27th March 2006 - Day 161

The weather today was wonderfully sunny.

Refusing to leave Salzburg with only shots taken in the lousy weather yesterday, I climbed up the Kapuzinerberg again in order to take a better photo of the Festung. After all, it’ll be some time before I come back here again, if that ever happens.

Salzburg looks better when it's sunny

On my way down, I met the Korean guy Young with all his photographic equipment. He was also on the night tour yesterday. I guess he wanted to take a good picture too.

This house used to sell horse-shoes

I decided to take the train at 0953 to Innsbruck, 1 hour later than planned. This will give me enough time to get some groceries from the supermarket after being deprived of cheap food and drinks for the weekend.

I went to Konditorei Fürst to try their Mozartkugel. Although it costs 0,90€ per piece, it’s really good compared even to the 0,70€ Mozartkugel from Holzermayr.

After which, I went back to the youth hostel and bidded farewell to Yoshio who was having his breakfast.

The train from Salzburg to Innsbruck took about 2 hours. There were no stops in between these 2 stations. The scenery along the way was quite enjoyable, especially so because the weather was really good.

Once I reached Innsbruck, I went to buy a train ticket for Zürich in the evening. Since the last train leaves at 1638, I had effectively about 4 hours to explore Innsbruck. I deposited my backpack at one of the lockers at the train station. A heavy bag will only impede my movement.

Snow-capped mountains surrounding Innsbruck

Innsbruck appears to be more of a ski resort town that’s surrounded by snow capped mountains. Even so, there were other things to do. I wanted to visit one of the museums under the goldenes Dach, but it’s closed on Mondays.

The goldenes Dach in the background

Next stop – Cathedral St. Jakob somewhere behind the goldenes Dach. But as it was too big to fit inside the camera aperture, I only took the upper half of the church.

I almost paid more tribute to a long gone dynasty by visiting the Hofburg. But I changed my mind at the last moment just as I was about to pay. I had seen too many examples of how lavish the chambers of the Hapsburg were.

It’s time to take a look at how the common people lived at the Tirol Landesmuseum. I thought the place was quite interesting. It showed the various building styles through the times, furniture from different periods, and tools which the people used for various purposes.

Particularly of interest was that I realized that the firelighters look like pistols. Probably the pistols followed the design of firelighters.

I took a walk in the imperial garden nearby the museum. Not that imperial anymore these days as it’s free entry to everyone.

I noticed that the people here are all sitting on benches facing the sun. From where I come from, finding a shade is a second instinct to many. But it’s understandable. It’s nice to see the sun again after bad weather.

Reading in the garden

A sunny day means that an ice cream is in order (though it’s better to eat ice cream in cold weather. It keeps you warm.). But I don’t like the flavors offered.

Lunch was a sandwich and peach tea from an Austrian supermarket. I was making my way back to the Hauptbahnhof even though there was more than an hour left. I was quite convinced that nothing else would interest me here, assuming that the guidebook is correct.

The train came late and there was a 25 minutes delay due to some damaged parts. I was quite sure I would miss the connecting train and started to plan what could be done instead.

But that did not happen. The connecting train waited 25 minutes for us. Many passengers heaved a sigh of relief on hearing the Durchsagen.

In total, this stretch of journey took about 4 hours. I did some re-reading on the city with the highest standard of living in the World. I was quite glad that a classmate on SEP agreed to let me bunk with him. That definitely helps to cut travel costs.

Zürich Hauptbahnhof is a surprising simple place to navigate and figure out even though there are at least 54 platforms for both long and short distance trains. I managed to get my tickets to Dietikon quite effortlessly.

I really should not be so confident of myself when I’m at a foreign place and when it’s raining. I got lost the first time and walked a train station back!

The second try was better as I read the invaluable item called map. The place is actually quite easy to find if one follows a map properly.

So, some Singaporean nonsense to be sprouted.