Leaving early after a quick breakfast and some snacks tucked away in our backpacks for later (croissants, tarts, dry biscuits and some nutella packs...thanks to Sonalee for introducing me to nutella, can't do without it now) we lugged our luggage to the Rialto
Vaporetto stop. This journey was faster than our first one as we were now
familiar with the streets and didn't get lost. At the vaporetto stop there were few office goers at
this early hour, we checked on the one we had to take to reach the station and
hopped on board the first vaporetto which arrived. Reaching the station by 7.45am
we had loads of time for our 8.50 train to Verona Porto Nuova.
Finding a spot
on a bench I sat down with my luggage and Mansi was just around the corner on
another bench. We had other tourists awaiting trains filling up the waiting
area which is quite small for such a big station. The display monitors
showcasing the trains are a short distance away closer to the tracks inside the
station, from where we were sitting so we got up and took our luggage.
Strolling to the display on the station we couldn’t spot our train. After
lingering for around 15 minutes we decided to head back to the bench returning
at around 8.30 to check the display again. Imagine my surprise when I spot a
red handbag sitting on the bench, I was so sure I was carrying my handbag. We
had been warned of pick pockets who snatch handbags if left idling at
restaurants so were super vigilant all the time, ensuring that we kept our eye
on each other’s bags...and here I had forgotten mine with all our tickets and
my passport on the station bench!
When we got up around 8.30 to check the monitors again; I
ensured that my handbag was with me.... the monitors showed our train and the
platform on which it was due to arrive just 15 minutes prior to departure. We
and other tourists catching our train raced across the platform in search of
our carriage. The trains are huge and we had to struggle almost across half the
platform, strolleys trailing behind us, till we located our carriage.
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| Our Train Leaving Santa Lucia Station in Venice |
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| Crossing the Venetian Lagoon |
Our first leg of the journey was a short
one of one hour 10 minutes where our train went from Santa Lucia across the
lagoon to Mestre for a halt then onwards across the Italian countryside to
reach Verona Porto Nuova by 10am. We got up and headed to the gate as soon as
we heard the name Verona Porto Nuovo being announced on the train. The
announcement was in Italian so we had no clue what was said. At the station we
had a while before our next train at 11.02 so we decided to use the rest room
and grab a bite to eat. Imagine our surprise when we had to shell out 0.80 Euros
just to use the washroom. Mansi was most peeved, I had heard about paid
restrooms so wasn’t too surprised. There was a change machine where we inserted
a Euro and got some change to use at the restroom. We lugged our bags to the
McDonald’s and I grabbed a burger and coffee and Mansi had a salad. Having
checked the platform number earlier we headed there to await our train. Lugging
the bag across the stairs was quite a tiring affair, but we managed to stave
off the helpful people standing near the stairs offering a hand as we were sure
that was another expensive affair, best avoided!
On boarding our train to Innsbruck we found an old German
lady already occupying one of our window seats, I was not bothered and sat next
to Mansi in the aisle seat but she tried telling the lady that she was in our seat;
finally we had to show her our ticket before we moved across the aisle. Now
both of us had gorgeous views from our seats and the journey was very
photogenic, I snapped away and took videos with my phone.
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| Verdant Vineyards just outside Venice - Italian Countryside |
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| Italian Countryside View |
The view on both sides of the train was dramatically different making it a difficult choice to choose which side to capture. The train journey was our first of many and very comfortable, there was a toilet on board and the train had huge viewing windows on both sides. The only problem was luggage storage, they had overhead compartments for luggage and most passengers had small bags which they simply plonked in the compartment, there was no way either of us could even lift our bags that high. We had noticed some bags near the compartment entrance where there was a bit of space next to the seats, we had to keep our bags there as there was no space anywhere else. I was a bit worried about someone absconding with our luggage and took a round pretending to go to the wash room and checked that the bags were still there. Our tickets were checked by the ticket checker and the German lady purchased one from him for 20 Euros, the train announcements were all in German but our checker understood English and told us that the last station was Innsbruck so we had no worries.
We gradually left the Italian countryside views of vineyards and farm houses and ventured into Alpine terrain, snow topped mountain peaks, forests.
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| Entering Austria |
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| Austrian Town on way to Innsbruck |
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| Station on way to Innsbruck |
Gradually our train reached the station of Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof
in the afternoon, the weather was quite chilly as we and our luggage made it up
the stairs to the street level. The Innsbruck station is huge with several
restaurants and other stores on the basement level. Our hotel had directions on
how to reach there and we decided to walk to the station as it seemed quite
close. After a couple of streets we realized that we had taken some wrong turn,
luckily there were a couple of locals who directed us correctly and we found
our hotel. The Weisses Kreuz Hotel is an old heritage building which still
retains its old flavour in the lane leading up to one of Innsbruck’s famous
attractions – the Golden Roof. They had a lift and the reception was on the
first floor. We were greeted by a very cheerful friendly Austrian girl who did
our check in and gave us the room key for our 2nd Floor room.
Our room was nice with twin beds with yellow comforters (yellow seems to be a popular choice in Italy and Austria...our second yellow hotel bed cover),
huge windows overlooking the rooftops of neighbouring buildings at the back of
the hotel. The bathroom was very nice, clean and newly fitted with a glass
shower stall, there was just a glass sliding door separating the bathroom and
the room.
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| Entrance to Weisses Kreuz Hotel - Innsbruck |
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| Beautifully painted ceiling at the entrance to Weisses Kreuz Hotel - Innsbruck |
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| Poster in the entrance lobby of Weisses Kreuz Innsbruck |
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| View of Innsbruck Rooftops from our window |
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| Our comfortable home for two days in Innsbruck |
We put our passports and other
travel documents in the room safe and headed out for our tour of the Swarovski
Crystal World in Wattens which was part of the tour package. Before leaving the
hotel we checked with our receptionist on the pick up point for the bus and she
said it was close by and told us how to get there.
Imagine our surprise when we reached the stop and the bus
arrived after around 10 minutes of waiting but the driver tells us we have
missed the last bus, this one was returning from Wattens, not heading there. We
had changed our train schedule to ensure that we reached Crystal World before
its 5.30pm closing time. Mansi called them up and spoke with someone who had a
hard time understanding English, but said that we could still get in by taking
a public bus if we made in there before their closing time of 5.30pm, the last Swarovski
bus leaving Innsbruck for Wattens was at 3pm. We were both fuming mad at our
trip planners who should have been aware of this information and who had
messed up badly.
Mansi desperately wanted to see this place so we decided to
get there any way we could. A nice college kid checked on this phone for the
next bus to Wattens and told us to walk to the main train station (around 15
minutes walk away), we started to walk when suddenly about 100 feet down the
road I spotted a bus showing Wattens as its last destination and both of us
raced back to the bus stop and hopped on the bus. Mansi checked with the driver
and he said don’t worry I can get you there in 30 minutes. Happy we both sat down!
On board we met up with this Indian expat who had been
residing in Austria for the last 20 years, Bengali originàlly from Calcutta he was
happy to meet some fellow Indians. We chatted about our trip and Mumbai and he
said he would give us directions to Crystal World and it was close to the bus
stop at Wattens. The bus trip was very picturesque as it meandered down the
roads on the outskirts of Innsbruck onto Wattens. With the mountains which had beautiful
snow covered tops on both sides of the road, the view was amazing. We got off
at Wattens and Mansi spotted a board saying Swarovski so we headed down the
driveway. On reaching the gate we realized that this wasn’t it and headed back
to the bus stop and the main road. On walking a bit from the bus stop suddenly
we spotted the sign on the left, it was around 15 minutes walk from the stop.
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| Wattens |
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| Wattens - Austria |
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| Swarovski Crystal World - Wattens |
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| Phantom Face Entrance at Swarovski Crystal World - Wattens |
We spotted the famous phantom face and walked past the spray of water and into
the entrance to be told that we had to exchange our voucher for tickets at the
entrance office. So it was back to the Entrance office, collect our tickets and
be informed by the lady that we would miss the last bus back to Innsbruck too
as that was just departing, it was around 5pm by now. Disappointed, but by now
resigned to our fate we decided to enjoy the exhibits.
The exhibit starts from the entrance hidden behind the
Phantom Face, the lobby has a huge wall made up of crystals which is simply
dazzling, there is a horse made of crystals on one of the lobby walls. All the
exhibits have explanations in English about the artist and the idea behind the
installation; we had a Russian tour group on our tail and had to keep staying
just that bit ahead to avoid being blasted by Russian explanation of the displays.
Some of the installations were cute and dazzling like the river of crystals,
interactive displays, the models of the Taj Mahal and several notable
structures from around the world.
After the displays we headed to the store and lo and behold
it’s filled with Indians, Maharashtrians from some Kesari Tour Group all
purchasing like there is a sale on. We found most items to be very expensive
and Mansi finally selected a key chain as a gift, we paid and left the store.
There is a beautiful garden and some sculptures on the huge
lawns surrounding the museum, we both posed and took pictures around the garden
and the lawns, in front of the Phantom (which was very popular with everyone
and we had to await our turn literally). It had started to get quite chilly now
with the winds blowing freezing air across the valley; I was amazed to see the
Indian women in sarees and a light sweater braving the weather when both of us
were literally shivering with jeans and two layers of sweaters and a hat.
Pictures done we headed to the bus stop. There we met two
girls who were both working at Crystal World and we got chatting, Julie who was
originally from Brazil and now settled in Innsbruck for the last few years
offered to take us around to a couple of nice eating joints. The bus dropped us
in Innsbruck and we chased Julie down a couple of streets as she had to
retrieve her bike. She decided to show us the restaurants she recommended and
walked with us to one of them which we opted to try for dinner. She was also
studying at the local university and spoke fluent German, we thanked her
profusely and it was heartening to have met someone so helpful...but that
continued throughout our trip where total strangers went out of their way to
help us and spend time chatting and learning about each other’s lives and
stories about our part of the world.
The basement bar she suggested was too smoky for Mansi so we
opted to sit at one of the sparsely populated tables on the ground floor with a
local couple on our left and a bunch of teenagers drinking beer on our right. I
ordered fried fish with mayonnaise and Mansi ordered a potato soup, both of us
are not beer drinkers so we ordered some wine with our dinner. Our order was brought about soon enough by our cute waiter - Axel. My fish was
crisp on the outside and beautifully cooked, delicious...her soup was good and
quite filling too.
Tummies satiated we decided to take a walk around the main
street and familiarize ourselves with the city a bit, the main street is Maria
Theresien Street which is a mostly pedestrian street with cute tables laid out
by some of the restaurants.
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| Maria Theresien Street - Innsbruck |
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| Golden Dachau Street - Innsbruck |
Unfortunately most of these were closed because of
the weather which was very cold and the lack of tourists. We admired the
Triumphforte at one end of the street, a huge arch which dominates the street.
The Nordkette mountain range forms a beautiful backdrop to this street and I
got some nice pictures just as the sun was setting with the snow capped
mountains in the background.
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| Innsbruck |
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| Triumphforte - Innsbruck |
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| Maria Theresien Street |
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| Church on Maria Theresien Street |
Unfortunately we never saw the mountains again
because of the rains and fog which surrounded them. It was getting quite cold
by now so we headed back to the hotel and our room which was nice and warm. The
hotel comforters are the best thing I’ve used, they are wonderfully warm and
cozy and made of some new soft material, the night is quite chilly and I pull
on my sweat shirt over my PJ’s to stay extra cozy, Mansi is used to the cold
weather at Nagpur so fares better.
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