Andrea and I left Innsbruck on the 1st of July and are working our way back to Salt Lake. For our last day in Innsbruck we actually went to Germany. Mittenwald to be specific, which is just across the Austrian-German border.
We were beat from hiking so we needed an easier day. The train ride from Innsbruck to Seefeld, Mittenwald, and finally Garmisch-Partenkirchen if you go that far is a really wonderful ride. The ascent out of Innsbruck offers many great views of the Inn Valley and Kalkogel Alps, pictured below.
The train is almost always filled with hikers and cyclists. It's easy to throw your bike on in Innsbruck and take it up to Seefleld or one of the surrounding villages for a good ride. Long mountain bikes in the the Karwendel Alps are also possible.
Austria invests in their children. They have a strong public school system and provide a lot of great opportunities. We were joined on the train by about 30 students from a local primary school. These three were super excited about where they were going (Seefeld). Public transit in Austria makes such trips easy.
Mittenwald is about an hour from Innsbruck. It's has a bit of a more Bavarian feel, although that's not dramatically different from the Tyrolean culture of Innsbruck. It's a touristy town but worth a short stroll and maybe a stop for lunch.
Alternatively, Mittenwald is probably a good place to base out of for a few days if you want to visit Seefled and Garmish-Partenkirchen which are short train rides away and offer various hiking, biking, and cable-car adventures.
We elected to take a ride on the Karwendelbahn, which is a short walk from the Mittenwald train station and rises something like 1200 vertical meters at about a 40 degree angle from town. It's the 2nd highest cable car in Germany.
There's a brewery at the top (this is Germany after all) and some hiking and klettersteig (a.k.a. via ferrata) options. There are great views of the Karwendel and Bavarian Alps.
There is also a tunnel. The skiing from the top of the cable car is pretty much a no-fall zone. Apparently in the 1970s someone got the crazy idea to bore 450 meters through solid rock to allow people to safely walk to another part of the mountain from which one can *sometimes* descend safely to the valley below.
There's no magic carpet like at Snowbird, so you just walk for a few minutes and eventually reach the far side. There was no beer in the refrigerator (I checked).
It's adventuresome terrain at the end of the tunnel too, but I guess it goes. I'm not sure how often once can ski continuously to the valley floor in today's climate. Probably not frequently.
We eventually returned to Innsbruck and did some meandering through the streets that afternoon and the following morning before departing. I took pictures of a few things you won't see in Utah.
First, is the sidewalk tobacco vending machine. Chew and cigarettes right at your fingertips. Ah, freedom!
Acutally, one of the the few annoying things in Tyrol is smoking. Cafes and restaurants allow it outside and it's no fun when someone lights up at the table next to you. That said, there has been a noticable decline in smoking in Innsbruck since we lived here in 2019, which was greatly appreciated during our stay over the past four months.
On the healthier side, the photo below shows a free sunblock dispenser. This thing measures and reports the UV index and will spit out a bit of sunblock on your hand if you stick it in the big hole.
The base is an exhibit of the "climate stripes" made famous by Ed Hawkins and show the increase in annual global mean temperatures (blue cold, red warm). The Innsbruck and Tyrolean governments recognize that climate change is real, caused by humans, and want to encourage change before their glaciers and snow culture are gone. It was refreshing to be somewhere that recognized what was at stake.
Our final moments in the Alps were dark and rainy. Tyrol was shedding tears and was sad to see us go. We were sad to leave Tyrol.
We will be back!
