What's Up With Jes: Liechtenstein & Innsbruck, Austria

Mon, Aug 24th 2015
Today, sadly, we left Bern, Switzerland. We drove an hour & a half to a rest stop. There was a shopping center with a XXX store. Yikes! The stuff they had in the window! Oh my. At home, that kind of stuff would be "in the back" or at least out of plain view. Heehee!
We drove another hour & a half to the country-within-a-country, Liechtenstein. It is its own country but kind of part of Switzerland. They use Swiss francs & the Swiss military protect them. It was nice to walk around for 1 1/2 hours. Most people got lunch. I walked around & took pics, shopped a little & got some hazelnut ice cream. There's a castle there for a Habsburg descendant. It's way up on a mountain & they actually live there. Down the street was a church that was really beautiful.

Saw a Newfie!

I love church doors!

I found this gargoyle behind the church. It must have broken off.

Lit candles for Mom & Dad

On the way back, Hope was yelling for me. "They have a Bernese Mountain Dog pulling a cart in that toy store!" Now, I have to say that I had the whole group on the lookout for me for Berner stuff. At first, someone would exclaim, "Jes! Jes! There's a Bernese Mountain Dog thing over there!" I'd look & say, "that's a Saint Bernard!". Just a little bit later, someone else would say the same thing & again I'd reply, "Saint Bernard!". So when Hope told me this, I didn't get my hopes up too high. I said, "Is it black?", she said, "Yea!". WOOHOO! I speedwalked to the shop to check it out. Funny, because I saw the shelf with the wooden critters when I was in that store earlier but my eyes passed it over because I already bought 2 wooden Berners. I never saw the one pulling the cart! It was so cute. It even has a milk bottle in it. Gimme 2! Michelle's gonna owe me a lot of money, haha! She told me to get 2 of everything & I am! I even found super cool peacock wallets for us.

We got back on the bus & drove another 2 hours or more to Innsbruck, Austria (Western Austria). YAY! More huge mountains, chalets, cows & beautiful scenery. The Hotel Innsbruck is right in the heart of the "Old Town". We met up with a local woman tour guide, Angelica. She was petite but such a pip! We went with her & rode up a mountain to a lookout point over the city. We saw the huge ski jump they built for the Olympics! Innsbruck has hosted the Olympics twice & they're hosting the Children's Olympics this coming winter. Then we followed her on a walking tour of the old city part. We wore those "whispers" to hear her talk as we walked around. It almost looks medieval in the architecture. Angelica was so funny. There were tons of Asian tourists all over the place. We had to cross an intersection & there was a mob of Asians across the street. She said to us (in our whisper ear buds), "So many Asians! They're small but they're fast. So we have to be faster! Ok, ready? Let's GO!", then we crossed the street & tried not to get lost in the crowd. HAHA!

Bus ride to Innsbruck

walking tour

Olympic ski jump!

Freddy Krueger? We thought this was funny

View from up on the mountain near the ski jump

old shooting stations

walking tour with Angelica

famous "Golden Roof"

I went with the Tennessee girls to dinner. It was so great! We ate out on a terrace but they had awning type covers for the wind. I got a dish called Hauspfad'l or something close to that. It was pork tenderloin, green beans with bacon & dumplings. It was terrific! Then I HAD to try the Kaiserschmarren for dessert. That's the dish that sounded exactly like our eggie-stuff that I grew up on & still eat. Holy guacamole= it IS just like it! What made it even better was I got a jar of spiced, stewed plums to eat with it. OH MY WORD. We have to have it like this from now on! I was in Heaven. I told the waiter that I grew up on this stuff but we called it something different. He told me the story of how it got its name. he asked a waitress what "schmarren" was in English & she said, "uhhhh, nonsense". Apparently the Kaiser's wife loved this dish & asked to have more of "this nonsense". Therefore...Kaiserschmarren. It's basically pan fried, scrambled pancake batter. YUMMO!
We were all pretty wiped out. It was a long day of traveling. A couple of us walked to the Inn river close by & peeked in a shop. Most stores were closed because it's late now. Time for bed!