A loooooong day in Innsbruck!

Yesterday we went for a hike up Patscherkofel which is Innsbruck's 'home mountain'. It was high up on the peaks surrounding the city with spectacular views. It was supposed to be a 7km hike or so, but of course, being us, it ended up a lot longer. We made it to several peaks, and at the highest rifugio, stopped for the biggest cup of tea I had ever seen and delicious apple strudel. We had brilliant weather too. However, we hit 'Lightening and Thunderstorm' o'clock on the way down and got utterly hammered. Sodden we made it to the liftchair, only to find we were half an hour too late for the final descent so it was a loooooooooong walk down the windy road to the bottom. By the time we actually hit civilisation again, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Never was a bus so welcome as the one that picked us up within minutes of arriving at the village of Tulfel. And so finally we made it back to homebase for a hot shower and picnic of leftover cheese, crackers, gherkins, tomatos, olives, and biscuits for dinner. Yum.

Mountain flowers (photos not in order)

Breakfast at the hotel we are at

Very traditional Austrian hotel 'Beirwirt'

A new flower - some weed probably but very pretty

The olympic luge we saw on the cable car

The cable car - this is the last summer for this one. Its 19 years old and is being replaced.

From the top looking down

Toni and Jeremy before the start of another epic hike

Pretty Austrian buttercups

And bluebells

And more flowers

Barry meets another furry friend

Jeremy on the trail

Near the top...what a view!

More pretty mountain flowers

Another very well behaved furry friend

Very pretty flowers. I will have a go at painting all these in watercolour one day.

Apple strudel and a very large cup of tea (very welcome too!)

Making our way down the mountain since we had missed the last chairlift ride. Completely sodden! But it was very pretty..

We finally made it to civilisation - the township of Tulfel

A typical Austrian suburban house.

St George kills the dragon

A bus ride home...aaaaahhhh!

There were plenty of mad mountain bikers on the track too. Check this guy out!