Many months (or really years in the planning) it was finally Christmas day and we were having our white Christmas. The snow in Innsbruck had cooperated and the big dump of snow the day before had well and truly hung around, especially as it was minus 11 feels like minus 13!
Unfortunately I was the next victim of the vomit bug, that had struck down Anto, Zinnia, Soren and then Astrid in turn….. and I’d been up since 3am, revisiting our previous nights very expensive Christmas dinner 🙁
Even though we were away, Di and Max had set up a Christmas table with candy canes, Santa hats and novelty glasses and plenty of Max’s singing and dancing Santas around the house. Luckily Max had been purchasing Santas all over Europe so we had plenty of Christmas spirit. Twerking Santa purchased in Strasbourg was a favourite!
European Christmas breakfast
There were a couple of little presents from Grandma and then a European Christmas breakfast of pastries, meats and cheeses purchased the day before in Innsbruck. I couldn’t manage breakfast but Astrid was now a lot better so could at least contribute to demolishing the food. There might have even been lollies for breakfast 🙂
We had beautiful snowy views out our windows and it was a festive meal (for those that could eat!) in the Austrian alps…….
The official Christmas jumper portraits…..
It was a beautiful sunny day so we donned our Christmas jumpers and head out into the minus 11 temps to play in the snow. There were some snowball fights and backyard sledding.
This is definitely not how we spend Christmas morning in Australia!
It was time for a group shot in our Christmas jumpers. At home it’s definitely Christmas T-shirts not jumpers so it was a novelty to get to wear a Christmas jumper at Christmas!
There was a of course some throwing of snow…..
Rene had to jump in for a photo too, to prove she’d survived Christmas with the crazy crew! We were all very exited we had a truly snowy Christmas.
Off to Innsbruck….
While we could have happily played in the snow for hours, we had plans for the day. Unlike in Australia, where there is very little open on Christmas day, there were plenty of options in Europe. We’d planned to visit the Alpenzoo, and then head up the cable cars for the ‘Top of Innsbruck’ views from Hungerburg and the Nordkette.
The J bus was on a reduced timetable but still didn’t take long to zip us into Innsbruck. The views out the window were pretty good today!
We were catching the funicular up to the Alpenzoo (which at least Soren and Astrid had visited with us in 2016). The Alpenzoo is partway up the mountain and is one of the highest elevation zoos in Europe, and houses reportedly the world’s largest collection of animals from the Alpine region. We’d enjoyed our walk around here in 2016 and thought it was would be a fun Christmas day activity, especially for those who hadn’t been or were too young to remember their last visit!
The Alpenzoo….
The lines for the funicular were quite long but moved fast. Unfortunately we were packed into our funicular like sardines and it was difficult to even breathe. Most people were seemingly heading up the mountain, and only a few got off at the first Alpenzoo stop. We were pleased to escape the funicular and head into the zoo.
The Alpenzoo has amazing views across Innsbruck and on such a beautiful day we could appreciate the Winter wonderland.
We arrived at the zoo at around 11am and it wasn’t too busy, but there were still plenty of people around. The heavy snow cover meant a few areas were closed but we had fun walking around the small but hilly site. There are no shortage of stairs or steep ramps in this zoo but luckily the views make up for it and you get to work off your Christmas day food.
There are plenty of unfamiliar species for Aussies, and also some recongisable favourites. There was also plenty of snow and ice, although most animals were out enjoying the sunshine and not at all fussed by the freezing temperatures.
Particular favourites were some of the giant birds of prey, the lazy elk (reindeer) and the chamois who were climbing up the rocks.
We’d remembered from our last visit that the chamois are very fun to watch clamber all over the snow covered rocks.
We found a sleeping lynx up a tree and many pretty birds….
We also liked the lazy (giant) elk who were just sunning themselves in the snow while having a nap! This reminded us of our alpacas, Inti and Chimu who would like a sun nap, even on a subzero day.
Most of the birds of prey enclosures you can walk through and see the birds from different levels. They have rather amazing views over the city.
When you got up close to some of the vultures you could see how huge they were, most of the size of a Soren! Meanwhile Astrid was reliving her younger days enjoying rides on little kids toys covered in snow.
The petting area was particularly fun for the kids and they had quite a good time communing with cows, sheep and goats. They all missed our pets back at home so we pretty much had to drag them away from all the goat cuddles and the sheep who were trying to follow them.
The kids spent ages feeding and petting the goats, sheep and cows and we went searching for the bears before we decided we should head up the mountain further.
Off to Hungerburg…..
Di, Max and Rene after seeing their favourite animals, had already gone ahead up the mountain while we had continued looking around the zoo. They had messaged to say the funicular was still incredibly busy. We managed to squeeze ourselves into the next funicular that arrived but it was very squishy, and I was not feeling great by this stage. By the time we got to the Hungerburg stop I had to have a bit of a sit on the ground once I made it out of the funicular.
Hungerburg is a small village, with a population of about 1000. It’s a popular place for tourists to stay to access the ski runs further up the mountain but today it was especially busy. We’d done this trip up the mountain in 2016, on a day when the weather was freezing and there were definitely no blue skies, so we had plenty of snow but couldn’t see the amazing views. It was however far less busy than today!
Our plan was to go straight up the cable car to Seegrube and then Hafelekar and look around Hunberburg on the way back down. It was now 1pm and the line for the cable car was snaking a long way back out of the station and barely moving. Di, Max and Rene had confirmed that they’d been waiting almost an hour and hadn’t gotten very far, so were now eating lunch. We decided that lunch with a view was in order so the kids shared a meat and cheese platter with a view. Anto had some nice hot dahl as the temperature was still minus 8 and outside seats were the only ones available. I was not feeling remotely like eating still.
The temperatures weren’t too bad as long as you kept moving. We had been watching the cable car lines during lunch and they were not progressing at any significant rate. As much as we wanted to go up to the 2300m of Hafelekar and actually see the views on a beautiful day, we weren’t sure we wanted to stand in lines for another few hours in the cold to do so.
Di, Max, Rene and Lorraine all decided they’d head back to Igls as they weren’t keen on more lining up. The five of us thought we’d have a little look around Hungerburg and if the cable car line accelerated it’s pace we might try our luck.
There was a small Christmas market in Hungerburg, with views back over Innsbruck. We had a bit of a look around and check out the views. We might not make it all the way to the top of the Nordkette today but at least we’d got to enjoy some stunning scenery on Christmas day!
You can clearly see the Inn River running through Innsbruck and the mountain ranges surrounding the city. Today we were in the mountains on the opposite side of Innsbruck to where we were staying, in Igls. We could also see the Bergisel ski jump, which we pass on the way back up the mountain to our Airbnb every day.
A quiet Christmas afternoon for some…..
With the cable car lines still not moving, and it now mid-afternoon we decided we’d just catch the J bus back down to Innsbruck and straight up the mountain on our side as it ran from one ‘peak’ to another. The bus was again extremely busy and the long winding journey was frought with danger for my unwell tummy. I had Zinnia on my lap falling asleep, and I was not feeling good on the long ride with lots of winding up and down, at often high speeds. We eventually made it back to our house in Igls without any public vomit!
The others had made it back and were warming up and settling in for a quiet Christmas afternoon with plenty of snacks and watching the Royal Variety show. Soren and I decided we definitely needed a rest so went and had a nap while Anto took Astrid and Zinnia ice skating. I was definitely bummed to not be up to some skating but even the thought of being upright any longer wasn’t great.
Christmas ice skating…
We originally visited he Igls ice skating rink back in 2016 and it had a significant upgrade since our last visit. Astrid and Zinnia had a great time skating. Having only ice skated for the first time on this trip, Zinnia continued to improve her ice skating, abandoning her skate animal almost immediately and showing off her new skill, much to Astrid and Anto’s delight. Both girls had to be dragged back to the house for dinner in the dark and cold as they would have stayed all night!
Once they did return from skating Christmas dinner was a pasta feast cooked up in the house, as we’d managed to grab plenty of supplies the day before. The supermarket up here was actually closed on Christmas day but unlike other tourists we weren’t caught out as we are used to not much being open on Christmas day. I didn’t manage to eat anything at all on Christmas day but had been doing plenty of eating thus far on the holiday so wasn’t going to starve.
The kids finished off the day with a Christmas movie and we were all hoping for a good day of snow fun the next day. It had certainly been a fun, cold and memorable white Christmas. The temp hadn’t gotten above minus 6 all day, a definitely different Christmas to our usual Aussie Christmas! We all felt very blessed to have such a special experience for Christmas. A white and snowy Christmas to remember…..
Up next…..
Our Boxing day was spent in freezing temperatures in Innsbruck checking out the Bergisel ski jump, ice skating and sledding, with a trip up to Patscherkofel. We then finished off our time in Innsbruck with a hearty Austrian dinner 🙂
