Ok, so it may be a stretch to say that I would look good in lederhosen which is confirmed by my wife not even letting me try it (spoilsport, get back to me after a few months of exercise. Cause right now it might look like how Jim Carey did in the Grinch who Stole Christmas…. Fabulous!). Lederhosen or not, we got to spend a few days in Innsbruck and hit most of the major sites in and around the city. The first place we went of course was our hotel. Just a street over from the train station the Hotel Sailer is tucked into some other older buildings (and no, that first picture isn’t mine…cause mine sucked).
We didn’t realize that the hotel elevator was on the outside of the building so it was a nice surprise to see the beautiful mountains rise into view from behind the buildings. We had a room on the very top floor where the roof is curved and had a pretty good view of a chuck of the city. Because of when we arrived in Innsbruck and had never been there we took a little bit of time to get our bearings and found some lunch at a Thai food place ( it is of course not the same as what you’d get at an American Thai place, thus, no Pad Thai… good food, but I was disappointed). Our only planned entertainment for the day was dinner and a show at the “Tyrolean Evenings in Innsbruck” so we took a few hours in the afternoon to get a little more sleep missing from the train ride. “Tyrolean Evenings” was within walking distance of our hotel so we figured we’d leave an hour or so early and head that direction just in case we got lost (for “just in case” read “when“). Our cell phone plans aren’t setup to inexpensively go between countries here in Europe so they’re not quite as useful getting you around an unfamiliar city when not in the country. No problem, we have our handy dandy city map, can I borrow that for a second sweetheart…What do you mean you thought I had it? More than once in our marriage Amy and I have gone somewhere (like a store lets say), wandered around aimlessly for 5 to 10 minutes and then realized we were each “following” the other to nowhere in particular. We’re college educated folks (on the other hand I try and look at it as proof of a deep trust in one another, which will likely be quite comforting when we accidentally walk off a cliff together or something). In this particular case we did have a vague idea of what direction to head but had gotten way off course and by utilizing an rather basic map on our reservation for the evening along with landmarks and the compass on our cell phone (as well as our extensive training via “Man vs Wild” episodes) we managed to find the place and only be a few minutes late. It’s funny what differences you notice when you go between two nations so close together. In particular we were treated with what we would consider a “normal” dinner schedule that isn’t the same in Italy. It was 7-ish when we ate and the courses flowed like what we are traditionally used to (soup, salad, main course, dessert). While we were both hungry, after getting lost in the freezing weather the best thing on the menu was the hot soup. It’s easier to enjoy food when you can feel your face.
This attraction is a kind of old traditional folk songs and music with some laughs mixed in (very much like the Hatfield and McCoy’s dinner theater in Gatlinburg, just without a plotline). Singing, dancing, and even yodeling took place, which apparently when done by someone who knows how to do it doesn’t sound that bad at all. Interestingly enough the guys did most of the dancing, leg/foot/and thigh slapping and general moving around while the ladies just twirled in one spot (Amy’s observation and translation “the guys were on display instead of the girls,” my observation, “This may have been where the Ricola commercials came from,” cause I’m just that deep a guy). At the end they actually sang a song from each of the countries of those in attendance (though not their national anthems). For American’s they played the first part of Yankee Doodle and then it turned into another somewhat obscure song of which I sadly didn’t know the words (I was tempted to go and tell them for the next group to play the first few chords of “Sweet Home Alabama” to get the American’s going). After going through all of the songs it kind of left everyone there in a good mood (especially a couple of large groups of Italians and Australians ) and there were hand shakes and friendly smiles all around as we left. Well done Gundolf Family, well done. Finding our way back home was a little easier, but of course, much colder (below freezing by that point). We topped off our evening with a hot coffee at the hotel. Day one, other than getting lost before dinner, was a good start to our anniversary vacation.
