Innsbruck, Austria

It’s a bittersweet moment that our two weeks in Italy has come to an end. We returned our rental car in Florence and spent the night before we headed out to our next stop, Austria. We are really excited to see Austria based on all the research and great suggestions we’ve heard from other travelers. When we woke up in the morning we packed all of our bags and then realized we were missing something very important…Tyson’s car seat (again)! We racked our brains trying to figure out where we left it. Marshall remembered that he set it down at a café that we went to the day before. He ran over to the café to check if it was still there and THANK GOD they had it (It was safely stored in their employee bathroom, yum). This is the 2nd time now that we almost lost the car seat and both times were just moments before our train was set to depart. Really shooting to not see if we can do it a 3rd time. Once all our items were accounted for we loaded up and walked to the train station about a mile away.

We had tickets for a 5 ½ hour train ride to Innsbruck, Austria, with a 17 minute layover in Bologna, Italy where we’d have to change trains. We looked up at the departure times waiting for the first train in Florence and noticed that our train was running 10 minutes late which meant we’d have to get all our bags, Tyson in the stroller, validate our tickets, figure out which track the train was set to depart and board the next train in a span of 7 minutes. The train ride to Bologna was a quick 30 minutes and Tyson really enjoyed flirting with the nuns sitting next to us. As soon as the train stopped we ran over to a guy that worked at the train station to ask what track our next train was on. It turns out the train was up 2 floors and separated by a long tunneled area. Since we had Tyson in the stroller and all of our luggage with us we couldn't exactly run up the escalator, so we went as fast as the escalator could take us. Once we got off we ran to the train, and luckily the carriage we needed just happened to be the closest one to us. The doors closed about 30 seconds after we boarded! Talk about a close call!!

After we got settled, Marshall explored the rest of the train and came back in a hurry. He grabbed our stuff and said ‘FOLLOW ME!’ The next carriage over had a private room that was not being used so we moved in there. We ended up being able to stay in that private room for the entire ride. It was nice and quiet and allowed Tyson to sleep for a full 2 ½ hours. The rest of the time we flattened all 6 seats down and turned the entire room into a big padded play area. We blew up a balloon and bounced it off the walls and windows for a long time. Views from this ride were incredible, but our #1 train ride of all time still goes to Zurich to Florence. This is definitely a close second though.

When we got off the train it was pouring down rain outside and we had a 1.2 mile walk to our hotel with all of our luggage. We sucked it up and walked the whole way getting sopping wet. We didn't even look at the forecast (stupid us) and it would have been nice to know that it’s supposed to rain the entire week that we’ll be in Austria. Dang it! It’s not even normal rain either, Seattlites have it easy. This rain is about 3 times colder than the outside temperature (50 degrees) and each drop is the size of a beach ball. Lesson learned…we’ll check the forecast before deciding where we’ll go next.

The next morning, even though it was still pouring down rain, we decided to venture out to the old town. We saw the Golden Roof which is the city’s most famous symbol. We also checked out some shops and cafes before heading back to the hotel. We asked the front desk where a good lunch place was and they recommended the restaurant across the street. We all shared the best lunch of our lives! It came with steak, chicken and pork along with corn on the cob, baked potato and an assortment of grilled veggies. The best part (for me) was desert. I had apple strudel (which you can find at literally every café and restaurant in Austria) with strawberries, whip cream and vanilla crème. It was heavenly!

This morning we woke up and it was still raining, but we decided to do a hop on/hop off bus tour around the city. We walked 10 minutes over to the old town to have a cappuccino before hopping on the bus. (Side note: We haven’t seen any Starbucks in either Italy or Austria so I've had to settle on cappuccinos instead of my usual mocha frappuccino. On the bright side I’m sparing myself a few hundred calories a day!) When we got on the bus we tried to hand the driver money to buy our tickets. He didn't speak English but tapped his machine and did the international ‘oh, well the thing is broken’ shrug of the shoulders. So we got to ride around the city for free! Sweet!

After Tyson woke up from his afternoon nap we decided to take the tram up to the Alpine Zoo. It only has animals that you’d see in the Alps. It was Tyson’s first time at the zoo and he loved looking at all the animals, especially the bear that was pacing back and forth in front of the window. Tomorrow we are packing up again and venturing out to see what the rest of Austria has in store for us. We decided to rent another car since we enjoyed doing that in Italy so much. So far it’s definitely been the way to go over trains/buses/planes. We’re really excited to see the Austrian countryside and stop in the little towns along the way.

Next stop: Salzburg, Austria