Innsbruck was where we weresupposed to meet up with some friends from Singapore who were on their honeymoon, so we were pretty stoked about that. Unfortunately their tour schedule got changed and we couldn’t meet in the end which was a little disappointing.
We visited Schloss Ambras just before we reached Innsbruck. It was originally a medieval castle but Archduke Ferdinand II converted it into a Renaissance castle for his wife, Philippine Welser who was of lower social rank.
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| Gardens at Schloss Ambras |
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| Armouries |
The castle is famous for its collection of armouries, with armours from the 15th century which originally belonged to Emperor Maximilian I and Archduke Sigismund. The Spanish Hall was pretty amazing and I could totally imagine holding fancy banquets there. The Wunderkammer (Gallery of Wonders) was quirkily interesting. It was like a form of after dinner entertainment to show off a room full of artifacts from all over the world. There was also a room full of portraits, but I didn’t really like them and the staff kept staring at us as if we would make off with one of the paintings. We saw couples taking wedding photos in the grounds, and it was fun to see them posing. One of them had a wooden frame which the photographer used to create some interesting photos. Pretty fun to watch.
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| Miniature all carved out of wood |
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| Highly decorated safe |
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| Grand hall |
The town of Innsbruck didn’t have much that really interested us, so we took a walking tour, organized by the tourist office to learn more about its history. Innsbruck is most famous for its Goldenes Dachl, the golden roof on top of a three storey balcony. It is made up of 2657 glided copper tiles and was built to serve as a court box during the reign of Emperor Maximilian I. Itwas probably really awesome back in the day but it honestly didn’t do much foreither of us. There were some guys dressed up in traditional Austrian costumes having a stag party while we were there which was pretty entertaining to watch.
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| The "Golden Roof"!!! A gold roof, thats all folks! |
We also visited the Imperial Apartments which were pretty impressive. The Austrian Empire was pretty powerful back in the day and the Imperial Apartments was a showcase of that power. The Giant Hall, so named due to the series of paintings of Hercules, was a magnificent festival and ceremony hall in the alpine region. Portraits of Maria Theresa’s 16 children hung in the Giant Hall, to demonstrate the fertility and political power of her regency. Unusually, the paintings are hung by birth order, and not by sons first, which was probably quite modern in its time. Since women were expected to give birth and it was their duty (not the men’s) to ensure the lineage continued, having 16 children was considered quite a feat. The ImperialApartments owe its present appearance to Maria Theresa, with the rococo façade,the chapel and state rooms all reflecting her sense of taste.
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| No photos, no photos! Sneaked in one... |
We also went for a short day tripout to Swarovski Kristallwelten which was just a short drive outside of Innsbruck. It was designed by Andre Heller in 1995 and the Entrance Hall has the largest crystal ever cut, 310,000 carats in total, on display. The Crystal Dome which has a total of 595 mirrors, was quite a surreal experience. Within the gallery, there were mini crystal monuments by Swarovski of the world’s wonders, it looked interesting but nothing really stood out. There was also a rather nice park outside which was probably great fun for families with kids, too bad most of the stuff is really only for children otherwise we would have had quite a good time playing. We honestly expected more out of this place, but in the end it felt like an excuse for a glorified warehouse selling Swarovski, probably not worth making the trip there unless you are a big big fan.
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Christmas trees and jelly fish made of crystals |
After the beauty of Tschagguns,Innsbruck was a bit of a disappointment but we managed to get quite a lot of laundry done, which was a good thing afterall I guess. Hopefully the birthplace of Mozart would be much better.
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