Mittenwald Cow Parade and Walk around Innsbruck

 

Mittenwald Almabtrieb

We checked out of Guest house barrenwort and I talked briefly with the Young manager. She said that this hotel had burn down at one time and it was rebuilt. I told her how much we enjoyed it. She also told me that the restaurant next door was built in 1632. At one time it was the tollgate between Germany and Austria. In the restaurant you could still see the arches where vehicles must have gone through. We headed over to Mittenwald where we knew there was another cow parade. The town had a very different vibe to it as we didn’t see any posters and we didn’t see any spectators lining the route. We knew where the route was so we found a parking space and sat in the car it was warm. We did ask A volunteer fireman about the route and he said we were on the right road and then he continued his conversation with his friend drinking his beer. Yep, we’re in Germany. Finally the cows came by. We didn’t see any wearing flowers but they all had on bills and it was still a wonderful sight seeing them parade through the streets. At the beginning of the parade were some Calves and it was funny as the calves decided to head between the parked cars and the little boys had to run after them. The older farmers did not even seem concerned. A second group of cows came by and that seem to be the end because then there was a whole group of people parading down the street out to the festplatz. We were intrigued as we had already driven out to the fence plots and knew there was nothing there. But we were in Germany so what else should we do but follow the crowd. We walked almost a mile out of town and I heard a woman say there was nothing at the end except they were going to put the cows away. But if we were to go back there was a fest tent where people could have drinks. now it all made sense – it was just another occasion for the people to get together and have some beer. In fact as we were leaving town, we could hear the oompah music in the tent.

Our next stop was in a larger city, Innsbruck. We checked into our hotel which is very close to the Altstatt. We had no real plans for the city so we just decided to walk around downtown. We headed over to the All-Star and saw the Gold roof. it was completed in 1500 and it’s decorated with 2657 tiles to commemorate the marriage of Emperor Naximilian I to Bianca Maria Sforza.  Next we climbed the old tower also in the Square. We could see the mountain ranges far off in the distance and then closer up we could see all of Innsbruck city. The views were breathtaking. We were glad that the rain has stopped and the skies are clear. The tower is 51 m high and there are 133 steps. It is unique because there are steps going up and there’s a separate staircase going down. At the very top just before you walk out onto the pier a pet, there’s a glass floor allowing you to look down to the bottom. It is quite impressive. After the tower we walked downtown, over to the river and then over to the half garden. Innsbruck is really a very beautiful city. We had dinner at a pizza restaurant. We shared a small mushroom pizza and a piece of apple strudel. The apple strudel was so good that I’ve decided I will try one at home. Scotty had a heavy fighting and I tried A rather. It was perfect as I was quite hungry. It turns out we had walk 5 miles around town and I was wearing my hiking boots which made my feet even more tired.

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