Innsbruck

Bryce had been to Innsbruck once way back when he was in high school. He remembered that it was a pretty city. That was all we knew about Innsbruck. But that was enough for us, so on Monday we drove to Innsbruck, Austria to spend the day. From our apartment in Fussen, Germany it was about an hour and a half drive.

Innsbruck was stunning. Pastel colored buildings set against snowy mountains - it was the very definition of picturesque. We ate some lunch, walked around the city center, poked around in the souvenir shops and ended with gelato for the girls and coffee for Bryce and I. It was my favorite way to see a new town - just wandering around. No specific plans. No must-see urgency. It was a lovely day.

This building wall had advent calender pictures on it. It was not possible to open the numbered windows as this was only a copy, but the girls enjoyed searching for the numbers anyway. Another city that had *awesome* souvenirs. I'll show you my impulse buys soon.
Chasing pigeons. The Golden Roof, one of the tourist attractions in Innsbruck. We spent a long time in a Christmas shop. No country does Christmas better than Germany and Austria. The shop had trays and trays of hand painted egg ornaments. These are a specialty of the region. We bought one with Innsbruck on it.
I'm getting pretty good at translating translated English. Still this soup surprised me. It was called, cheese dumpling soup. I like cheese. I like dumplings so I thought I'd give it a go. This "dumpling" was more like a small bowling ball of grain or possibly breadcrumbs sunk at the bottom of a bowl of broth. It wasn't bad. It was just confusing. I could not figure out what this huge mystery mass was made of. Does anyone know?

Last holiday post coming up tomorrow - Fussen, Germany