When we got back to Innsbruck, we walked around. Laurie was in search for her beer and I was looking for my Diet Coke--McDonalds. I also picked up my dinner there--a chef's salad. When I walked out of there it was pouring. At least some of the stores had covered walk ways. I didn't get that wet by the time I arrived at the guesthouse.
I stayed in for the rest of the night. There was a TV in our room which is a treat. The best treat was having a few stations in English. I was able to watch CNN. I haven't seen the news in a very long time.
It would probably be better if I didn't watch it. I also watched an American movie that I had seen in English, but this was in German here. A little strange watching it, but since I knew the story, it was easy to watch.
August 19, 2003
We had our breakfast from the guesthouse. It was pretty good. Cereal, yogurt, fruit cocktail, fresh fruit, bread, rolls, and ham and cheese. I ate too much. I just couldn't decide what to eat, so I had it all.
We left to go to Congress Square. That was the meeting spot for a guided hike. The guesthouse gives out welcome cards that entitle you to free tours. One was guided hikes. We met everyone at 8:45. It started raining and the sky didn't look promising, but we got into two vans and were driven to the trailhead.
There were eleven people. I didn't meet everyone, but there was a woman from Italy, one from Denmark, one from New Zealand. There was an older couple from East Germany and I am not sure where the rest of the people were from. It is hard to talk to other people when they don't talk your language. There were some people who didn't have hiking boots. The tourist office there has boots available to use.
The bus ride was about 35 minutes. I am glad I had my seat belt on. The driver was a little crazy on the roads.
I haven't had my boots on in five weeks. I am out of shape so I was hoping that it wasn't going to be too hard. Laurie and I wanted to do some hiking before we meet our friends in a few days. We plan on doing a lot of hiking and I don't want to hurt myself on the mountain. On our way there, the van driver told us at one point we were about 10 kilometers from Italy. It seemed weird to be so close there.
The hike was absolutely beautiful. The sky had cleared and we had great mountains to see. There was a green flat valley floor in the middle surrounded by massive jagged mountains. They probably looked bigger because the land in front was flat and the mountains I see go straight up. Luckily the trail was very graded and the leader, Rudi, was going at a slow but reasonable pace. It reminded me of someone from hiking club back home because he always liked the "compassionate" pace as he called it. The climb was only an hour and a half up. We went up about 1800 feet. It was a good warm up hike to start getting my body in shape again. It was very beautiful up there and on the top there was a church. It is now being used to offer food and drink, but there is still a chapel. I asked Rudi how old the church was. He said about 900 years old. I wonder why they built a church way up there. Maybe because it seemed closer to God.
We stayed on top for about an hour. We made our way down on a different path. There was a bus at the end to take us back into town.
It was a great day and it is great that they offer these hikes to the tourists. We are going to do one tomorrow. I think they do one everyday. They also offer sunrise hikes and lantern hikes. The lantern hikes start about 8:30. They go to a hut and they have music playing. Laurie and I thought about it but they weren't coming back until 11:30 at night. I want to get my beauty sleep for tomorrow's hike.
Right now I am sitting outside at a table in front of a pizza joint in a lane filled with shops and cafes.
I read that Innsbruck is the wettest city in Austria. I am just happy that it is not raining tonight.
August 20, 2003
We met everyone at the meeting spot for the hike. There were fourteen today. Six of the fourteen were on yesterday's hike. Rudi was our leader again today. He isn't very personable. It might be because I don't speak German.
We took the bus to the trailhead. It was a shorter ride than yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day, but I heard there was rain in the forcast for later today.
The hike seemed steeper today compared to yesterday. The group seemed to be more spaced out also. We had more people with different speeds. Once we got to the top, there was a place that served food in a former church. Outside it had lots of tables and umbrellas. Quite nice to sit there and have beautiful mountains surrounding you. It would have been nice to hike further, but that was our turn around spot. We spent about an hour and a half and then headed back down a different route.
We got back earlier than yesterday. The sky had gotten dark so Laurie and I decided not to take a tram to the top of a mountain. I relaxed and read and then met Laurie at our pizza spot outside. When it started lightning we thought it best to get our pizza and head back to the guesthouse. It was about 8:00 by then. We ate and stayed in for the rest of the night.
August 21, 2003
We had an early breakfast and went to the train station. We caught the 8:39 train to Zurick. We had seven minute to catch the train from Zurick to Geneva. We made it fine. The second train was real nice. It was a double decker train.
We arrived in Geneva about 3:30.
