It may not quite be The Sound of Music, but you do have a boy and girl walking a German Shepherd, a church steeple, some wildflowers, and a splendid panorama of Austrian Alps. This was the view a short distance outside Innsbruck, my next stop after Venice, and about as big a contrast as could be imagined to the gaudy, bustling, floating city.
The train ride north to Innsbruck, in the northwest corner of Austria, was richly scenic . I took more pictures through the train window (9) than I did of Innsbruck itself. Here they are in order as sunset fell:
The last of these photos I can't identify, but I'm guessing it was from my bedroom window the next morning. When I got off the train, well after dark, a middle-aged couple asked me if I was looking for a room to rent. It was a common practice back then, at least in some cities, for hosts to go to the train station to seek out renters: it was the pre-Internet version of Airbnb, where you couldn't see a picture of your prospective room but you could talk face-to-face with your host(s). The couple drove me to their apartment, which was pleasant and modern.
Innsbruck is directly at the base of some pretty spectacular mountains that seem to jut up directly from the edge of town, though actually with a foothill or two in between:
That afternoon I took an interurban tram to a small village outside the city, in order to see the full spectacle of the Alpine landscape:
The village had a distinctively Austrian church steeple and great views in every direction.
Besides the picture at the top of this post (the kids with the German shepherd), my other favorite photo from that excursion is one of another couple of kids flying a parachute-kite:
Back in town I took note of a few striking buildings and vistas:
And I visited a park toward sunset:
If I remember correctly, I stayed only the one night in Innsbruck, and took an overnight train to Paris the next evening (saving on the cost of a room). My final Austria picture on the roll was taken either from Innsbruck itself or from the train window:
In the next post I'll show some Parisian scenes, the last leg of my 1969 trip.
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