Up next......Innsbruck, Austria!

Our next stop was Innsbruck Austria. The drive to Innsbruck from Garmisch-Partenkirchen was fairly short (about an hour or so) and we checked into the Hotel Europa in downtown Innsbruck.

This was one hotel that we were both so excited to check into because the picture that both of us had seen on the Internet (don't ask us what this is a picture of - or actually, if anyone knows, please tell us, LOL) we thought that THIS was our hotel, so we thought it was going to be just spectacular. However, as our Neverlost was taking us through the streets of Innsbruck it was evident that we got the wrong picture somewhere, LOL!!!!! It's obviously a castle that we got mixed up in something and *thought* it was going to be where we were staying. Heeheee (DUH!)

The real hotel was on the corner of a main street and it *was* spectacular (room was beautiful, service was great - minus the very cute hotel bar which had a dorky bartender and a stereo that kept repeating the same song over and over and over, despite the fact the guy kept trying to fix it!!)

Here's a picture of the REAL hotel, LOL. I forgot to get pictures of our room, but they have pictures on the hotel website. We loved the location - it was within walking distance to shops and some of the best restaurants we ate at the whole time. Funny enough we ate at a Mexican restaurant a few blocks from our hotel, on the sidewalk patio, and it was the best (no joke) Mexican food I've had in years. How strange is that. I wanted to go back the next day, LOL!!

The second day in Innsbruck, as we were checking out ------ guess what appeared? Our luggage! Hooray!!! The hotel let us go back up to our room for awhile and shower with our own things, get changed, etc. ... it was like heaven! I was nearly in tears seeing the luggage, lol!

We left the hotel (freshly showered and changed) and headed into "old-town" Innsbruck, which is a mega-shopping area with all sorts of restaurants, outside cafes, tourist shops. It was probably one of the cutest little towns we have ever been. We ate at a pizza place (they were everywhere there) - it was a totally authentic Italian place and it was the best pizza I've had in years (seriously in two days, I'd had the best Mexican and the best pizza...in AUSTRIA!) We walked around the shops and saw the Golden Roof - and ate a piece of chocolate cake at the famous Cafe Sacher (recommended by my neighbor) called Sacher-Torte (delicious!)

We walked around for a couple hours, bought some things to take home and then we headed out to see the Swarovski Crystal museum. That was......interesting......not sure if I'd recommend anyone to go out of their way to see it (there are way more fun things to do in old town Innsbruck) but it was cool, and of course, the shop was wonderful! I got earrings and a necklace that I pointed out to Sam at a Swarovski store that I liked but didn't want to buy for myself. We bought gifts for our Nanny and Sam's mom for watching the kids while we were gone and so that was really my favorite part about the museum! :) (Smile!) We took some pictures, none really worth posting here, except the interesting fountain you walk under to get inside - Zach cracks up because he thinks the water is coming out of the fountain's "nose"!

Anyway, here are some pictures we took in Innsbruck. It was really one of the best places we visited!

Driving into Innsbruck - if you click on this one, there was a plane landing.

Old Town Innsbruck

Another Old Town Innsbruck - the Golden Roof is in very back of the picture, I think.

Just lined with cafes, shops - it was great (and the chocolate -----oh, the chocolate!)

The architecture in Europe is amazing. Look at the detail on this old building. (Might need to click the picture.)

A river right outside of the "Old Town"

Wouldn't be complete without a McDonald's right?

The silver lady......sort of creepy? We saw her golden twin in Paris.

The Olympic stadium in Innsbruck - I can only imagine seeing the Olympics there - had to of been amazing!

Driving up to the Swarovski museum

Here's the waterfall/fountain - you walk into the museum on either side - the museum is basically underground. It was interesting.....some of the exhibits were a little on the creepy side and many were not really related to "crystals..." but it was definitely interesting.

The next stop on our trip is Heidelberg, Germany. I will blog about that next. We LOVED Heidelberg, and if Sam ever was to get transferred to Germany... I hope that's the place (LOL). There was shopping MALLS with DEPARTMENT stores, grocery stores, great restaurants.....definitely livable! :)