f r e s h s t a r t

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

 

Innsbruck

I spent most of a day on a train getting from Amsterdam to Innsbruck, Austria. When I bought my railpass I was a little bummed that I had to pay for a 1st class pass (the 2nd class pass is for the under-26 crowd), but I'm really enjoying the larger seats and virtually empty cars. When I arrived I checked in at the Jugendherberge Innsbruck, a youth hostel located in what I believe used to be Olympic athlete housing. Innsbruck hosted the winter games in 1964 and 1976, and this building was "built on the occasion of the 1976 Olympics." And it looks like it.

I checked in at our dorm the next day, and I've been in class for three days now. The town is lovely. It's a small city in the middle of the Alps. The mountains are literally all around us. I walk along the river each day to get to class, and there are mountain views out the large classroom windows. Monday night they had a reception for us at the Schloss Ambras, a castle built by some king for his secret commoner wife. It included an armor museum, and a few amusing peacocks that were just roaming the grounds.

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