More sightseeing in Innsbruck, and then travel up to the Kütai ski area for our next hiking route tomorrow.
Saturday 30 July – Innsbruck to Kütai
I went to the front desk for bags we could use to carry our laundry to a nearby laundromat. The “hotel lady” (sometimes at the front desk, sometimes in the restaurant) offered to have our laundry cleaned, dried, folded, and returned to our room in an hour for only €20, so we did that instead (ka-ching!). After breakfast in the hotel restaurant we returned to our room to pack. Our laundry arrived, we finished packing, checked out, and stashed our backpacks inside the luggage room.
We returned to the Hofburg in the Altstadt (old city) to use our museum tickets from yesterday to visit the Hofkirche, which houses the memorial cenotaph for Emperor Maximilian I (who is not actually buried there).
We toured the multi-media ‘Maximilian I – into the modern era’ exhibit, which was curated to mark the 500th anniversary of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I’s death. Kaiser Max ruled during an interesting period of history, as Europe was transitioning from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
We toured the Volkskunstmuseum, Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, with exhibits on tools, clothing, and interior design from midevieval times and later in Tirol.
I was delighted to find a Café Sacher here in the Altstadt – I enjoyed their food and dessert in Wien (Vienna) a few years earlier and didn’t know they had another location. I enjoyed a world-famous Sacher-Torte (and a “butter toast” with ham and cheese), but Allan had a disappointing milkshake instead.
After lunch we went back to the museum to visit the last remaining floor. One of the most interesting exhibits to me was the restored wood-panelled parlours from the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo periods in Tirol, reconstructed with tile stoves and carved-wood paneling and ceilings, illustrating how families would spend time together.
image used without permission from the Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum
We returned to the hotel to retrieve our packs, had a coke in the lobby lounge while waiting out a rain shower, then crossed the street to board the bus to Kütai. The bus was crowded and we had to stand for the first half of the journey. A very scenic drive up a long and winding valley until eventually arriving at the top and the Kühtai ski area. We followed the sign to reception at the Hotel Jagdschloss, but there was no one there and a caterer told us the hotel was closed and to go next door. We went next door, but the entrance was locked. It was colder up here and we were starting to get a little concerned, so I called the hotel via the booking.com app. The manager said to meet him back at reception. We got checked in and confirmed the ski lift would be running in the morning – after he first pranked me that it was closed for the season (which would have added 1,300+ feet of elevation gain to tomorrow’s hike).
We unpacked and relaxed in our separate small rooms, then met for dinner at the restaurant, which to my disappointment was Italian (no Austrian or German dishes) – I ended up having a pizza (Hawaiian). We reviewed tomorrow’s route on our maps and convinced ourselves that this route would be easier than the Stubai Höhenweg.
After dinner we returned to our rooms, where I enjoyed watching some YouTube for the first time in over a week. This is one of the quietest places I’ve ever been – my ears were ringing after turning off the tv and iPhone.