Innsbruck, we know you're there somewhere

We left Slovenia yesterday for a six hour train trip to Innsbruck, Austria. It was drizzling rain when we left Ljubljana, but the rain soon cleared and it wasn’t long until we were bathed in sunshine. This welcomed change in our meteorological fortunes continued until about one hour out of Innsbruck, when things took a turn for the worse. The fog started to descend and the rain got heavier. By the time we arrived at Innsbruck station, it had well and truly set in. It’s a real pity, because the scenery all the way from Slovenia was simply stunning. The mountains are very steep, very high and very rugged, the result of glaciation in past ice-ages. The pasture is a vibrant green, and the cows all seemed very contented, and why wouldn’t they be. The myriad villages we passed on our journey were like something straight out of The Sound of Music (yes, I know that was Swiss, but they are almost interchangeable here).

Innsbruck has a lovely river running through it, but the rain has made it very murky

It is now the evening of our second day here and it has not really stopped raining for more than a few minutes. This is a real shame, as you just know that Innsbruck is a beautiful city with the most stunning of views. Unfortunately, our views have been probably limited to a few hundred metres. We can only hope that the rain eases tomorrow, if not, we may not even get the opportunity to take the cable car to the very top of the mountains – a definite must-do in this city.

Very pretty, but not at its best in the rain

Given that we couldn’t really do much outside today, we decided to take the opportunity to recharge the batteries, as it were. Fortunately, our magnificent hotel has the full array of ways in which to pamper yourself. There is the heated pool, which we used, the hot room, which we also used, and an area they call the ‘Well Being Centre’. This is basically a series of sauna rooms, along with showers and a number of relaxing lounges. What we didn’t quite understand at the time was that this area of the hotel is strictly sans clothes. That’s right, to use these facilities you are not allowed to be clothed. Just to make this clear, if you want the sauna, you have to remove all your clothing and be prepared to walk around naked. This seems to be very much an Innsbruck tradition, as the Centre is always heavily patronized.

Hmmm, what a dilemma; we definitely wanted to try the sauna and were we going to let a little thing like our birthday suits stop us – absolutely not. The other thing which was a deal breaker for Alison was that the Well Being Centre was the only place in the hotel, other than breakfast, where you could get a cup of tea. I’m not sure how many people realize this, but Alison needs at least three cups of tea a day, in addition to her breakfast. This meant that every time she got the urge, we had to shed our clothes, don the robes and endure twenty minutes of fifty-plus degrees in a room no larger than a garden shed followed by a cold shower. That’s what I call an addiction. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos for the blog of the Wellness Centre, well, we do have some but they are destined for a separate restricted site (lol).

A speck shop. The Austrians love their speck, which is a cured meat similar to prosciutto