Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria pt II

Day 36:

This morning we took full advantage of the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Which, of course, means Jason had a plate full of smoked salmon and eggs... After checking out, we went across town to our airbnb for the night to drop off our increasingly large collection of items.

Free from the weight of another human on our backs, we did what we do best: semi-organized wandering. We ended up at a few souvenir shops, where Danielle had her heart broken by the lack of this little yodeler bear. But then we were on to the old buildings soon enough. On the south side of town, we came upon the Wiltener Basilika and Stift Wilten. The Basilica is the oldest church in the city, with the first being built during the 5th century. The current is from the mid 1700s, designed in a completely different style than we have seen thus far. It is apparently called rococo, a sort of subset of baroque that is seen pretty consistently throughout Innsbruck. Unfortunately, the church was closed for the day, but the outside was interesting enough to see and CLEARLY there are enough churches to see... the Stift Wilten is a monastery built on the ruins of a 4th century Roman castle. And then according to legend, get this... in 880 a giant beat another giant in a battle, then was converted to Christianity by a monk, he felt bad for killing so wanted to build a monastery. The devil didn't like that, so he sent a dragon to stop the building. The giant killed the dragon, cut out its tongue, and finished the building. In reality, it was built sometime before 1138, when it is first on record to exist. We like the legend better, so why not.

This brings us to our next point... dragons were real. Honestly, how would different cultures all over the world somehow have made up the same exact creature to use in their myths? It would've taken months, assuming somehow they knew where to go, for them to reach each other. Then there are language boundaries, somehow showing peace, spreading your mythology with others... no way. Dragons were real.

Moving on. We walked toward Old Town, or Altstadt, and were greeted by Triumphpforte, the giant arch we posted a picture of yesterday. It was built in the 1700s to celebrate the marriage of an Austrian archduke and a Spanish princess. Its a pretty amazing sight, and even more interesting when you find out that it was built from salvaged stone from the Roman settlement that was on the land over a millinium before. That explains a lot about the obsession with recycling here.

We made our way into the old town along our friend the archduke's empress mama's street, Maria Theresien Straße. Its a street from the 13th century and honestly just looks cool. In the middle of the street is Annasäule, this big column erected in 1704 to commemorate kicking the Bavarian troops out of Tirol. Next was Goldenes Dachl, or Golden Roof. It is just that, a balcony at the end of Old Town with golden roof tiles. People were losing their minds over it. It was built in 1500 as medieval box seats for the emperor and his wife. They would watch festivals or whatever was going on in the city center from there, but it was really just a way to show off the wealth of the Empire.

Next we saw the Stadtturm, or the City Tower. It had the same gothic roof shape as the churches in the area have, but instead of a place of prayer, it was used as a guard tower to protect the city against attacks. Being built in 1450, it was inpressively tall at 51 meters. Still in the small area of Old Town, a certain part of one of the buildings stuck out to us. Turns out it stands out to a lot of people as it is listed as one of the attractions of the city, The Helblinghaus. It was one of the 15th century townhouses, but it had been worked on through the following centuries, adding details of different architectual styles. It was finally completed in 1732, with a white exterior and intricate gold detailing made to catch the sunlight. Strangely, its current name comes from an owner from the early 1800s....

Heading through an old alleyway, we stumbled upon Dom St Jakob. Yes, another church. This one was from the early 18th century, in the crazy guilded baroque style. Absolutely beautiful. And the same story that we've see so often, a church has occupied that exact spot for over 900 years. That's such a difficult number to put into perspective! Anyway, this church knew it was pretty, so they charged a euro to take pictures in it. We went for it, figuring it was just a euro and it would go to a good cause. We ASSUMED that meant that WE could take pictures... we were wrong. A man came rushing up to us and said "eine Person, eine Kamera" in that stern German way. We got the message. Therefore we don't have cellphone pictures inside...

We went through another old alley, and side note, these alleys look like giant versions of cartoon mouse holes in the side of these buildings. Just to put a image with it. Anyway, we made it to the Imperial Gardens. Trees, ponds with lilly pads, wide lawns, ivy covered gates... amazing, of course! There were massive amounts of construction that actually made us completely miss the Hofkirche. Its a mid 1500s church that is both eerie and amazing. It would have been nice to see, but hey, we need a reason to go back anyway!

We enjoyed our snack of pretzel rolls and peach tea sitting in Bozner Platz, admiring Rudolphsbrunnen. Its so cool to find out afterwards that the interesting looking fountain we had a cheap lunch by was built to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Tirol's union with Austria... over 150 years ago. This was also the location for our most recent "dragons are real" conversation, even though the sculptures were totally griffins. A little worn down from 5 weeks of travelling, we headed home early today. After threatening all day, on the way it sprinkled... we guess that's how you would describe it. There weren't very many drops, but each drop was like an ounce of liquid, so the pavement was soaked in a matter of minutes. So weird.

And now, comfortable in bed, the rain is going crazy outside. No need for a white noise app tonight!Read more