A Look at Innsbruck's Old Town

Innsbruck is only a small town and there is not a real lot to do there, but it has so much character that you don't really need anything to do because you just want to look at the place. The Old Town is particularly nice and is where we chose to stay. I'm so glad we did because everything was so close, and because the girls got sick with colds the day before we left we took things slow and went back to our room quite a bit. This is the front of our hotel - it's been open since 1590 and has a very popular restaurant. We were really happy with our accommodation and the staff were friendly and helpful.

Our hotel was in a 'pedestrian only zone' which was nice, it was also part of Fairytale Lane. So there was always something for the kids to spot! This little train was right opposite our hotel and got played on quite a bit!

Here are some photos of the Old Town which we took over the 4 days we were here, we walked up these charming lanes quite a few times and it seemed each time we would see something new. The Christmas decorations added even more splendour!

The Old Town is full of sturdy medieval houses, many painted in pastel colours which look really elegant. This is where the Old Town hold their Christmas Markets - right under the Golden Roof! The Golden Roof is in the heart of the Old Town and is Innsbruck's greatest tourist attraction - not sure why really? I mean it was kinda interesting but it didn't really fascinate me that much! It was built in the 15th century as the residence of the Tirolean sovereigns (Tirol is a state/region). The Golden Roof is actually the roof of a 3 story balcony capped with 2,738 gold plated copper tiles! It was constructed for Emperor Maximilian I to serve as a royal box where he could sit in luxury and enjoy tournaments in the square below! I mean, I guess that is pretty impressive but I actually liked the elegant buildings surrounding the Golden Roof more!

{Old Town at night}

{More of Fairytale Lane}

The markets - looking a lot busier now! They didn't open until 11am each day, but stayed open until about 8pm. I loved Innsbruck and I loved the Christmas atmosphere that the markets created - but I was actually a bit disappointed in the quality of the markets here and everything seemed so so expensive because of the exchange rate for euro/pound at the moment. There were a few nice things there, but I saw so many better things in London, Bath and in Zurich (which now I wished I had a better look at!) It was still fun to have a look - and probably worked out better than me wanting to buy everything!!

This is one of the buildings next to the Golden Roof - they looked amazing and each one had so much detail - not sure how old this one was or what it was used for but we found that a lot of these buildings were once royalty residences - which kinda seemed odd because you are walking right past them everyday!! How things change huh! Can't believe how well looked after some of these buildings are though.

{Close up of the Golden Roof}

{Advent calendar in Fairytale Lane!}

{Cafe Moustache!}

{Leilani laughing at Emily because she wouldn't take her lollipop out of her mouth!}

The Old Town with the snowy mountains behind. We couldn't always see this view - on our first day the mountains were covered with cloud - on this day they were partly covered. We then had 2 clear days where we could see pretty much all of the Alps surrounding us!

The girls were so good as we wandered around the Old Town. They both had quite bad coughs and the cold air didn't help much. We were glad we had 4 days here so that we could just do a few things a day and not have to rush around trying to fit everything into one day. It was quite relaxing really. We didn't take the prams so Lani had to walk most of the time and we had a backpack for Emily - which turned out to be pretty good. They are good kids and didn't complain much. The highlight for them most days was getting a Hello Kitty egg (like a Kinder Suprise) and collecting the little Hello Kitty inside. They played with them constantly back in the hotel room - hiding them, talking to them and talking about them!

We didn't do as much as we probably would have liked in Innsbruck - mainly because the girls were unwell and we didn't want them to get worse, but we didn't care and we did enough, we saw most things we wanted to. We are so glad that we have the girls with us on these holidays. They always make us laugh and make things fun and they remind us what life is really all about.

Next chapter - The Snow!