Innsbruck! Cool and rainy, for us. Too bad we couldn't really appreciate the setting--green valley surrounded by dramatic Alpine peaks. The Inn River runs through it, an unusual, milky teal color from the glacier melt. The Olympics were held here twice, in '64 and '76, and there's a huge ski jump/observation tower left over that we didn't get over to.
We did take a room-sized cable car up to the top of the mountain ridge, where it was cold and foggy--no view, today!. Tom and Rachel rode back down, but Dylan and I scampered down on foot, mostly on steepish, muddy mountain bike runs. Through a bit of old snow, even. Rachel took a run along the river, instead. 
The big attraction downtown was supposedly the "Golden Roof"--gold-covered copper tiles put there by some bigwig or other a hundreds of years since. Turns out, it's more of a balcony cover. It is gold. And we took a picture. But don't fly over the Atlantic just to see it, let me just say. Ski season must be crazy busy in that town! We didn't see it at its best and would like to go again, sometime.We hopped another train and rode over the mountains, past so many quaint villages and forests and pasture land. Just over the border into Germany, we got off at a town with the unwieldy name of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Another Winter Olympics site. 1936. Prior to that year, they were two, neighboring towns, but decided to pool their resources and syllables into a better, but harder to pronounce, Olympics venue. It's the German thing to do.
There's another ski jump/stadium left, and they are currently building a way bigger jump next to the, now, rather wimpy-looking, first one. We saw it up close because it's on the trail to a river gorge that we wanted to explore called the Partnachklamm. Again, with the gloomy weather, but it didn't matter. We weren't prepared for the dramatic, narrow, deep, rocky slice-into-the-mountain made by the river, Partnach. Wow! There's a path alongside, partly a tunnel, that follows the fast-running water as it rushes over the rocks and through the slot canyon. Loud and wet and amazing! Little rivulets also fall from high above along the way. It's possible to see the forest way up above us from below, to which Dylan, Rachel, and I eventually hiked, so that we could look down on the river from bridges about 80 meters above the water. So beautiful! There was a lovely lodge up there, as well. We all loved GP (as everyone calls it, for obvious reasons) and would love to go back, sometime! There's lots more to explore!A word about the Bavarian aesthetic. There really ARE boxes in the windows, overflowing with
flowers! So pretty! But, the thing I can't quite understand,is the apparent compulsive urge to paint pictures on every available surface of all the buildings, houses included. Artists must have a very sweet deal in Bavaria. Most of the architectural detail is just painted on, instead of built. And very elaborate detail, it often is! And then, there are angels, saints, scenes from history, folktales and legends, or Biblical stories. Fancy lettering on swirling banners! Sometimes, not. Occasionally it's just plain trim around the windows and doors--painted on, complete with shadows, but painted. Not built on. Curious custom. Not my favorite look, but interesting.I
