Innsbruck, Austria

OK then, first on the road post.

Well, I managed to get most of my gear packed. This was a nontrivial affair and involved repacking the bags after the cases wouldn't close and adding my messenger bag for a little bit of extra storage. I will not be getting any souvenirs. Definitely a new experience. There's quite a bit of 'just in case' gear in there that just wouldn't be necessary on a shorter trip or indeed if this wasn't a shoulder season. By the time I got into Innsbruck it was in the 70s and tomorrow morning, when I ride up the Brenner pass it'll be around 40.

The ride into Innsbruck was nice. Total 330 km. I did most of it off highway, stopped for lunch at the side of the road. Turns out those side cases make a decent table.

I hopped on the highway after Memmingen. Was tooling along at a comfy 85-90 mph, when after crossing into Bavaria and the Allgaeu, the Alps came into view. Very cool. It was really momentous to have that first glimpse of the snow tipped peaks. Of course they became ever more prominent as I crossed into Austria and then I was just in them. Drove up the Fernpassstrasse and right past the Zugspitze.

Slight delay as they closed the road to remove some debris from a minor rock slide (No worries, nothing to see here), but I made it to the hotel without any trouble.

Innsbruck is literally surrounded by mountains. This is not a huge surprise if you look at a map, but it is very striking when you're just ambling about town.

Grabbed a beer in the old town and the with the aid of Yelp, tracked down a very local bar/restaurant just a half a block of the tourist square, called "die Wilderin" (the (female) poacher). Had Kohlrabi carpachio and a horse ragout with spinach bread dumpling, accompanied by old vine Zweigelt. Fantastic. Wish I could get that wine stateside. Had a body more akin to cabernet than Zweigelt. Nonetheless, I stopped early, since I am planning one hitting the road before 8 am tomorrow.