Week 81: Innsbruck

After our marathon trip last weekend, we had a really quiet week. We had grand plans for almost every night of the week; to go to Christmas markets, trivia night, and for World Cup games, but ended up staying in almost every night. We each took turns with colds and the weather has been so crappy- cloudy, gray, cold, and rainy. It made us all feel so lazy and tired, we decided to lay low.

Thursday night, Matt and I did make it to Tübingen for the chocolate festival, which is the biggest one in Germany. It says it’s NOT a Christmas market, but there was plenty of glühwein and food stalls in addition to the chocolate. They had chocolate everything: wine, liqueur, fruit, candy, breads, fudge, you name it. We had lots of samples, bought lots of treats to take home and drank hot chocolate wine while we walked around. I also tried a Hot Aperol, for the first time which I thought was surprisingly good. The city was decorated for Christmas and the buildings in the Old Town had illuminations on them.

Saturday, we drove down to Innsbruck to meet my aunt and uncle for a late Thanksgiving/early Christmas. Innsbruck is about halfway between where we live and where they live in Italy and is a city we love. It’s got a great, pedestrian old town, charming architecture, and good vibes, all set in a valley in the Alps.

After we got checked in to our hotel, we went to lunch at the same little restaurant we ate at on our last visit.

Afterwards, we walked through the three Christmas markets in the old town, did some shopping, and drank more glühwein. We got two new mugs to add to the collection. Then, we finished up with some drinks back at the hotel.

We made the drive back home on Sunday. Austria is a “vignette country” which means you have to buy a sticker to drive on the autobahn since you cross the border. We had bought a 10-Day sticker the previous weekend, which expired Saturday. We refused to buy another on the way back so drove out of Austria on the back roads. It was so pretty! We got back early in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day getting ready for the week.

Next weekend we are taking a much needed break and staying home!