On the eleventh day of Christmas markets...

...my true love gave to me, eleven pipers piping

Today we leave snowless Cortina and put a bit more Christmas market back into this trip! We had a lovely breakfast at the hotel and they were cordial with us upon checkout even though we were leaving two days early. We got to the bus stop in plenty of time and when it arrived it was the same driver that brought us here. We sat in the front two seats and got a nice view on the trip back to the Dobaccio train station. When we got to the station we thought we were going to have to wait an hour, but as luck would have it an earlier train was about to pull up that we could catch as well. Since there was NOTHING at this train station, we decided to hop on now and wait the extra hour at a bigger train station that would have food, drinks, shops, etc. So we got on and took the hour + ride to Fortezza. When we arrived I asked Guy if he had a knife or possibly something we could use as a shank. This place was sketchy at best. Oh, by the way. No food, drinks or shopping. Just an empty old train stop. At one time this must have been quite a happening place as there were multiple tracks and the station was really big. But now it all looked practically abandoned.

I looked out the window to the tiny town as Guy went to find a restroom. He came back and said the men's room was closed. I told him across the street was a bierhaus and where the is a bierhaus there are pretzels...go find me one. I moved all our bags toward the door so I could watch the traffic go by (not much action I must say) and probably 15 minutes went by. I wasn't worried as we had an hour, but just as I began to make up scenarios of how Guy was kidnapped, he emerged from the place next to the bierhaus with a pizza, napkins and cokes! SCORE! He said they spoke very little English but when he asked about a cheese pizza and pointed to his wrist and said "time", they girl told him 5 minutes. Piping hot cheese pizza (no sauce) but it was actually pretty darn good! So we set up a little dining area inside the train station and had some lunch. It was fun.

Our train taking us to Innsbruck also continues on to Munich. This is the train we were going to take two days from now to the Munich airport. But since we cut our Cortina trip short, we asked at the Cortina train station if they could adjust the tickets for us. She said no, talk to the conductor. So we were concerned that we would get our tickets punched today by the conductor making them void for our ride from Innsbruck to Munich. But as luck would have it, no one asked to see our tickets on either train. Score! So now when we hop on Wednesday to go to Munich it will be like they've never been used. Worked out great. It's not like we were trying to be tricky with the tickets, it was the same ticket for the same route, just broken up into two days instead of one. :P One interesting thing that happened today is when the train stopped at the Italian/Austrian border the Austrian police pulled about 7 or 8 guys off the train and wouldn't let them enter into Austria. Being judgemental again, these guys did look like they could be up to no good, so I was glad they got booted off the train. Kudos to the Austrian police. These guys did everything they could do to try to get back on the train, but the police stood between them and the train as we pulled away. Left to the Italians to deal with.

When we arrived in Innsbruck, so did the clouds. Not a peek so of sun to be seen. But that won't keep us from hitting the markets. We checked into the Grand Hotel, which is located directly across from the train station and is a great location if you are going to be using the train station and it is within walking distance to everything. However, it is in a part of town that isn't anything to look at, especially if you are wanting to sip your coffee out on the balcony and enjoy a view. LOL. But back to why we are here...the markets, and as luck would have it, the gal at the hotel had a BROCHURE on all the markets here. Yeah, baby! Now we are talking! There are six major ones and then various other Christmas activities. When our room was ready we settled in and took a break to plan our night. I Trip Advisored a place to eat close the "golden roof" and decided on the restaurant Goldener Adler. Our hotel's restaurant is actually rated like 30 out of nearly 400 restaurants, so we may try it tomorrow night. - So as we headed out (we waited til it started to get dark so the lights would be prettier) we walked straight to the restaurant to make a reservation. He said not needed on a Monday night, however the town was packed! There are three major Christmas markets in the immediate area that needed my immediate attention!

So back to the "golden roof". This is a must see destination for those visiting Innsbruck and is located in Old Town. In 1500 the golden roof was built by an Emperor to mark his third wedding (geeze) and was designed to be a viewing box where they watched festivals and other activities. Tonight there were men playing Christmas music from the balcony (eleven pipers piping!! Really!). Awesome. And people everywhere! I videoed it and could have stood there all night. What fun. But as our stomachs began to growl, we decided to grab dinner a bit early after hitting the highlights of a couple of the bigger markets. (Lots of people made them a bit hard to navigate). We were seated promptly even though the restaurant was starting to fill up. Our menu was in English and our server spoke it perfectly. We ordered an appetizer that has speck (ham) with pickled beans (delicious) red cabbage (like a slaw) and they gave us some wonderful bread. It was really excellent and I could eat that tomorrow as my lunch! Then came the entrees, I had venison and guy had sirloin and potatoes. His came out in a little skillet and was all together like hash. Mine had little potato dumplings and cranberry sauce. The venison was a bit gamey (some of the pieces) but was really good. We didn't order dessert because we saw something at the market we wanted to try. All in all...great great dinner - ambiance was wonderful as well. A cozy place.

After dinner we were pretty tired, but we had to get our little dessert. The line was down to only about 6 people, so it didn't take long. What it consisted of was a dough that was deep fried in the shape of a bowl (similar to a funnel cake but solid and shaped like a bowl) You could get it with sour kraut in it or get it with fruit and powdered sugar. When I ordered I said "with berries". He said "Sweet?" I said "Yes, like me" and smiled great big. It took him a second but then he got it. He mumbled something in German as he and Guy rolled their eyes. What?

Back at the room we are looking forward to a good nights rest. Our room has an adjustable fan noise which is HUGE when you are used to this at home. In Cortina..no fan. Our room is really nice and modern with shampoos, waters and other amenities. We have no reason to set an alarm (except breakfast is included and is done at 10). We'll see how the night goes. Breakfast isn't my favorite meal of the day anyway! ;) Night from Innsbruck.  P.S. the forecast for Innsbruck tomorrow? Snow.