Innsbruck 28/01-04/02/2023
Last year when I went skiing in La Plagne my right knee got inflamed on the long coach journey from Chambery, which took 4 hours due to long traffic cues. Coincidentally, that was as long as I was able to ski for before my knee packed up altogether. I note that I didn't even write it up, so I will just note, as an aside, that La Plagne looks to be a an excellent ski area and I must endeavour to get there and do it justice. Anyway, I had 8 months off tennis and still can't really run, so I had some doubts about my ability to ski this year. I opted to go to Innsbruck, partly because the transfer from the airport to the hotel was about as short as possible (20 minutes) and partly because I thought that if I couldn't ski I might find something else to entertain me in the city. This proved to be a mistake - I could ski with no adverse effects on my knee; the ski areas were an hours' bus ride each way from the hotel; there was little of interest to me in the city; and although the skiing was reasonable the skiable areas were small and somewhat limited.
The skibus from the hotel serviced 3 ski resorts: Axamer Lizum which I went to on days 1,5 & 6, which had the best skiing; Stubei Gletscher on Day 2, which had the highest ski domain with great views; and Schlick 2000 on Day 3, which I found the most limited of the three. Days 1-3 were sunny, Day 5 was a white out and Day 6 started out sunny but became very overcast by midday. There was a little fresh snow on Day 6, but Innsbruck missed out on the heavy dump that some other Austrian resorts received.
I had a day off on Day 4 and walked to Schloss Ambras. The castle itself is not easy to see from its grounds, but I went there mainly to do some birding. I wasn't expecting some of the highlights to be a pair of Black Swans, one of which was on a nest on the edge of the icy waters, and a group of Peafowl.
I had a day off on Day 4 and walked to Schloss Ambras. The castle itself is not easy to see from its grounds, but I went there mainly to do some birding. I wasn't expecting some of the highlights to be a pair of Black Swans, one of which was on a nest on the edge of the icy waters, and a group of Peafowl.