I have never seen a view as amazing as that from the Nordkette ski hill in Innsbruck, Austria. Ever. The only thing missing was Sir David Attenborough narrating, Planet Earth style. If you want to see incredible mountains and have the best skiing of your life, this is where to go. Let me show you what I mean:
Now that I have all you Alberta ski bums salivating, first a little introduction.
From Vaduz we took the Liechtenstein Bus to Feldkirch, the first major town on the other side of the Austrian border. According to my Eurail pass map, the train ride from Feldkirch to Innsbruck is one of the most scenic in Europe. They weren't kidding. This was my second favorite train ride ever, after the Glacier Express through the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately for us, the sun set about half way through our journey, but what we did see was mind blowing. Giant mountains towering right above the train, and everything coated in a several inches of fresh powder.
View from the Feldkirch - Innsburck train, of the Tyrolean Alps. It's hard to take a photo from a moving train without having anything blurry or getting the reflection from the window in. Many of the mountains we passed were significantly closer to the tracks than this one.
Our Austrian Railways Railjet train. This was the swankiest public train I've ever been on. The computer screen hanging from the ceiling alternated between a map of where we were to telling you when the next stops would be and how fast we were going (very fast!).
I liked the kiss + ride sign in the Innsbruck train station - never seen one like that before!
Innsbruck is the capital of the mountainous Tyrol region of Austria, the most eastern area and a haven for Austrian skiers. When you look at the standings for world cup ski events, Austrians have always fared among the very best - and so they should with mountains like these! All over the city were ski rental shops, and there were 3 ski hills that surrounded the city, as little as 5 minutes away.
Our hostel, the Glockenhaus, is centuries old and was part of the small castle next door. It was a former munitions factory, and made some of the cannons used in the Battle of Trafalgar. After that, it was a bell factory. Today, most of the building's walls and features remain unchanged, and some of the walls are over 1 m thick. It's a nice family-run place, and the owner arranged for a ski-rental shop to pick us up in the morning for free (well not entirely free... we were going to rent gear from them).
View from our hostel, overlooking the city of Innsbruck.
The Glockenhaus (bell house), and the castle next door.
After we rented our gear (about 25€ for skiers), the rental shop dropped us off at a train station specifically built for the small train that ferries skiers from the city centre, over the river Inn and part of the way up the mountain to the Nordkette ski hill. The guys at the rental shop recommended it to us as it's supposed to have the best views of all the hills in the area (they weren't kidding). Lift tickets were much cheaper than in Canada as well, only about 20 € for some of the best skiing in the world.
View from the Nordkette train of the river Inn and the city of Innsbruck.
This was by far the best skiing of my life. We picked the perfect day - according to the people working there, it was the best day of the season so far. There were office-types from the city who had taken the day off work to come enjoy the powder. There was almost too much of it - I'd fall over and get stuck! By far the best snow I've ever skied. I don't know what was better - the view or the snow! If I were to ever plan a ski trip in Europe, this is where I'd go.
There were also a few people climbing up the mountain, either on cross country skis of just hiking with their dogs. I guess it's a part of their culture, especially if you grew up surrounded by mountains, and the hill's so close to where you live. It must be fantastic exercise.
Nordkette is "the local's favorite hill", so there's not so many tourists and there's lots of people who've grown up skiing every weekend. The hill has one of the steepest runs in Europe - an over 70% incline. There were warning signs on the gondola up to the run: Experienced skiiers only! Must know avalanche safety procedure and carry a transceiver. Every fall carries the danger of death!
Like a few of the tourists we'd seen walking around in jeans, just there for the view, we took the gondola up to the very top of the hill with our cameras, just to take pictures. Best view I've ever seen in my entire life - I'm not exaggerating. I was literally lost for words, all I could do was take many, many pictures. Some of the pictures were taken with my iPhone while I was skiing, but most of the panoramas were done using my Canon Rebel XSi (best 18th birthday / graduation present ever, mom and dad!). Here's a selection - it was too hard to narrow it down any further. Keep reading for more info and photos of the city itself.
The igloo bar. Actually in an igloo.
Not sure why in some of the pictures the sky looks so dark. It almost looks CGI. Sometimes iPhone cameras do funny things.
We got back into the city at around 4 PM, enough time to explore the town a bit. We headed first to the Hofburg, the imperial palace used by the ruling Hapsburgs as a hunting lodge or for a night's rest on their way to somewhere else (skiing is a 20th century sport - it would be really hard to do without mechanical chair lifts). The first ever Youth Winter Olympics had just wrapped up in Innsbruck, and we ended up running into a group of teenage athletes and their parents from Calgary in the palace. One of the girls had just won a medal in skeleton. The historic part of Innsbruck is just lovely, I wish we'd had more time to explore. It's probably worth spending half a day or a whole one exploring the town, a nice break from skiing if you're there on holiday.
The city is surrounded by the Tyrolean Alps.
Apfelstrudel (apple strudel), at a bakery near the Hofburg. After this trip it's become one of my favorite desserts, and we sampled it throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. We also picked up some delicious whole grain bread here.
The Goldenes Dachl, or Golden Roof. When Innsbruck was the capital of the empire in the 15th century, this building was commissioned by the emperor to be built with gilded copper tiles on the roof. The balcony was used by members of the court to view events in the square below.
Inner courtyard of the Hofburg. The palace wasn't used all that often, so usually most of the furniture was brought in on special order when the imperial family came to visit. The rooms are still beautiful, however, especially the gallery with pictures of of Empress Maria Teresa's 16 children (including Marie Antoinette) hanging on the walls. Rather confusingly, all of her 11 daughter's names started with "Maria".
