The European Chronicles 2024.3 - To Innsbruck
To Innsbruck with a stop at the Candy Store
Time to head east; we were hoping to "run in front of the front," but...not so much. As we got ready to leave, Freiburg was in a little pocket of just cloudy, with rain moving east. We'd be in and out of showers all day long...time for the rain suits.
First, some gear talk. Packing 2-up is always a challenge, there's never enough space. My solution is the E-ECS, the European Extra Cargo System, a couple of dry bags from Endurastan that can be mounted to the top of the panniers using short Rok straps - easy on, easy off. The outer fabric has a coating so it is not slippery, and they do stay put. We've personally tested them up to 138 kph (86 mph, and I hope to raise that figure 😎). One great thing about having the same bike at home as here is the ability to pre-test and pre-pack. Ginger as test mule:
And now working perfectly on Mia.
These were a good find, absolutely waterproof, as we'd discover today. 😂. They even double as arm rests for Krisanne.
No photos before the stop at Held, the motorcycle candy store, because of the rain. Krisanne needed some new gloves...and I'm happy to just stand there and breathe in the aroma. 😂Relive 'To Innsbruck!'
Her selection: the Tour Mate, which comes in specific Damen sizes:
Like buttah, with good protection. Not available on the Held US site, unfortunately. If she likes them enough, may order a pair to ship to Stefan's and take home. While we're there, we chat with an ex-Californian now living in Switzerland. Small world sometimes.
A mixed secondary road and highway route, pretty, some traffic over Fernpass, but not bad.
Oberjoch pass was fun...
Krisanne is our "back seat photodocumentarian," her skills in play on Oberjoch at the exact point above. One of the benefits of using a phone as your camera, the photos come with location data.
As we get closer to Innsbruck, we pass signs for Mieming, Austria...they are about 40 km apart. Mieming is the home of Edelweiss Motorcycle Tours, and I have to do a quick shout out. If not for my first trip to Europe in 2005 on an Edelweiss tour, none of this would have happened. It was such a transformative experience for me, so positive, so fun, spurring a craving for more. All my experiences with them, again in 2018 through Tuscany with Krisanne and their Alps Riding Academy in 2022, have been fantastic. Changed my life it did. Danke!
This place has a sense of humor.
And a great view from our room.
After an all day ride mostly in the upper 40s and low 50s, the sauna and steam room felt fabulous. 😎
Innsbruck, you may already know, has been home to two Olympics: 1964 and 1976, one of only three places to have hosted the winter games twice (St. Moritz and Lake Placid the other two, now I've ticked all the boxes 😂).
A stroll around Innsbruck
The Stage 12 hotel is directly on the pedestrian only area...walk out the front door, turn right, go thru this short passageway and you're there.
The Triumphpforte was built by Empress Maria Theresa in 1765, to celebrate the wedding of Archduke Leopold, her second son with Francis Stephan of Lorraine. But things didn't go to plan; Francis died unexpectedly 13 days after the wedding. One side of the arch celebrates the wedding, the other the death.
Innsbruck's most famous landmark: The Golden Roof.
Another wedding gift: 2,657 fire gilded copper tiles to mark the wedding of Emperor Maximillian I to Bianca Maria Sforza, completed in 1500. I'm guessing cash in an envelope wasn't a thing...like my people... 😎
Music hall
Next to the opera house
Kayaking on The Inn, the river that runs through Innsbruck, a tributary of the Danube that starts in St. Moritz and joins the Danube 517 km later near the Czech border.
Love locks everywhere
First console...walking around we got a message from Otto. His production is complete, and he's on the way to the port. Woo Hoo! A little cross-posting seemed appropriate. 😂
Hopefully, we'll take delivery when we get back!
Beautiful gardens.
I'd come back in a heartbeat, both to Innsbruck and the Stage 12 hotel. Great ambiance, much more to explore.
The Pillion POV
I have only a couple of things to add...
First - I am enamored of the incredible, incredibly well-cared for, and happily much frequented pedestrian/biking paths which snake throughout much of Germany and (what I've thus far seen of) Austria. Generally paved, they often border roadways and allow folks to traverse safely, via bicycle or afoot, far away from the chaos of vehicular traffic. I'd move here just to travel thusly! (Oh okay, and beer, did I mention the beer?)
While Mike was piloting us safely to our lovely hotel in Innsbruck - through the rain, alongside huge trucks, and along a rather busy highway (E532) through Reutte - we passed by (under?) Ehrenberg Castle.
Built around 1290, it's perched atop the hill on the right in the photo directly below.
Should we ever head back this way, we must stop - if only to meander from the castle to Fort Claudia across the "Highland179," the longest "Tibet style" pedestrian suspension footbridge in the world. Completed in 2014, its span is 1322 feet (406 meters) and it is suspended 374 feet (114 meters) off the ground.
With a rumored load-bearing capacity of 1000 people, try to come by early in the busy season - they only permit 500 folks at a time for safety reasons ;)
More to follow...
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