Innsbruck
HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE diary : Day 13 - 27th April 2016
Innsbruck, the capital of the federal state of Tyrol, lies to the western side of Austria. It hosts a variety of winter activities and is an acclaimed International Winter destination. The city was supposedly inhabited during Stone Age. In the early 12th Century, it played the role of a passage between Germany and Italy, for trade and exchange. The settlements around, facilitated the frequent movement of goods and services, over the bridge (Brucke) in this area, giving the city its name - INNSBRUCK- meaning " A bridge over the Inn".
Our five nights in Austria was accommodated in "Zell-am-see". At that time, our priority was to visit all possible touristy places. Obviously, after scanning the Internet a little, we chose to visit the SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL WORLD (museum attraction), in Innsbruck. Early that morning, we had our breakfast and reached the Zell-am-see railway station. The Sunny beginning seemed perfect. Our Eurail passes came handy. The train was almost empty and started as scheduled. The scenery slowly and steadily began changing from green to white. Beginning from the outskirts of Innsbruck, every area seemed to welcome snow. Our train passed mountainous regions drizzled with snow. Every tiny settlement on the way looked so pretty. By the time we crossed the stations of "PFAFFENSCHWENDT" and "FIEBERBRUNN", the snow grew thicker and the 'greens' totally vanished. We reached Worgl station in an hour and half. We hopped out of the 'warm' train on to the relatively 'chill' platform. As we awaited our train to Innsbruck, it began to snow. Snowfall is always beautiful. You can find a short video of this experience in the gallery.
Our train arrived in 20 minutes time. The journey to Innsbruck was pleasant too. The windows in the train were even bigger and the seats were almost empty, yet again. Travelling with the Eurail pass was beneficial. We just needed to produce our tickets whenever the "Ticket Inspector" came around. The journey took us about an hour. The white scenery slowly and steadily turned green again. In any case, the snow wasn't so much of a concern, as we had expected the 'Swarovski Crystal world' to be a completely INDOOR experience. We were wrong. Luckily the skies cleared out by the time we got to Innsbruck station. A bus outside the station took us to WATTENS, for a small ticket price.
The bus shielded us from cold weather. We felt cozy, whizzing past clean roads, surrounded by snowy mountain ranges & green lands strewn with yellow flowers. It already felt very inviting. This leg of the journey lasted for about 30 minutes.
The Crystal world is a 15 minute walk from this bus stop. The comfortable journey, coupled with green scenic splendours, was more than what we had expected. The walk from the bus stop to the Crystal world was easy and energising. We had plenty of photo shoot opportunities during our walk.
We couldn't get enough of it. The advance purchase of tickets to the Crystal world, that included a 'to & fro' shuttle from Innsbruck, proved useful. In fifteen minutes we reached the attraction. A few photographs with the "YES TO ALL" as our backdrop, was taken for records. We spotted a restaurant. Walking past the gates, we came face to face with a waterfall, being spewed by a GREEN GIANT head. The museum, a brain child of Andre Heller, made for the crystal glass manufacturer "Swarovski", is housed inside this structure. The exhibits here are split into 17 chambers of craftsmanship, all made using crystals. Each chamber displays unique art forms, with different themes , created by various internationally recognised artists, who have interpreted the crystal stones in their own way.
We moved from room to room, appreciating these intricate art works. The interiors were dark enough to make the crystals shine but it was tough to get clear photographs.
The crystal dome was fascinating. The creation of the dome is said to be based on the Geodesy principle. The huge dome with nearly 600 mirrors, reflecting to give its viewers a feeling of being stuck inside a crystal, was well worth a visit. We enjoyed moving around inside the dome, playing with our correspondingly moving reflections that made patterns like a kaleidoscope. A crystal studded horse, crystal chandeliers, flowing crystals, crystal balls, a wall of crystals, a crystal ball, a Christmas tree made of crystals are some of the exhibits we managed to capture in the dark. That was not all. Moving from darkness to better lighting, we came across a white chamber. Here, there was a single, white, cemented structure, that almost occupied the entire room.
There were similar replicas made in crystal, displayed in the same room, inside a glass case. It seemed to be depicting rays of different sizes, emitting from a central piece. It couldn't get more weird. There was another chamber displaying all the important buildings in the world atop a crystal mountain, The Basils cathedral of Moscow, The Big Ben of London, The Statue of liberty are some we could easily recognise. Moving on, we once again got into dark chambers. Here , a fantastic crystal display of the Taj Mahal enraptured us. There was also the pyramids of Giza. Next we moved to the chamber, which exhibited clothing, shoes and accessories favoured by the rich and famous. A few crystal animals were also displayed. We spent a little more than an hour to cover all the chambers.
The in-house shop displayed many items for purchase. They were , of course, expensive. A short scan around was more than enough, before stepping out. Out in the lawn area, is the Crystal cloud and Mirror Pool. Around 8 lakh hand mounted crystals fill these clouds. A closer look allowed us to experience the sparkle of the shiny stones in these clouds. The pool below, has a walking path running right into it. One can get a feeling of walking into the pool on this path. It ends at the centre, from where the view of the clouds above, shine away, reflecting and producing a unique experience. The lawn also has a beautiful garden with a small water fall and also a Maze. We got into the leafy maze, trying to get out at the other end. It wasn't very difficult. It was a fun experience.
Our visit to Innsbruck soon came to an end. We walked back to our bus stop to get to Innsbruck station and boarded our trains to return to Zell am see. We spent a beautiful evening in Zell am see village. This is how day 13th of this tour ended.