AUSTRIA: INNSBRUCK IN WINTER
Capital of the Alps, Innsbruck is a city renowned as a winter sports destination, and not just for skiing.
Innsbruck is a city renowned as a winter sports destination, and not just for skiing.
It all started on the phone, talking to a friend about a girlie trip that I was organising to Innsbruck. “Well I can’t come!” she wailed “Cos you haven’t got a thing to wear?” I quipped.
“Cos I don’t know how to ski,” she said, embarrassed. This got me thinking that there were probably plenty of non-skiers who wanted to have fun on the slopes, but didn’t want to look uncool, so I decided to spend the first few days of my Innsbruck stay trying as many different non-skiing snow activities as possible.
Imperial homes and royal chocolate cake
Slinging my bag down at the Goldener Adler, a chintzy, ritzy atmospheric hotel where greats including Mozart, Goethe and Wagner have stayed, I head out to admire the view. Known as ‘The Capital of the Alps’, Innsbruck sits in a broad valley with towering mountains at its back and the swift running Inn River at its feet.
From the top of the 15th century Stadturm (city tower) with its green onion dome where guards once kept watch while the city slept, I recover from climbing 148 steps and sniff deep breaths of fresh mountain air. The view is ethereal: far below, the city’s tall buildings, with their window boxes of red geraniums and façades painted in sugary pinks and pastel colours, are as perfect as toy houses backed by snow-capped peaks etched sharp as icicles, into a deep blue sky.
Back on solid ground, it’s time for breakfast. Belying its sober façade, the 15th century Hofburg Imperial Palace, one-time royal residence of Maximilian I, is a baroque wonderland, with painted ceilings, stucco, gilding and glittering chandeliers. It’s easy to conjure up a time when the Habsburgs ruled supreme and Emperor Franz Joseph, Austria’s longest reigning monarch, waltzed with his beautiful wife, the Empress Elizabeth, fondly known as ‘Sisi’.
Café Sacher, inside the palace, is the best place to try Sachertorte. Invented by Franz Sacher in Vienna in 1832 for sweet-toothed Prince Wenzel von Metternich, this creamy chocolate cake, glazed with apricot jam and served with a cloud of fresh whipped cream, is a royal – and calorie-packed – treat.
With 18 wings, 19 courtyards and some 2,600 rooms, there’s plenty to see in this palace, which was the residence of Austria’s leaders for more than six centuries. I linger longest in the Sisi Museum, where a clutter of personal objects relates the fascinating tale of this carefree 15-year-old, who married an Emperor and was later assassinated.
Innsbruck’s old town keeps me busy for several days: it’s compact and easy to walk around, but it packs a lot of sights in a small space. Emperor Maximilian, who built the Hofburg, has an outrageously ornate tomb in the Gothic Hofkirche church and the Tyrolean folk art museum, full of traditional costumes, and reproductions of old farmhouses, is fascinating. Seeking something quirky, I hop into a carriage and jingle all the way to the Bell museum just outside of town. For four centuries, the Grassmayr family have cast bells here and you can watch them manipulating the man-sized chimes, then listen to them jangling in the museum next door.
Snowshoes and skijumps
By day three I can’t wait any longer to get out into that snow. Guide Franz is waiting for me at the Mühltal car park in Ellbögen. We swish up to the top of Alpengasthof Meisnerhaus on a snowmobile and Franz hands me a pair of raquettes. I’m pretty nimble on skis, but in frying-pan-sized snowshoes, I feel like an elephant.
“I’ll probably spend most of the time flat on my face,”
I joke. Franz tells me not to worry: “It feels really awkward at first but once you get used to them you’ll be fine and you can even move quite fast,” he assures me.
I want to take his word for it, but when I pick up my poles and lunge out onto the track, it feels like I’m walking in quick sand. Gradually, however, I learn to use my poles properly and lengthen my stride so as not to tangle the snowshoes, and soon I’m swinging along through the fresh powdery snow at high speed.
On our way back to town, my legs start to ache but I have just enough energy to hop into the funicular that whisks me to the top of Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid’s awe-inspiring Bergisel ski jump. For skiers this is a pilgrimage site – but even for non-skiers the panoramic views over the city and surrounding mountains makes it well worth the effort.
Try and make time to check out the Tirol Panorama Museum next door. The giant panoramic painting – 1,000 square metres – is a history lesson with wow factor – the attention to detail is quite something.
Up early the next day, I take the tram through the forest from Innsbruck to Igls to try a kind of cross-country skiing called ski touring. “Ski touring on gentler terrain is a great sport for beginners or people with little experience – we have more than 30 trails around here,” guide Johann tells me as I pull my bonnet way down over my ears and we head out over the crisp, cold snow.
Johann demonstrates the herringbone stride for climbing hills, and then we practise kicking and gliding without poles, and then we’re off, gliding up and down moderate slopes studded with bluish spruce trees all morning.
Sledding is another activity that locals do for fun. There are sledding tracks everywhere around Innsbruck, ranging in length and difficulty. We try our hand at it in Muttereralm, riding the gondola up before riding our old fashioned timber steeds down the four-and-a-half-kilometre track. The ride down is magical: rabbits scutter out across the snowy tracks ahead of us as we soar down between the stands of pine, fast as the wind, cheering each other on.
Moonlight sledding is another option, with the just under four-kilometre-long track at Axamer Lizum well-lit until midnight.
After all that activity, I’m starving: it’s time to try some of that hearty Tyrolean cuisine. At family-run Weisses Rössl, I tuck into the egg topped meat and potato dish, Groestl, followed by fluffy, caramelised pancake dessert, Kaiserschmarrn.
I spend my last few days skiing – I would be mad not to! Innsbruck has serious credibility in the ski world after hosting two Winter Olympics and the very first Youth Olympics for good measure. The nine resorts that make up Olympia Skiworld offer 300 kilometres of pistes. One pass links Axamer Lizum, Patscherkofel, Muttereralm, Nordkette, Rangger Köpfl, Kühtai, Schlick 2000, Stubai Glacier and Glungezer with Nordkette just 20 minutes from the CBD.
I tackle Patscherkofel and Axamer Lizum, skiing in the tracks of famous Olympians who made their marks on these very slopes during the Winter Games. I love the tree skiing and the views over the valley at Patscherkofel and the rocking red funicular, the massive covered sun deck at the architecturally-striking Hoadl Haus at Axamer Lizum. These two resorts are so easy to get to from town thanks to the the free ski bus.
My friend calls me when I get home. “So did you have a good time skiing?” She asks. “There’s so many other things to do in Innsbruck, I hardly had time to ski,” I laughed. •
Photography by Innsbruck Tourism.