Saturday, December 24! - Christmas Eve!
Waking up in Innsbruck for the first time was amazing! We texted mom and made sure she was up, and met her downstairs for breakfast. We opted to add on the morning breakfast at the hotel, which was a good idea since it was a full continental breakfast along with an option of eggs. Bill and I ordered scrambled, Mom ordered over easy.
As we all speak perfectly fluent German, or Deutsch, and the waitstaff spoke perfect English, we all got eggs over easy. Yum. Just what the doctor ordered. Bill and I finished up our breakfast, and then confirmed with mom that she did not want to go out and see the town. We grabbed our stuff, and set off for a good walk.
Along the way, we found some good old fashioned American comfort. Bill required a stop, so we stopped and partook in the comfort.
At this point in our trip, Bill and I had essentially tried all of the local foods, and were focusing on keeping true to our stated desire: to eat just the local food. BUT - when presented with a prime opportunity, it's hard to say no.
We had purchased an Innsbruck card, which was essentially a 48 hour pass to all things Innsbruck. I didn't really know where or what we were going to do, but knew that there was plenty to see. The problem we ran into was that it was cloudy!After checking through the map, I saw that we weren't too far from the Bergisel Ski Jump, which was used in the Olympic Games several times. It is also one of the ski jumps that they use regularly in the ski competitions between several countries (don't ask me which ones...)
One thing I have to admit is that while we were here, I honestly had no clue how to use the public transport. Don't get me wrong, I know that to get on the bus, you tap your contactless card, then sit down. Tap it once you get off. Generally the European systems are pretty generous, in that once you hit a certain $$$ amount per day, it caps out. As in, the rest of the rides in that 24 hour period are free.
But, the thing I was struggling with, especially on our "hop on, hop off" tour bus was how to get the damn thing to stop. In London I had witnessed several people that were "buzzing" the driver when they wanted a stop. So, I hit the red buzzer, and I saw the thing light up saying that "STOP" had been requested. Ok, mission accomplished! TWO stops later, our driver STILL hadn't stopped. So, I started walking up towards the exit. The jerk then motioned for me to sit down, which I was like "Da fuq, dude. I want off!" FINALLY, he stopped. And we jumped off. Thankfully, we weren't too far from our hotel, and we did get a neat river walkway to follow on the way.
Above, the Hotel Goldener Adler. Overall, we were enjoying the hotel. After walking as much as we did, we went back into the hotel to catch up, as Bill was starting to develop a bit of a cough, more than just the tickle that he had been experiencing thus far.
Being Christmas Eve, we had reservations for this evening for dinner with the hotel, as they were preparing a special Christmas dinner for all the guests of the hotel. As memory serves, we took the opportunity to rest, recover, and then shortly before dinner, we all bundled up and stepped outside. Mom wanted to see the Christmas Market that was still "kind of" up.
While it wasn't AS cold as it has been, but it was still a wee bit chilly. Mom hates being cold, so we didn't stay out too long, AND we had dinner to get to.
Overall, dinner was "ok." But, we definitely had some local flavors. I've never had calf saddle before, or liver meatballs, or chocolate mousse with quinoa on it. Until tonight. It was all...interesting. In the end, we were left a bit underwhelmed, but full enough to call it a night.
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