Innsbruck is a small city with a lot of history, a large student population and an incredible amount of snow. Arriving at Kranebitten Airport in the winter can be a blind affair, as the plane passes over the Alps and drops through swirling whiteness. You can understand why the Innsbruck landing is a mainstay of flight simulators.
The city nestles in the Inn River valley, in western Austria, with the High Alps flaring up on either side. There are 278km of possible skiing in the immediate area and everyone’s at it. Office workers pop up to Nordpark or the Bergisel in their lunch hour. I met a 92-year-old who had, reluctantly, hung up her skis just a year ago, and a three-year-old who was already an enthusiast. As one Innsbrucker told me, ‘There’s not much else to do here.’ Though that isn’t strictly true.
Innsbruck is wealthy. And cultured. Its location between so many centres (Vienna, Verona, Munich, etc) once ensured its riches, though now it’s tourism that keeps the coffers full. Its shops might err on the traditional side but there’s a fine shoe store in Meranerstrasse selling Prada, Hogan and Tod’s and a boutique on Gilmstrasse with the latest from Jean Paul Gaultier. Restaurants range from the very traditional (look for the well-priced tagesmenus) to modern European chic at chic European prices. The Grand Hotel Europa, opposite the main station, has no shortage of customers in its expensive restaurant or rooms, that are currently undergoing a transformation from the classic Tyrolean symphony of painted wood and ruffled curtains to something more contemporary. The opera house and theatre will be showing productions of Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz, the symphony concerts and My Fair Lady in January and February and the government-funded gallery in the Taxi Palais offers a programme of young artists.
Indeed, there are conspicuous shows of wealth and culture here dating back to 1490, when Emperor Maximillian I erected the famous Golden Roof (Goldenes Dach) as a shelter for the court to look out from (it’s actually copper, but in the Alpine sunlight it could fool anyone). His great grandson went on to build the Schloss Ambras down the road — one of Austria’s finest Renaissance palaces in a beautiful park.
In every village round about are examples of highly decorated Baroque churches (make sure to visit the one in Goetzner). And down the road is Wattens, a town reliant on the success of crystal specialists Swarovski, which arrived in 1868. The company has its own visitor centre, Kristallwelten, extraordinary multimedia pieces ranging from kitsch to stunning by artists including Brian Eno and Nikki de St Phalle. It is the second most visited site in Austria after Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace.
