This time last year, the whole family and myself took a trip. When I say the whole family, I’m talking Mrs TimberMane, TimberMane Toddler and the TimberMane Parents! It was no ordinary trip either, we were off for a festive weekend in the magical city of Innsbruck in Austria.
I’ve been to Austria many times over the course of my short but colourful life, the main reason for this, other than it being an amazing place, is that my Dad made friends with an Austrian in the 60’s and they remained friends ever since, I’ll talk more about this on a future blog, because for now I want to tell you about the magic of our holiday to this alpine city.
As I mentioned I have visited many times, mostly for skiing and snowboarding, and occasionally in summer. I have been twice during the festive period and frankly the Christmas spirit it inspires is very special. I have been banging on about this to my wife for some time…. I have been saying: “you’ll never experience anything like it… It makes you proper Christmassy!” Eventually, she caved, and partnered with my Dad, who also loves booking holidays, set about planning a trip!
One of the main reasons was to visit the Christmas markets, drink glühwein and eat Kaiserschmarrn! Granted you could just go to the Birmingham Christmas market as they serve all this stuff, but lets face it, IT’S SHIT! Overpriced and overcrowded, and more often than not, thanks to the UK weather… WARM! Some people try to kid themselves and put their big coats and woolly accessories on to look the part, but all they’re doing is overheating and overspending!
Anyway, Innsbruck, so far detached from Brimingham!! Don’t get me wrong, I like Brum, but it should stay in it’s own lane, it just doesn’t compare to Innsbruck. Birmingham doesn’t have mountains surrounding it, and not just any mountains – THE ALPS! It doesn’t really have snow either, and on the extremely slim chance that it does, the whole place would grind to a health and safety halt!
I’m no travel writer but I’ll try my best to describe this beautiful city to you. Innsbruck is an easy blend of Alpine grit, well established by the hard graft of farmers past and relaxed city living made popular by all the wealthy medical experts who trained and live there. It’s a place where colourful old streets sit comfortably beneath massive, snow stacked mountains. It’s grounded, practical, outdoorsy, and absolutely obsessed with winter sports in a way that just feels natural, not showy or pretentious. You can grab a beer, look up from the glass, and immediately spot a group, all stood waiting for the bus with skis over their shoulders off to carve up the many ski routes that the surrounding Alps have to offer. It’s tidy, scenic, efficient, and impressive, the sort of city TimberMane feels instantly at home.
Hopefully that helps you see why I wanted to take the family…
So, on a dark, dank December morning we checked in at Birmingham Airport, my daughter enjoyed the attention of her parents and grandparents, but no where near as much as she enjoyed honing her recently acquired walking skills on the expansive flat and smooth floor of the airports terminal.
Eventually we boarded after a bit of a delay, a delay that would wreak havoc further down the line. Landing in Frankfurt it was plain to see we were in trouble; we had 35 minutes to make our connecting flight to Innsbruck. If any of you have been to Frankfurt airport, you would know how massive this place is. It’s vast! It is its own town! There was no way we would be making this we thought, however, my father and I have been in this position a few times before and we all know German efficiency! However, Brexit has happened since then and we would have to go through passport control… Thankfully the Germans are still efficient, and we were bussed from the plane to Passport control, rushed through and bussed to our connecting flight in the nick of time!! Phew! Little did we know our bags didn’t receive the same speedy treatment!
We discovered this on our arrival to Innsbruck when our bags didn’t show up on the belt! Still in Frankfurt the fella at the desk said, they’ll be here either tomorrow or the day after… Brilliant! All we had were the clothes on our back and it wasn’t exactly warm there…. Oh well, we are resourceful and have been in worse situations, Lufthansa gave us some basics and thankfully we had wonderful friends who would lend us winter clothing.
These wonderful friends also picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at Hotel Central, who wonderfully upgraded us to suites! Winner! This rarely happens to TimberMane! This was a nice little lift after not receiving our bags!
If we would have had our bags we’d have dumped them and headed out, so instead we just, well, headed out! Straight for the old town for a glühwein! Which was lovely! Perfectly sweet with balanced spice infusion and served at a perfect temperature that warms your heart as well as your soul! The location really cranks the taste up a notch too. At this point we were famished, so we enjoyed a lovely meal in one of the restaurant bars under The Golden Roof.
With full bellies after enjoying a range of traditional Tyrolean food, we explored the Old Town market and all they had to offer, took some photos of the Old Town decorations, enjoyed a glühwein or two before our weary bodies could handle no more, (travelling really takes it out of you.) Our bed was comfortable and I was soon off into a deep sleep.
The next morning I woke before the girls and went out to find supplies. By supplies I mean kids clothes and food. We had a small supply of food but little in the way of clothing, I wasn’t massively successful but managed to obtain a few items to tide us over. It was a grim morning, rain was hammering down and the view of the mountains around the city were camouflaged by cloud… Walking back with my hood up I prayed it would improve.
We enjoyed breakfast in the adjoining café, Café Central, a traditional Viennese café, where I enjoyed Scrambled eggs, my favourite type of eggs!
After a bit of exploring, our friends picked us up and took us to their home in the alpine village of Igls. Perched on the side of Patscherkofel, Igls has a proud history, this mountain hosted the downhill and sliding events like bobsleigh and skeleton during the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. In its heyday, Igls was a major winter sports destination, but over time the bigger, flashier resorts have drawn many of the crowds away. It’s a shame in one sense, but it also means Igls has settled into a quieter, more authentic ski village, loved by the locals, and treasured by those who truly know the area.
By this time the weather took a turn for the best, the sky was blue and there wasn’t even a cloud to even threaten the sun. After a beautiful lunch we enjoyed wine outside while we made our plans. With the fire of excitement burning inside of me we made our way off to Pertisau which sits beside the largest lake in The Tyrol – Achensee!
It was bitter cold, so naturally we huddled around the firepit, enjoyed a warming glühwein while we listened to the brass band play Christmas classics. The beauty about the markets in Innsbruck is that they are all independent and individual, yes you’ll see some items the same, but they are generally unique in some way. So, you are one hundred percent supporting local!
The views down the lake were stunning, we observed some boats which take passengers on lake cruises where they can enjoy a meal while the mountains roll by the window! A slight step up from a Windermere lake cruise.
Once we’d all formed icicles on our noses, we took a ride to Rattenberg, which is up the Inn valley and situated right on the river, I was hoping the plan would take us here… They hold a very special “parade” around this time of year… The towns and villages hold Krampus Fesitvals, Some of you may be familiar with Krampus, potentially you have visited the continent at this time of year, you may have European family, or maybe you have watched American Dad… Briefly, for the sake of those that don’t know, in Central Eurpoean folklore, Krampus is a demon, he is the ying to Father Christmas’s yang. Father Christmas will deliver gifts to well behaved little girls and boys, nothing to dissimilar to our own culture… However, if you’re a naughty boy or girl in Europe, Krampus will visit you….. And he’ll beat the living shit out of you!
I like this, not the child abuse bit, because spoiler… its folklore… because it holds a little more weight than simply threatening your naughty kids with Santa Claus not coming, you’re able to threaten frightening violence!
Anyway… as I said, the towns and villages hold their own Krampus Parades but Rattenbergs is something special. Dozens of people dress up in huge costumes made from straw, don scarily real demon masks and bang the hell out of petrol tanks, all whilst others breath fire, carry flaming torches and play harrowing trumpets!
This isn’t all, whilst the parade marches through the streets in ranks there is another element happening in the shadows… What I can only describe as hooligans (dressed as Krampus’ little helpers) run riot with a bundle of Birch branches called a Rute, and beat the crap out of anyone they can catch!! It’s a wonderful experience and a sight to behold, Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without them…. I only say this because the bruising has just gone down!
That evening, we thankfully received our luggage and enjoyed exploring more markets before meeting our friends for drinks at the Piano Bar. Dad and his friend recounted tales of adventures past, making us laugh with stories of trips to Turkey, France and Holland. It’s always great to hear these stories and to see Dad’s face light up when they are recalling their escapades!
A wonderful first day! It felt so good to be back, almost like being home. Tomorrow promised to be full-on, proper alpine stuff, so a decent night’s rest was essential. And trust me… you’ll want to check back next week. The real adventure hadn’t even started yet.
Ciao
TM
