Being an expat in Singapore for a year now, the one thing I notice I’ve been missing out on…. Driving a car! Without a doubt, I’ve been looking forward to the ‘road trip’ part of this vacation, which starts with renting out a semi-luxury Citroen C4 Aircross SUV…
Learning from my last trip to Germany, you definitely do not want to rent a Skoda or any small capacity car if you intend to drive on the German Autobahn. You simply can’t help but feel like you’re a road block with an under-powered car there! Being a left-hand drive, it took me a bit of getting used to, starting with getting out of the tiny carpark spaces and driveways! Eventually we made it out ‘clean’ and was on the highway in no time.
In no time, we reached Innsbruck in Austria for our ‘stopover’ before we will eventually arrive at Ischgl where we will spend the rest of the week. Innsbruck is a ‘hub’ town, with a little airport as well, allowing access to quite a few ski resorts nearby. With the alps as its backdrop, the adjective ‘jaw-dropping’ comes to mind.
Being so close to Christmas, the same spirit in Munich can be found here, with Christmas Markets littered all over the different parts of town. Of course, I couldn’t pass the opportunity to have a glass of Gluhwein, along with giant Bratwurst! It would be crime to skip these!
The ‘old town’ definitely had that medieval feel to it with its medieval architecture..
Like just about every other part of Europe, every building you touch probably have some ancient history or significant storyline to it, that we just didn’t have time to explore in a day. What was of more interest to us, was to make sure we didn’t miss out on any good food!! Fortunately, we did have lots of that. The one worth mentioning being the café that we tried out, called ‘Café Munding’, probably featured one of the freshest looking sandwich and hot chocolate I’ve ever had!! Highly recommended to anyone going to Innsbruck to take a break here!
Well, the town was so ‘pretty’ and made such an impression on us, that we actually made a separate trip back to Innsbruck for another ‘day trip’ to visit the nearby mountain Seegrube (1905m above sea level) via Norkette cable car. As if the view isn’t pretty enough already from the ground, how can anyone not be impressed with this view when we reached the top of the mountain overlooking Innsbruck?
There’s even a appropriately named ‘Cloud 9’ bar at the top, which pretty much sums up how I feel at the top! It’s pretty close to feeling like you’re on Cloud 9!
Like Munich though, the only disappointment was the lack of snow this year, which would have added just that little bit of extra smile to my face. Nevertheless, both times we were here left us with a lasting impression worth coming back for a 3rd time, if only we had time!! There’s plenty of other side attractions that we have yet visited (e.g ski jump, Alpenzoo, etc etc). Just means I’ll have to make another trip back here some time in the future….
