From Salzburg, we started our 2 hour long train journey to Innsbruck. We had reserved beforehand at http://www.oebb.at/ and it costed us around €70 for a minimax ticket(A discount is given if two or more persons travel together entitling the first person to 50% off, 2nd person 60%, 3rd person 65% and so on). The train route is very scenic and after a short while you realize that you can never get enough snaps of the breathtaking views and resort to relaxing and enjoying the trip. I am sure a drive would be more enthralling giving one many opportunities to stop and click as desired.

As we were nearing Innsbruck, it was drizzling a little. We never imagined we will be spending the rest of the day with light showers throughout. Alas, we are the ones who enjoy watching rain from indoors! Anyways, our room booked at Hotel Pension Stoi was a mere 3-4 minutes walk from the train station and we checked in before venturing out for lunch and sightseeing.The place looked neither like a hotel nor like a homestay. The room was spacious enough but the bathroom was nothing to talk about. Though it was clean, it was too small to enjoy a relaxing bath after roaming around.

We started our first day at Innsbruck with lunch at Madhuban restaurant. It was a good 7-10 minutes walk from our hotel. We ordered a meal containing rice, roti and 3 gravies. The food was not particularly enjoyable , the gravies being watery, but was manageable.

Post lunch, we had no idea where we were heading to but had a list of sightseeing places at Innsbruck. Having already spent half of the day in arrival, check in and lunch and with the showers dampening our spirits, we decided to skip the Swarovski crystal world. So we went to straight to the bus station which is just outside the train station. We had already read about the SightSeer buses that connect major sights to Innsbruck. It also has an audio guide in variety of languages in all the seats that announces the next stop and its significance. We went ahead and bought a day card that costed around €6. 


We first visited the Golden roof,constructed for Emperor Maximilian I to serve as a royal box where he could sit in luxury and enjoy tournaments in the square below. We sure enjoyed the old town charm with people buzzing around, lots of souvenir and specialty shops, cafes, restaurants. The rains were getting heavy by then and we were going round and round in Sightseer trying to decide where to get down next.

We tried visiting the Bergisel, the Ski Jump venue of the Olympic Ski Jumping competitions, but the rain never let us go ahead with our plans. By this time, the bus completed almost 2 rounds :-) and we decided to drop all plans and head back to the room. It did not seem a good idea for us to roam around without rain coats/umbrella. We ended the day figuring out where to go the next day and later with a simple pizza in the neighborhood. And the next and final day of Austria revived our spirits dampened by the rains :-)