Innsbruck, Austria - September 3rd to 5th, 2025

Innsbruck is the smallest of the three cities we visited in Austria, but it had the best scenery. The town sits in a valley, along the River Inn, surrounded by high mountain peaks. It is a ski town and has hosted several Winter Olympic Games. We only stayed in Innsbruck for three nights, but that was enough time to enjoy the historic old town area and head up into the mountains.

Wednesday was a travel day from Vienna to Innsbruck, both in Austria. Our train wasn’t scheduled to leave Wien Hauptbahnhof (Vienna main train station) until 10:28 am. That meant we could somewhat take our time in the morning, eating breakfast and checking out before 9:30 am. Then we hopped on the U1 (U-Bahn or subway) which got us to the train station in about 15 minutes.

Ann grabbed a Coke from one of the shops before we sat on a bench on the train platform to wait for our train. It arrived on time this time. We made sure we looked up which zone or section of the platform where our reserved coach would stop because the train would split in Salzburg and we didn’t want to get on the wrong half of the train, as you cannot walk through from one half to the other as they are really two separate trains. This seemed to be popular in Austria. We believe every train we rode on in Austria was one of these “split trains”.

We had seat reservations for our four hour and 16 minute train ride to Innsbruck. We were glad we had reservations, as the train was pretty full. The restaurant car was the one next to ours. Since we were on the train through lunch time and we no longer had any snacks left, we took advantage of the restaurant car. Keith had a Leberkäse sandwich with a Coke, while Ann had pasta with tomato sauce and an Almdudler. Leberkäse (liver cheese) is made from beef, pork and bacon, very finely ground and baked in a loaf (somewhat similar to Spam). Despite its name, it does not necessarily contain any liver. Almdudler is a Viennese soda that we discovered while we were in Wien.

We arrived in Innsbruck only about 5 minutes behind schedule, not bad for such a long ride. Our hotel, Budget Hotel Pension Stoi, was just a five minute walk from the Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof. We reserved a double room with a private bath. It looked like there were also rooms with a bathroom down the hall. There was no breakfast, only coffee, drinks, and a limited number of snacks that you could buy in the reception area.

The past few days, Ann had been getting some bug bites. She was a little concerned that they might be bed bugs, since bed bugs have shown up in the mountain huts along the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB). If they were bed bug bites, Ann wanted to make sure she wasn’t spreading them. Even though we hand washed all of our clothing and sleeping bag liners when we finished the TMB and it had been weeks since we finished the TMB, we didn’t wash our backpacks. So Ann hand washed her backpack, daypack, and sleeping bag liner (again) and set them out on the balcony of our room in the sun. Then she gathered up all of her clothing and walked over to a nearby laundromat, Bubblepoint Wäscherei, about 15 minutes away.

When she arrived at the laundromat, it took her a little while to figure out where to get laundry detergent. She was looking around the room for a vending machine, but didn’t find one. She finally asked someone who kindly pointed out that the washing machines automatically dispense the detergent, as it clearly indicated on the machines, written in both German and English. Oops, she never thought to look at the machines. She’s never seen machines that dispensed detergent before.

Ann was glad that we had two small re-usable grocery bags. She used them to transfer her clothes from the washer to the dryer, as there were no laundry carts or baskets in the laundromat like there are in the ones in the States. She also used the bags to haul her clothing and packing cubes back to the hotel. On the way to the laundromat, she just kept her clothing in the packing cubes, as the little handles on the cubes made it easy to carry them all.

When Ann returned to our room, she took a hot shower and hand washed the clothes she was wearing. She’s still not sure if the bites were bed bugs, as she didn’t see any evidence of bugs through any of the hand washings, but now she felt better. We’re also not sure how we would tell if we eliminated them, because we sleep with the windows open (with no screens) and we have seen some swarms of bugs in both Salzburg and Wien, so the bites could be from some other kind of bug, especially since bugs seem to like Ann better than Keith, even in the States.

For dinner, we walked over to a place called My Dream’s, just a couple of blocks away. It was a small place, mostly take-away with a few tables, that served burgers, pizza, kebab, dürhüm, and bosna (a Salzburg specialty). Ann ordered a kebab with grilled veggies while Keith had the classic dürhüm. The difference between a kebab and a dürhüm is the bread it is served in. The kebab came in a thick pita bread with a crispy outside. The dürhüm was in a soft flour tortilla that was then toasted until it was crispy, after the filling was wrapped inside. Both were delicious. We’ve had kebab and dürhüm a few times during this trip to Europe and My Dream’s has been the best we’ve had so far, by far.

Since our pension does not provide breakfast, we started Thursday by finding a bakery. Just a few blocks away was Der Bäker Ruetz. The bakery has existed since 1899 and there are several locations of them around the city.

Keith ordered a croissant and cappuccino while Ann had a Ruetz-Krapfen and a loose-leaf green tea. The Krapfen was like a jelly-filled donut with apricot jam. When we finished those, we wanted a little more, so Keith had another cappuccino while Ann ate a Kaisergolatsche. The Kaisergolatsche is similar to a Danish pastry, filled with a Tyrollean curd cheese called Topfen, which resembles cream cheese. It was delicious.

After breakfast, we walked from our hotel, down Maria-Theresien-Straße to the old town area. We passed the Triumphpforte (Triumphal Arch), built in 1765, for the wedding of Archduke Leopold to the Spanish princess Maria Luisa.

Then we went by the Annasäule (St. Anne’s Column), built in 1706 to commemorate the Bavarian Troops being driven out of Tyrol in 1703 on Saint Anne’s Day (July 26th).

We continued straight onto Herzog-Friedrich-Straße, past the Stadtturm (City Tower), to the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof). The Goldenes Dachl was completed in 1500 for the wedding of Emporer Maximillian I to Bianca Maria Sforza. The Goldenes Dachl, made of copper tiles, is over a balcony which overlooks the town square below.

From there, we wandered over to Dom St. Jakob (St. Jakob’s Cathedral). It has a rather plain exterior compared to its lovely baroque interior. Keith paid the one euro charge in order to take pictures of the interior, for private use only.

Not far from the cathedral is the station for the Hungerburgbahn. The Hungerburgbahn is a funicular that connects the old town with Hungerburg, a city district part way up the mountain. Hungerburg is where you can catch the Nordkettenbahnen (cable cars) to reach Hefelekar, high above Innsbruck, also known as the Top of Innsbruck. In fact, you can purchase one, but expensive, ticket to take you on all three sections, including the Hungerburgbahn. A round trip ticket for us was 52 euros per person.

The Hungerburgbahn has two other stops before reaching Hungerburg, the ORF Tirol and the Alpenzoo (zoo). The train stays mostly in tunnels until after the zoo stop. Then the track is much steeper and the cars of the train tilt to remain level.

Hungerburg is not far from where we stayed on a ski trip back in December 1990. Back then, from our accommodations, Gasthof Ölberg, in the neighboring district of Ölberg, we watched the fireworks going off all over the city for New Year’s Eve. It was a memorable experience.

In Hungerburg, we hopped on the first of two cable cars which hauled us up to Seegrube, where we switched to the final cable car. Each cable car can hold 130 people and they seemed filled to capacity every time we rode them. You are packed in pretty tight, but, thankfully, the ride is not very long. The cable cars run on 15 minute intervals, but we had to wait over 30 minutes on the way back down, as there was a long line of people waiting to get on.

At the top, we wandered around on a couple of short trails. One was a 15 minute walk up to the summit and the other was another 15 minute trail over to another overlook. There is also a fixed cable trail which went up to a spiky peak, but that required special equipment (and more guts) to attempt. That was not for us.

There is a small restaurant inside the cable car station at Hefelekar, so we stopped for a quick lunch. Keith had the Kartoffelsuppe (potato soup) while Ann ate the Gulaschsuppe (goulash soup).

On the way back down, we stopped at Seegrube to take in the views and have dessert. Restaurant Seegrube had outside tables with a view. The aggressive blackbirds would hover over the tables, looking for an opportunity to snag a bite.

Keith had the Apfelstrudel mit Schlagsahne (apple strudel with whipped cream) while Ann tried the Seegrubenstrudel mit Vanillesauce (Seegrube strudel with vanilla sauce). The Seegrubenstrudel had a layer of apples topped with Mohn (poppy seeds), Nuss (ground nuts), and Topfen (Tyrollean curd cheese). The ingredients were not mixed together, but grouped in three sections. That was a large amount of poppy seeds. Thankfully, Ann won’t need to take a drug test any time soon. It was all delicious.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Apple Store inside Kaufhaus Tirol, a shopping mall on Maria-Theresien-Straße. Keith needed as new watch band for his Apple Watch, as his was getting a little worn.

For dinner, we walked back to the old town area to a restaurant called Kaiser Max. It was an Austrian restaurant with outside tables on the square which had a view of the Goldenes Dachl. A string trio played classical music on the square while we ate.

Keith ordered the Tiroler Gröst’l von Tafelspitz. The dish was pretty similar to the Gröst’l he had in Salzburg (Salzburg, Austria - August 26th to 29th, 2025). Tafelspitz is a particular cut of boiled veal or beef. Ann ate the Osttiroler Schlipfkrapfen (an East Tyrollean dish). Schlipfkrapfen is similar to ravioli (from Italy) or pierogi (from Poland). It was filled with potatoes and cheese (Topfen) and served in browned butter with parmesan cheese and chives on top. Very tasty.

For dessert, Keith had the Apfelstrudel again, but with a scoop of ice cream this time, while Ann had the Kaiserschmarrn mit Apfelmus (apple sauce). We’ve had Kaiserschmarrn before in Vienna (Vienna, Austria - August 30th to September 2nd, 2025), but Ann wanted to have it again. It tasted pretty similar to the previous time, but with a little less butter and the pancake was browned a little more. She’s not sure which version she liked better as both were delicious.

On the way back to the hotel, we walked through Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz, in front of the Neues Landhaus (Regional Government Office). What we found interesting was that the square was mixed-use, including a skate park. There are no defined boundaries. Skateboarders, scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians are free to wander the plaza at will. There are benches and even outdoor tables for a pizzeria, all within the same space. Everyone seems to be courteous to all the other users.

We also noticed an electric charging station next to our hotel. There were chargers, not only for electric cars, but also for e-bikes. However, it looked like the electric car owners needed to supply their own charging cables.

It rained during the night and most of Friday. We had already seen all of the sites that we were interested in, so we hung out at our hotel and just ventured out for meals. The rain brought cooler temperatures, so we needed to pull out a warm layer to wear. We didn’t mind a day of rest, as we had a week-long bike tour coming up next.

For breakfast, we went back to Der Bäker Ruetz. This time Keith had a Krustino (a type of bread roll) in addition to his croissant. Ann tried the Erdbeer-Vanille-Kipferl (strawberry vanilla crescent roll) and a Schococroissant.(chocolate croissant). They were both tasty, but she prefers a pain au chocolat over the Schococroissant.

For lunch, we did another repeat, My Dream’s. Ann got the kebab with grilled vegetables again, but Keith wasn’t very hungry, so he just ate an order of Pommes Frites (French fries). The kebab was just as good the second time around.

The rain stopped around dinner time, so we walked over to the old town for dinner. This time we went Italian and ate at Gemelli. Well, it was sort of Italian. We both started out with a gemischter Salat. Then Keith had cordon bleu, which is a French dish. Ann ate the penne arrabiata which is Italian, but followed it up with a Sacher Torte for dessert, which is Austrian. She’s had Sacher Torte before, back in Salzburg, but she liked this one better. The cake seemed more moist than the one at Schloß Helbrunn. Unfortunately, Keith didn’t think his cordon bleu was all that great.

Of the three cities that we visited in Austria, we felt the most comfortable in Innsbruck. The mountains always make us feel at home. Had we stayed longer in Innsbruck, we would have been going for day hikes in the surrounding area.

Check out our related video: Innsbruck, Austria

(Ann)