A Stroll in Innsbruck

Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria – at Hofgasse near the Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl) (of which the sides can be somewhat seen, right ahead, in the gap between the buildings)

Inn’s Bridge, I think that’s what Innsbruck literally means, a bridge (brücke) on the River Inn. I’ve always wondered what Innsbruck looks like, since the August of 1994 when a group of young, measly student backpackers (including yours truly), made a 1 hour stopover in the middle of the night at Innsbruck Railway Station.

We were on a 1 month backpacking trip across Europe. We had Inter-Rail Tickets which allowed us to go on unlimited train trips in Europe in that 1 month (good, huh?). We were in Switzerland, in …umm if I’m not mistaken, the city of Basel, or was it Bern?? We couldn’t cover the places we wanted to see in the day, and wanted another day in the city but were too stingy to fork out the meagre amount of cash we had, on some bloody expensive hostel in Switzerland. (Yeah, even then, Switzerland’s bloody expensive!) We decided to hop onto a train to sleep (all the trains had sleeping berths!), get off somewhere, hop onto a return train and Voila, arrive back at the same place we were the day before! Ingenious huh?

Anyway, that stop in the middle of the night was at Innsbruck, and I remember smelling fresh mountain air, at 3am in the dark, in the nearly empty railway station. We were there for only about 1 – 1.5 hours, trying to sleep, but since that night, I’ve always been curious about Innsbruck! So, here we are!




Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof), the main landmark of Innsbruck …Just a li’l bit of gold, and it’s famous. Wait till they see the gold that the Asians use on their buildings. Like in Myanmar!


Maria-Theresien Strasse, Innsbruck


Innsbruck on the River Inn - If it wasn't for the clouds, you'd see snowy mountains behind the buildings!


Hofkirche (Court Church), Universitätsstrasse, Innsbruck


Anu at the Rudolfsbrunnen (Rudolf Fountain), Innsbruck, Austria

Here’re the awesome interiors of the Innsbruck Cathedral (Dom zu St Jakob), one of the many churches in Innsbruck: -









Central dome of the Innsbruck Cathedral


The famous ski jump Bergisel, designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, can be seen straight ahead on top of the hill. The church on the right is the Wilten Basilica

Innsbruck was our stop, after Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, Germany. We arrived in the night after making short stopovers at Wieskirche (the Pilgrimage Church of Wies) and Oberammergau, in Germany. (I’ll post pictures of these in another posts, OK?)