Four nights in Germany and Austria have gone by in a flash, so let’s wrap up, commencing with some transport stats (in order of appearance).
| Mode | Count | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Plane | 🛬 | A pleasant SAS flight in from Copenhagen to Frankfurt |
| Train | 🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃 | Including a 7 hour overnight leg from Koblenz to Rosenheim |
| Gondola | 🚡🚡🚡🚡🚡 | Traditionally this should be an even number, however we elected to walk down from the mountain in Rüdesheim. |
| Walking | 👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣 | Lots. Yes, technically we did walk from the plane to the first train, but the first serious walk was after the first gondola ride. |
| Bicycle | 🚴 | A scenic, albeit windy, 33 kms up the Rhine and back (well, back for some of us, a contribution to the train count for others) |
| Funicular | 🎢🎢 | A moderately scenic ride to Nordkette. |
| Tram | 🚋 | This was somewhat of a box-ticking exercise. Besides, we got a free 24 hour Tyrol transport ticket. |
Rüdesheim
A charming town, Rüdesheim features many traditional German restaurants, a lot of wineries (riesling and pinot noir being the prominent grapes of the region), and a handful of interesting tourist attractions.
RhineWeinWelt
A novel wine tasting experience based in an old brandy distillery. You buy a bag of tokens for €22 and then vend your own tastings from the 80 wineries on offer. Great novelty value for the kids.
Siegfried’s Mechanisches Musikkabinett
With almost 500 mechanically automated musical instruments, the tour of Siegfried’s Musikkabinett is a must-see. Items ranging from small musicboxes to enormous travelling fairground style organs have been restored to full working order and are demonstrated by the enthusiastic tour guide.
Mechanicum
The Temu version of the Musikkabinett - worth a visit but make sure you do this one first because I think otherwise it would be a bit disappointing. Mostly a collection of recent automatons - there are some interesting pieces such as ball runs, and a few quirky items to keep the adults entertained. Make sure you take a close look at Icarus Flies Undone, as well as the amusing The Invisible Honeymooners.
Eltville
About 15kms up the Rhine is the delightful town of Eltville. Less touristy than Rüdesheim, it boasts an old castle with some delightful rose gardens, as well as some classic German houses.
Typical German-style house in Eltville
Stopping to smell the roses
Nightjet 469
The Nightjet 469 departs Brussels at the very leisurely time of 7:30pm, and arrives in Vienna at a respectable 10am. What a way to travel!
Unfortunately, our leg departed Koblenz at 11:26pm (+ a 40 minute delay or so), and arrived at Rosenheim at 6:50ish. So basically, zombie on at night, zombie off in the morning.
Still, it saved a day of travel!
Innsbruck
We arrived as weary travellers in Innsbruck only to discover that pretty much everything was closed for the Corpus Christi holiday. Luckily the gondolas were running so we headed up to check out the view while we waited for our room to become available.
Top of Innsbruck (2,334m)
One side effect of the overnight train is that everything seemed to sway slightly all day. We headed back to the hotel for an early check-in and shower, before exploring whatever we could find that wasn’t closed.
Innsbruck apparently has the largest number of historical organs in Austria, so most of the afternoon was me ducking my head into various churches and seeing if anyone was available to give me a go on one. I was not successful.
Our hotel also boasted the highest rooftop bar in Innsbruck, and so we retired there for a cold weißbier before getting ready to head to Italy in the morning.
