old town down to the Marktplatz in time to pick up the sightseeing tour bus. I did a full circuit of the route, including the 15-minute photo stop at Bergisel above the city centre, and stayed on a couple of extra stops back to the Hautpbahnhof and the hotel where I was now able to checkin and unpack.

I headed back out of the hotel and picked up the bus out to one of the many cable car stations near the city, this one allowing me to take the Patscherkofelbahnen cable car up to near the top of the Patscherkofel mountain to take in the views.

By now the snow shower was starting to get quite heavy and so there was quite a bit of cloud, but I was still able to excellent views across the valley over the city and to the sides of the Nordkette mountain range on the opposite side of the valley, though much of those mountains disappeared into the cloud, with their peaks invisible.

On the top of the mountain, even without much breeze the -13C were quite a bit more noticeable than they had been down at ground level, and with only a couple of return journeys left before the cable card closed for the night I headed back down to Igls at the foot of the mountain to pick up the bus back into the city.

I had a wander around the old town taking in the Hofberg and the square around the cathedral before heading back towards the hotel to warm up.

Having warmed back up in the hotel for a little while I headed back out into town to have some dinner before heading back to the hotel in a full-blown snowstorm to the lovely warmth of my room and bed for the night.