Farewell Venice, Farewell Italy

Today we packed up again to head off to Innsbruck, Austria. We had to catch a regional train a bit after 11am to Verona. Our host had organised a private water taxi to take us to the train station. Well, we don't know if we were waiting in the wrong place but we never found our taxi. Luckily we were right next to a water bus staion so we bought a ticket and hopped on. Venice was extremely cold this morning, but on the bright side the sun was shining. We had a 1 1/2hr train ride to Verona then we caught an Austrian train to Innsbruck. We were travelling in first class as they say the view is spectacular through Brenners Pass. I thought it would be a bit easier as first class isn't as hectic. First class had individual compartments and ours already had two people in it and there wasn't enough room for six bags and no luggage storage anywhere else. We just sat two of our bags out in the passageway. It all worked out in the end. We didn't have the window seats but on the passage side we looked out the window which ended up the better view and we stood there and took pictures. Once again near the borders we had the police hop on, but they only checked certain people's identification. We had other Australian families and a New Zealand family on the train. The view on the train was beautiful and exciting to see. We arrived in Innsbruck about 4.30pm. I was surprised it was still daylight. Innsbruck is surrounded by the snowy alps. It was about a 15 minute walk to our hotel. The kids kept touching & knocking every bit of snow they passed. You had to be careful that you didn't slip on the sludgy snow. We have a nice hotel room and we are all looking forward to not grocery shopping, or think of another way to cook chicken. We head out for tea and went to a place the hotel recommended. It was a quiet and charming place. Dave had a steak and I had veal schnitzel and of course the kids had chicken dishes. The food was amazing- it tasted so good. There was really probably nothing special about it, but so good to eat red meat. We have only had mince twice, other than that it's been chicken. In Italy there isn't much red meat on menus, mainly seafood. Dave and kids finished off with apple strudel. I was too full for dessert. When we walked to the restaurant it was snowing a bit then when we came out it was snowing quite heavily. The kids made a few snowballs and threw them. Brodie wants to eat, sleep and poop in the snow. By the way, crossing over the bridge we saw yellow snow, hopefully from dogs!

Photo 1 - View from the train
Photo 2 - Walking through Innsbruck
Photo 3 & 4 - Tea tonight
Photo 5 - Kids playing in the snow outside the restaurant
Photo 6 - In the light you can see snow fallingRead more