German Adventures, Day 7 - Innsbruck

On Sunday we headed across the border into Austria to explore the city of Innsbruck. I was really excited to get another stamp on my passport - unfortunately for me, the borders are now open and we didn't even have to stop when we crossed. Bummer!

Our first stop was Schloss Ambras, a castle where Ferdinand II of Austria lived with his rather large family. The castle was pretty cool, with exhibitions of armory, tapestries, paintings, and all sorts of ancient furniture. There was also a group of peacocks that roamed the ground, including a beautiful male who was displaying his feathers proudly.

We ate lunch at the castle restaurant. Turns out, we had to go to Austria to get the best wiener schnitzel of the whole trip. It was delicious, and accompanied by yummy pommes frites (fries) and a cold spezi (coke/orange fanta mix). And they didn't just excel at schnitzel. Dad had the most scrumptious zwiebelrostbraten (rib-eye steak with fried onions) - I would have gladly switched meals with him! Innsbruck is home to a number of amazing churches, with beautiful exterior architecture and extremely ornate interiors. Here are a few pics of the churches we visited.

We also drove up to the Bergisel Ski Jump from the 1964 and 1976 Innsbruck Olympics. From that height we were treated to beautiful views of the city, and we even saw a skier do a practice jump, even though there was no snow! They ran the sprinklers for about 5 minutes to make sure the mats were good and slick, and then he was flying - so cool!