My Last Day In Innsbruck

As I had planned, Saturday I again went on a free guided hiking tour. The program is sponsored by the city of Innsbruck, and they really do a great job. They even allow you to borrow brand-new hiking boots. This time, we took the nordkettlbahn cable car from the city center a couple of minutes into the neighboring mountainside. The hiking here was a marked difference compared to the Westfalenhaus Glacier that I hiked on Thursday, but both were good in their own right. We mainly stayed on forest trails and the occasional gravel footpath, although we did hike/climb a short ways up the path of an avalanche slide zone too. Apparently it was a dangerous spot in the winter months, but at that moment it was obviously more safe. It was amazing to think that so much snow comes rocketing down the slope every winter. Even more incredible was when I learned that local daredevils both ski and mountainbike down its extreme gradient as well!

I really enjoyed getting to know my fellow bikers - there were about twelve of us and a very diverse group to be sure. There was a former linguistics professor from UGA who was able to count Icelandic among his language repertoire (he had a wife there too but needless to say I mostly talked with him about bulldogs football) a medical student from Germany, another twenty-something-year-old guy vacationing from Germany, a young family of three from Canberra, Austrailia, and a slightly goofy, middle aged computer engineer from New Orleans, just to name a few. It was a fun way to spend me last day in such a beautiful town. By the way, Mom and Abby, I was able to obtain a surprise for each of you there. I think you will like it.

Today I had a nice train ride from Innsbruck to Verona, where I transferred to Milan. Especially on the way to Verona, the countryside was rife with vineyards and wineries, and today was quite a nice travel day. I got into Milan towards evening, so I checked into my hostel and searched for an open store. As with many European cities, most shops are closed on Sundays, but I was able to find a pasticeria, where I told the man in quasi-good Italian that I wanted to practice my language skills. He spoke to me only in Italian from then on, and so did I. I ordered a sandwich and marmalade torte with no ordering confusion, which marked that as a definite triumph. It is pretty cool to be able to communicate without speaking a word of English. In fact, a gentleman on my train asked me a question in Italian, and it was pretty satisfying to be able to understand and reply.

At times I feel as though I am constantly revising my list of favorite places, though this is definitely a good thing, I think. Right now, austria has been my favorite destination, but I have a feeling Italy will prove to be a strong contender too. I cant wait to update y'all again.

Also, they don't play much country music over here, for some strange reason. Feel free to email me with the names of any new singles that are released. Just sayin'...