The Colorful Town of Innsbruck, Austria, Innsbruck, Austria

For the day, we drove down to Innsbruck, Austria. The river Inn flows through the city center therefore “Innsbruck” literally translates to “The bridge over the Inn”. Innsbruck is the capital of the Tyrol and is Austria’s most important tourist region. What makes Innsbruck special is that it is nestled into the Tyrolean Alps and during the winter, it is one of the many popular ski towns people flock to. Last weekend we went to Zugspitze and discovered that we have a new found love affair with the Alps and are evening planning to go hiking in the summer. The Alps are so enormous that they span across 7 countries.

We decided to go because I’ve been dying to remember what I couldn’t. 15 years ago, my family and I did a family history tour of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. I remember most of the vacation, but nothing from Innsbruck. And surprisingly, even while we were there today, none of it looked familiar to me. Granted the fact that 15 years ago, I was a tween who was grumpy that I was being dragged all around Europe. Wish I could go back and smack that tween in the face for not appreciating that vacation more.

We first hit up the Hofburg Palace but didn’t bother going in. This is so unlike me. It just didn’t look exciting enough to spend the money to go in, but now that I am home and researched a bit about the palace (which I normally do before going and I’m pissed I didn’t this time) I wish I had gone in. I’m a big fan of Marie Antoinette and there is supposedly a painting of her, considering that she was the 15th of 16 children born to Maria Theresa of Austria. Next time! ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).