Fall Break Adventures: Innsbruck, Austria

As I had mentioned, when driving back from Switzerland, precipitation was coming down and temperatures were dropping to freezing....so we were not completely surprised the next morning when we saw this on our drive to Innsbruck (or as Clarissa said, "Queen Elsa was here").

When we first arrived, we I was on a mission to find the super sparkly store (selling it to Clarissa), otherwise known as the Swarovski Crystal shop.....Unfortunately, their crystal world museum is undergoing renovations....so are only choice was to visit one of the largest Swarovski boutiques in the world.

There were crystals in the stairs.....

A multi-floor chandelier (here is just a portion of it)

I can only imagine how pretty (and sparkly) the crystal world is. I got a nice sapphire crystal earrings and pendant set. Richard was super sweet and bought Clarissa her first crystal jewelry set (lady bugs with crystal spots). Mason wanting everything to be fair and got an emerald crystal keychain.

With our my mission complete, we walked around Old Town. We found the "Goldenes Dachl” (Golden Roof). I would call it more of a golden awning.....

Mason met his favorite monster movie character......the Invisible Man!

We stopped in and got the kids a snack at McDonald's

and Mason made giant bubbles with the street entertainer.

We bought some souvenirs (must add to shot glass collection.....) and then headed up to the zoo.

The AlpenZoo Innsbruck is up a hill from the city center, it is actually in a somewhat residential area. We really enjoyed the zoo and how up close you could get to the animals. The zoo also had lots of peek out points where you could see the animals from a different point of the exhibit and remain hidden from the animals (which worked well with the zoo being on a hillside).

Here's a happy mountain goat of some sort.

Peeking in on a falcon.

Some cats.

I'm not really sure how the little rope "fence" keeps the animals contained, but the kids had no fear getting up as close as possible!

Moose! (We also viewed the moose from the porch directly above him).

There was a lookout point with a wonderful view. I can imagine how breathe taking it would be on a clear day to see the Alps overlooking Innsbruck.

There is a piece of glass between Clarissa and the brown bear....but it was great to see such an active bear!

The kids really enjoyed the two hours we spent climbing the hill in the zoo. Afterwards, we headed back to the resort to partake in the hot pool tub again! On the way, we stopped in an adorable ski village called Mittenwald.  They have a Bavarian totem pole.

We had some ice cream.

Wandering around the village we saw the church of Saints Peter and Paul.

It was pretty sleepy the day we visited, but I can imagine in another month or two it will be a bustling town!

Mittenwald definitely had the classic German village feel.  Another fun day....check!