We leave Munich on Thursday, September 12th and walk to Hauptbahnhof, the main train station. As the track finally shows on the main information board, we head off to Track 27 to catch our train to Innsbruck. We have opted to take the slower scenic train (3 hours) vs a high speed train (1 1/2 hrs). We enter the 1st class section, however only a few seats and they are already taken. We find one of the stewards from the train company and ask him about the first class and he simply shrugs his shoulders. Seats are not assigned on these local trains. He takes us into the 2nd class and asks a gentleman to move so that the four of us could sit together. Thought this was very good of him. We have also brought our own sandwiches on board as no dining car on these local trains.

Beautiful rolling countryside along the way. Many school kids getting on and off the train. We are in rural areas so imagine that they must have to go to larger centres for school. Many stops along the way, a nice relaxing way to travel.

TYROL HISTORY

We will be spending time in the Tyrol regions of Austria and Germany so thought I should write a little of the history of this region. I have written about Austrian history in a previous blog from a few years ago.

Some of the following is excerpts from one of my guide books:

” Despite its difficult Alpine terrain, the Tyrol area has been settled since the neolithic age.”

Some of you might remember reading about about a 5400 year old body of a man that was found preserved in ice in the Alps. This substantiates the claim.

Tyrol fell to the Habsburg’s in 1363, but it wasn’t until the rule of Emperor Maximillian (1490-1519) (we will visit one of his castles later in our travels) that the province made progress. He transformed Innsbruck into the administrative and cultural capital. An interesting fact is that Maximillian drew up the Landibell legislation allowing Tyrolleans to defend their own borders, thus creating the Schutzen (marksmen and militia) who apparently still exist today. In the mid 1600’s the rule of the Tyrol area was taken over directly by Vienna. This is the fact that I find interesting…in 1703 the Bavarians attempted to capture Tyrol in the War of the Spanish Succession in alliance with the French. My research tells me that when they reached the Brenner pass, they were beaten back the the Schutzen….yeah!

“In 1919 a treaty divided the Tyrol region. The south Tyrol area was eded to Italy and East Tyrol became isolated…..wait…..this isn’t as bad as it seems. A staunch ally of Mussolini, Hitler did not claim back the Tyrol region. In the aftermath of WWll, Tyrol was divided into zones occupied by Allied forces until Austria claimed neutrality in 1955. Since then, the country has enjoyed peace and prosperity. “In this part of the Tyrol region, the main income source is from tourism.

We arrive in Innsbruck and walk across a plaza and find the car rental agency. The vehicle is very comfortable for the four of us. Robin and I will be sharing the driving. The young lady from the car rental asks us where we are going and she says she will set up the GPS for us; changing language and entering the address of our apartment. While she is doing this I am watching her and she keys in the address; “Broch Weg 9” and nothing comes up for her. I tell her I was able to get that address on my maps program on my phone. She uses her phone to find the address and she keys in “Hermann Broch Weg 9”. I question her, but she assures me this is correct.

We head off. Robin is driving and I am navigating with help of the GPS. We are on the Autobahn heading out of Innsbruck and we arrive at the address. We park in the parking pad in front of the apartment, Hermann Broch Weg 9, but something just doesn’t seem right. There is no lock box and I remember that the outside doesn’t look anything like the pictures on the website. I run back to the main road to check the address. In the interim, the neighbour next door asks what we are doing. Robin is trying to explain that we are looking for the apartment we have rented. I arrive and ask her if there is a difference between Broch Weg and Hermann Broch Weg. Her english isn’t that good, but she smiles and says yes…..we are on the wrong side of the mountain. Tels West vs Tels East (Mosern).

We get back in the car, I get my phone and key in the right address. We head off and have to go over the mountain using a very windy road with many switchbacks. We finally arrive at the right place. We get parked and we are looking for a lock box that should be on the main door of the building. Finally dawns on me that it is a key pad and not a lock box. Get in the building and we go down the hall to the apartment with the symbol I had seen on the website and there is a lock mechanism on the door handle. The landlords instructions had mentioned this. I try keying in the code twice and it doesn’t work….ok, what is wrong. Oh! We are in front of door number 1, we need door number 7. OK, not the best day of finding places, but we finally get in.

A beautiful alpine apartment overlooking a valley and we are only 30 minutes northwest from Innsbruck; but feels like a world away. The altitude here is 1,237 metres. We are surrounded by the Wetterstein and Karwendel Alps. We are in a very small town called Mosern, Austria and the next town which is 5 kms away by car is Seefeld with a population of 3300. This area is known for cross country skiing over downhill; although a ski resort does exist in Seefeld. In the winter there is some 270 kms of groomed cross country ski trails. Seefeld also co-hosted the Olympic Games in 1964 and 1976.

We get settled in our apartment and then drive to Seefeld to get groceries for the next few days. Seefeld is such a beautiful little town. We are in the Tyrol area of Austria; and as my guide book says…”being in the Alps with a big blue sky overhead makes you glad to be alive”.

The next morning we head off back to Seefeld and make our way to Rosshutte Bergbahnen the ski and hiking area of this area. We take a funicular which starts from the bottom of the hill at 1,230 meters and goes to the mid station at 1,760 meters. Here we stop for a coffee/tea.

Robin and I take a gondola to Seefelder Joch at the top station on the mountain at 2,064 meters. One can take a hike up the ridge of the mountain, but we are really not properly equipped to do so. We take in the views then start our descent by foot back to the mid station. Quite a narrow gravel path, so encounter some slipping. We finally make it down. We then proceed to the bottom of the hill by taking the funicular.

We stop in Seefeld for lunch and a stroll around the town. Mostly German and Austrian tourists around; all hiking. Lovely dinner out at a small local restaurant in Mosern.

The next morning we head out early to visit the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles in Fussen, Germany some 2 hours away. Denis had booked tickets before we left on this trip. Drive through a mountain pass, very picturesque. We need to pick up our tickets by 10:55 am and they say if you don’t pick them up in time, you forfeit your visit. We stand in the reservations line and get our tickets within five minutes. Our tickets indicate we visit one castle at 11:30 am and the other at 2:45. Glad we reserved our tickets ahead of time. The line up to get tickets for those who had not reserved was very long, and the information boards indicated that next visits to castles were late in the afternoon. Would hate to see what this place is like in the summer.

We have time to stop for coffee, then walk up to the Hohenschwangau castle. We arrive a little early so we visit the gardens and then sit in the courtyard till our tour number is called. It is an electronic system with a display board that shows when your tour can enter. Your ticket has a tour number and a bar code. Once your number is called you scan your ticket and are allowed through the turnstile. We are met by our English speaking guide and there are about twenty five people. A tour takes place every five minutes; a well oiled machine at work. The castle was built by Maximillian 11 atop a 12th century ruin and was his hunting and summer castle. It is built above a small lake. It took only four years to build this castle. Unfortunately one is not allowed to take pictures in either castle. Our guide is very informative and relays some interesting stories of the family. We tour the various furnished rooms (original furniture) and the guide points out interesting paintings and pieces of furniture….an antique wheelchair and the first elevator (built by Siemens of course, a German company). Richard Wagner, the famous composer spent a lot of time at Hohenschwangau and apparently it is here where he composed the famous “Wedding March”.

As this was a summer castle there was little need of heat, but if it was required there were ceramic stoves for heating. In the walls there were hidden corridors that led to these stoves. Servants would crawl through these small corridors with wood to feed the ceramic ovens. The royalty did not want to be bothered by servants coming into the rooms. The guide tells us that the servants could probably hear everything that was happening in the rooms as they were preparing the stoves….she tells us that the saying “The Walls have ears” comes from this practice. Interesting, I had never heard this. Another interesting story is that the beds were shorter than they are today. The people of the time did not want to lay flat in a bed as they may mistaken as being “dead”. So they would lay in bed in an upright position, therefore the beds did not have to be as long.

Our tour last about 35 minutes, then we have time for lunch and we opt to take a bus up the road for our tour of the Neuschwanstein castle.

They say that Neuschwanstein Castle was the model for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. The castle was the dream of King Ludwig 11, the son of Maximillian. The two castles we visited are in the same vicinity and apparently King Ludwig watched the building of Neuschwanstein from his rooms in Hohenschwangau. He started having the castle built in 1869. Neuschwanstein took seventeen years to build and was never really finished. Ludwig only resided in the castle for 170 days before his death. Although the palace was made to look like a medieval palace, there were many modern facilites. Hot air heating, internal phones and running water. The various rooms in the castle that we toured were meant to showcase art, historical scenes and Ludwig’s love of art. A “Tristan and Isolde” themed bedroom, an artificial grotto and a Throne room with a beautiful mosaic floor. A large room that looks like a ballroom that depicts yet another opera scene of Wagner’s; a frequent visitor.

The day prior to coming to visit the castles, Debbie and I had read about a parade that would be happening in the area on the day we were visiting. This parade is called the “Almabtrieb”. It is a parade of people moving cattle from the high alpine regions to the lower valleys for the fall and winter. Quite something to see. Actually, we heard them coming long before we saw them. A lot of the larger cattle had huge cow bells hanging from their necks.

We walk down the path back to the parking lot which takes us about 20 minutes. We drive back to Mosern and a nice dinner out.

The next day, we decide to drive to the medieval town of Hall in Tyrol, about a 30 minute drive from Mosern and 9 kms east of Innsbruck. This town made its fortune in the salt trade during the 13th century. It is Sunday and of course, all the shops are closed; so needless to say, it is very quiet in this small town. We stop for coffee in the main “old town square” and then amble through the various narrow streets.

Then head back to our apartment in Mosern, stopping in Seefeld for a cold beer and a sandwich. As we are sitting on the outdoor patio of a pub, we start talking to an English couple who have holidayed in this area for over twenty years. They tell us that last Sunday, the day of the annual fall festival, that it snowed in Seefeld. The gentleman told us that it was twenty degrees warmer on this Sunday than the previous one. We have been so fortunate with our weather. We head back to our apartment and eat in. Enjoy a glass of wine out on our deck, overlooking the beautiful valley below.

A picture from our deck on our last evening in Mosern.

We have so enjoyed our time in this area, so beautiful and peaceful. Tomorrow morning, Monday, September 16th, we are headed off to our next destination. We will be staying in the small town of Bischofswiesen in Germany, some 40 minutes north of Salzburg.