We’d arrived into Innsbruck the previous afternoon and it was snowing as we were at the Christmas markets the night before and plenty of snow was forecast overnight. We woke up to approx 30cm of snow, and the backyard looked so pretty. It was now Christmas Eve so we were all excited to have a snowy Christmas.

It was still snowing quite a lot and about minus 2. We were all excitedly looking out in the yard, checking out the Winter wonderland that awaited us.

There were little animal tracks in the snow in the backyard, so we were wondering who had been visiting during the night?

The giant Airbnb house was definitely warm in the cold weather and we had plenty of alpine atmosphere for our few days here……

Out into the snow…..

Our plan for the morning was to visit Swarovski Crystal World. Astrid having been sick with the gastro virus and missing the previous afternoon in Innsbruck was feeling well enough to venture out with us. Anto wasn’t keen on crystals and decided to do a snow hike down to Innsbruck from our house up in Igls. The rest of us got our warm gear on and head out to catch the bus down into town. We were all excited to see how much snow had fallen overnight and how pretty it looked!

The snow was still gently falling on us as we walked to the bus stop to catch the bus into town. We were excited to see how much snow had fallen in Innnsbruck overnight. There wasn’t a huge amount in the Old Town area the previous day but it was certainly coming down as we left the markets the night before.

Innsbruck exploring…

As the bus hurtled down the mountain, the snow tyres were definitely on today and there was a thick coating of snow all the way down and plenty on the ground when were reached Innnsbruck 10 minutes later.

We were all enjoying the snowy vistas and it was still heavily snowing outside. Distracted, I forgot about the bus change of line and realised as we were going across the river and up the ‘legsnapper’ that this bus wasn’t going to the HBF where we were meant to go to change to the Crystal World shuttle.

We jumped off the bus and tried to work out the best way back to the HBF (central station). The best option seemed to be to walk most of the way. It wasn’t very far but it was rather snowy and icy and we had to make our way down slippery streets.

On the upside we got a scenic, if slow walk, around Innsbruck, which looked very different to the day before.

We made it back down on foot to the Inn River (from which Innsbruck gets it’s name). The Inn River runs through Switzerland, Austria and Germany and is over 500km long. It’s actually the third largest tributary of the Danube. The colourful buildings that line the river are one of the iconic images of Innsbruck.

The river has large chunks of ice floating in it today and was looking very Wintry….

The walk across the bridges and into the Old Town was rather slushy and quite icy so it was slow going. It was also rather cold!

Once we were back across the river it was less than a kilometre to the HBF. When we made it to the HBF it was almost 10.40am and we’d missed the shuttle out to Crystal World which left at 10.20. I had not realised they were every 90 minutes only today as it was Christmas Eve. We knew Crystal World was closing early for the day (at 12), like most things. It was unfortunately a long way out of town and a taxi wasn’t a convenient option (or cheap) option, so that plan was abandoned for the day.

Astrid having been sick the previous day was not feeling well again after some walking around in the cold. She decided she wanted to go back to the house and it was a bit of a wait for the next bus, so Lorraine took her back in taxi so they could warm.

Once we saw Lorraine and Astrid off. Soren and Zinnia and I had attempted to find a toilet in the HBF but failed to have any cash Euros on us so planned to catch up with others and find a cafe with a ‘free pee’. They had already head off in search of strudel.

We walked through the Old Town to check out some of the famous buildings on the way. We’d visited here in 2016 but Soren was only 2 then and Zinnia was yet to be born, so it was all new to them.

We found the Triumphforte (triumphal arch) and St Anne’s column as we walked down Maria-Theresien Strasse.

Soren and Zinnia had a photo in front of the column which I needed to distract Zinnia as a very rude older lady had managed to kock her flat on the ice a couple of minutes earlier, muttering something about ‘kinder’ and I could only half translate as her being cranky about kids being in the way. Luckily Zinnia pretty much bounced and was placated with the thought of strudel.

Some Austrian strudel…

Di, Max and Rene had gone ahead to find morning tea at a strudel place, the Strudel Cafe Kroll, that Rene had excellent strudels at on an earlier trip to Innsbruck. They did an array of sweet an savoury strudels and there were too many choices. Conveniently they offered plates of ‘surprise’ strudels and everyone who ordered it got a different combination so we got to try a good variety. Along with some hot chocolates and glühwein. By now Anto had walked down from Igls and was also ready for some food and glühwein to warm up.

Old Town adventures…..

All full of strudel, Di, Max and Rene head off for some retail therapy. Anto, Soren, Zinnia and I thought we’d continue our sightseeing. We wandered through the Old Town, admiring the snowy roofs, freezing river and getting snowed on.

There were plenty of people out and about at this time of day and most shops were open until mid-afternoon, before everyone retreated for their Christmas celebrations.

As Anto had walked down, and hadn’t been on the bus adventure over the river, we decided to walk back down to have a walk along the river and check out some of the famous buildings and (frozen) fountains.

The views up and down the river were definitely the epitome of Winter! We did not want to fall into that water. The water is always a pretty green in this river and it was a rather cold looking green today.

The parks were full of snow and plenty of icy sections. It was almost 1pm and it had now made it to a whole 1 degree, so some of the paths were starting to melt and get a bit slushy.

You can see how much snow fell overnight. It was piled quite thick on the outdoor tables where there had been none the day before.

There were plenty of snow covered statues in the parks. We had to convince Zinnia that she wasn’t going to be playing in any parks today!

It was back across the river to the Old Town side so we could visit a few places before they closed for the day.

After a little retail therapy in the Old Town to pick up some Innsbruck souvenirs and a couple of things for Astrid, who was not getting out much in Innsbruck. We checked out Helblingaus (the Helbling House) in daylight, where you could actually see the amazing facade.

We’d already seen the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof) the night before but it’s also much more sparkly in daylight. We noticed the Christmas market that had been in front of the Golden Roof was now closed and packing up for the year. A lot of the markets aren’t open past the 23rd or 24th of December so it was lucky we’d had our market fix over the last few weeks.

Rooftop views……

Our next stop was the Stadtturn (city tower) where we climbed the 133 spiral stairs for amazing views over the rooftops of Innsbruck and down to the Golden Roof.

If there is any church, cathedral or tower we’ll climb it! This one is definitely worth the trip. It is a fairly quick ascent and the spiral staircase is rather fun. Even if it was freezing in there….

Once up the top there were amazing views across Innsbruck. You could walk around the tower balcony and see the whole of Innsbruck laid out below and the huge mountains surrounding the city.

The snowy covered roofs made for some pretty awesome pictures. The clouds had come in over the mountains so you couldn’t see the tops of them but it looked like there was more snow coming…

The views down to the streets below were pretty good. We continued to watch them pack up the Christmas market.

You could see the twin towers of St James Cathedral (also known as Innsbruck Cathedral) very clearly up here. They also had a cute snow cap!

The view of the Golden Roof was also rather spectacular from this high up!

Bronze statues at the Hofkirche

We had to drag ourselves away from the views and head back down those spiral stairs. It was then a short walk to the Hofkirche (Court Church). It is also called the Franciscan Church or the Schwarzmander Church ( Schwarzmander = black men). It was built between 1553 and 1563 as the tomb of Emperor Maximilian I. Our main reason for visiting was to check out the 28 bronze statues ‘black men’, although some were actually women.

The church is beautiful and has plenty of marble and ornate celings. The statues were created in the 16th century and all between 200 and 250cm tall.

Each statue is different and depicts different ancestors, relatives and heroes of the Emperor. You could spend quite a long time looking at each one.

It’s definitely different to your average church or cathedral. You can also see how large the statues are when you stand near them.

Connected to the Hofkirche is the Tyrolean folk museum. We weren’t originally planning to visit this but the kids caught sight of some of the interesting dioramas so we had a wander around. There were some very interesting exhibits and some very detailed dioramas. Both Soren and Zinnia were fascinated by several of them. They also had commentary in both Germany and English.

The museum was closing shortly so we did drag ourselves away with a plan to head back up the mountain and see what everyone else had been up to and check on how Astrid was feeling.

Snowballs and sledding…..

Back up the mountain on the bus. The sun was shining and it was a crisp 2 degrees. Our morning sightseeing hadn’t entirely gone to plan with not getting to Swarovski Crystal World but we ticked off plenty of snowy Innsbruck sightseeing and got some pretty awesome pics.

Back to our house in Igls and Astrid was feeling a bit better, which was for the best as we had our big Christmas dinner that night. Zinnia declared she needed a rest and then we were all keen on a bit of playing in that snow. Lorraine decided to take herself off for a snowy hike after keeping Astrid company for most of the day.

It was out into the yard for snowball fights and snow angels. We had no shortage of snow in our yard and all of us got in on the snowball action.

In Australia you definitely don’t get to throw snowballs in your yard on Christmas Eve!

The kids wanted to try some sledding on the little run near our house. We’d found some sleds in the storage area of our house, and after messaging the Airbnb owner, he’d said were were more than welcome to use them. We’d seen people sledding in the area between our house and the walk down to the bus stop so thought we’d give it a go.

There was plenty of snow but it was a bit soft and fluffy still so we couldn’t get more than 100m or so but we had plenty of fun going up and down a little run. We also found some other Aussies to chat to. They were also staying for Christmas in a nearby Airbnb and we were all out with the kids enjoying the sledding.

We had to drag the kids away at 4.30pm when it was getting dark, with promises we’d walk back over for more sledding the next few days.

A memorable Christmas Dinner…..

We had a special Christmas Dinner booked for Christmas Eve, as we were going to celebrate like the Europeans. Our dinner was at Mariatheresia restuarant, in the Old Town. We all put on some level of decent clothes (and warm coats) and head back to the bus stop.

As most people celebrate with their families on Christmas Eve there were only a few restaurants open, so we’d prebooked a special Christmas dinner. They had 2 sittings and with the kids we’d opted for the earlier 6.30pm booking. All eager to get there, and with hardly anyone on the bus we were down into the Old Town by 6pm. Unlike earlier in the day, it was now rather deserted as most people were tucked up in their homes eating Christmas dinner.

The Triumphal Arch was nicely lit up now and the streets had been cleared making it easier to walk around!

We were a good half an hour early for our booking but they were happy to let us in, which was lucky as it was cold outside!

The restaurant was rather beautiful and there were plenty of large groups enjoying a special Christmas meal.

It was a set menu for Christmas dinner but there was plenty of options for all of us. Unfortunately as friendly as the staff were, they were incredibly slow and the patience of the kids and even the adults was wearing thin after awhile.

We figured they were charging by the minute as it was a gold plated dinner but it was a special Christmas experience. The whole meal was lovely, it was just the service that left something to be desired at times. We did all have plenty to eat and drink and Soren even used his cutlery for the whole meal!

Poor old Zinnia was ready for a lap nap at one point, but did perk up for dessert!

We did eventually finish our 3 courses by 9pm and were all ready to head back up the mountain. No party animals here!

If we thought the streets were quiet before, they were deserted now! We had Innsbruck to ourselves…..

There are Di and Lorraine under the giant Christmas star!

It was a brisk minus 6 (feels like minus 11) so we’d timed our departure from the restaurant so we didn’t have to spend too long at the bus stop. There was a special night J bus service and it was right on time, and efficient in getting up back up the mountain.

Unfortunately the trip up to Igls is rather winding and the buses do not take it slow. Astrid was feeling very queasy after the first food she’d eaten in 2 days. I noticed the look on her face so spent the trip trying to distract her with conversations about all the colours on the ski jump that we could see as we zoomed through the corners. Luckily we made it our stop vomit free!

It was still snowing as we went to bed. While we’d been celebrating Christmas for our whole trip, tomorrow was real Christmas day and we were excited to be having a snowy and very white Christmas……

Up next….

A very white Christmas, with plenty of snow but not much food for those of us struck down with rotating gastro bug! We checked out the Alpenzoo and attempted cable car rides up to Hafelekar to see more snowy views across Innsbruck and did some Christmas ice skating.