We spent a day in Stams, a strange place. Our guide book
told us it was one of the ‘best known towns in Tyrol, where Kings and Emperors
took their holidays’.
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| An unkempt and lonely camp in Stams |
Planning to spend a day exploring it, we actually took 10
minutes. Stams is essentially a large monastery, a dry ski slope and an eerily
unkempt campsite. We spent an hour trying to find a shop but it doesn’t have
one so returned to Bertha to plan the next few days in the Tyrol.
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| Stams Monastery |
There was no reason to stay for a second day in Stams so we headed on to Hall in Tyrol. The aire, just outside the campsite at Hall was a delight. We were warmly welcomed by a charming Swiss lady who had us pitched, signed up for the next morning’s bread service and armed with local bus information in five friendly minutes of German chat.
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| Hall in Tyrol |
The altstadt of Hall in
Tyrol is faded but
charming. Its heyday was from the 1400’s when it was home to a flourishing
money mint.
Many of the old patrician houses still have decorative plasterwork
or frescoes, but you have to hunt them out amongst newer, modern facades. We wound up and down its steep alleyways on our own as the town was quiet despite it being a Friday afternoon.
We collected some supplies and walked back across the fields for an experimental gourmet treat of pumpkin cannelloni. The weighty pumpkin had been with us since staying on a pumpkin farm in Emmental!
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| An autumnal dinner back at Bertha |
Using the local bus service we headed into Innsbruck for
a day. Once through the large industrial and then urban sprawl we arrived at
the busy central station. We strolled down the wide and elegant shopping
boulevard of Maria-Theresien Strasse with its designer shops and multi-storey
department stores.
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| Maria-Theresien Strasse |
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| Spitalskirche |
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| Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse |
The historical centre sits alongside the wide, icy blue
and glacial river Inn. Innsbruck is the capital of the Tyrol and has proudly kept its heritage buildings by keeping industry out of the centre.
A wedding party was gathering outside the Goldenes Dachl on Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse – Innsbruck’s most famous building – the house with a golden roof that is
actually made of copper. It was commissioned by Maximilian I who wished to
dispel rumours of his money worries.
Opposite is the beautiful Helblinghaus
which straddles a corner and presents two sides of gorgeous rococo facades.
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| Smoky meats & chunky breads |
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| Hofburg - the palace of the Habsburg monarchy |
The winding medieval streets mix artisan shops with
souvenir stalls and ‘speckerias’ – small caverns that serve up a range of
sliced hams and sausages on chunky bread rolls. In the narrow alleyways the
smell of smoky meat lingers all day.
Alongside the wide and fast-flowing river
for some fresh air we admired Innsbruck’s setting in the valley bed and towered
over by the Tyrol mountain ranges.
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| Houses alongside the River Inn |
The Saturday covered market alongside the river boasted stalls piled high with seasonal veg, alpine cheeses, cured meats and (magic looking) mushrooms. We bought spinach Tyrolean Knödels for dinner.
Having climbed the steep, spiral staircase inside the old
town’s Stadtturm we had the treat of a panoramic view of the city from the
balcony of the onion-domed roof.
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| Rooftop views towards Dom zu St Jakob |
Inching around the narrow platform we could
see the palaces and parks of the Kaisers and Empresses, the now packed and
noisy medieval centre, and the modern roof terraces of city flats.
A surprising
feature was the shiny copper rooves and guttering of many of the newer
buildings. Copper clearly is not as expensive a material as at home.
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| Goldenes Dachl from below |
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| The copper roof shining in the sun |
Down at ground level another wedding party was under the
golden roof, Americans were (rather rudely) taking photos and recording on
their cameras and it was time for a very late lunch. Hot and a little weary we were gifted a
jug of beer each by an errant waitress in a busy beer garden.
We munched
sausages and sauerkraut watching wedding parties parade by on their way to
probably the busiest registry office in Austria. We didn’t query the bill and
enjoyed the free beer. Schuss Innsbruck!
