Innsbruck and beyond

Will we get caught up on our blog tonight?  We had a poor internet connection last night, so no photos loaded, and we are even more behind on captioning them.

St. James Cathedral, Innsbruck, from the tower

We slept late despite the nearby church bells that started at 7.  We managed to get down to breakfast at 9:40, thankful that a 10 am cutoff is the norm on our travels so far. (To USA motels: Are you listening?) Then we rode to Innsbruck, which coincidentally we visited exactly 52 weeks ago in very similar circumstances, then traveling southward to Croatia, today traveling eastward to Hungary. We parked next to the river in the same spot as last year, and took the same enjoyable walk along the Inns River and through the botanical garden before reaching the main tourist stops.  Last year we visited the excellent Tyrolian Folk Museum, so today we opted just to walk, except for a climb to the top of a tower for city views.

Wilten Abbey Church, just south of Innsbruck

After a late picnic in the botanical garden and an unsuccessful attempt to visit the rail museum (see photos) we headed east and south to Mayrhofen, having 30 minutes earlier identified a sweet lodging option there during a (yet another) McDonalds stop.  Then of course an evening ride up a valley and into the mountains to Hintertux for more fine views. Some sprinkles dissuaded us from riding up into the second local valley -- we're saving that for tomorrow.