Day 43 - Innsbruck Austria

Photo 1: The Alps

2: A typical view here

3: a 14th century building

4: Us on the political trail

The Austrians are very proud people who many wear their traditional dirndl (dress). The grass is short everywhere you look, there is never any rubbish on the streets and we are yet to see a house with piles of rubbish or ten clapped out cars in their yard. So although the area we are in looks dodgy it is clean. Transportation is the same - clean and graffiti free.

So we caught one of these clean and graffiti free buses to the Old Town. With just over 120,000 people, Innsbruck is not that big so the Old Town is therefore smaller than the other Old Towns we have seen. Nevertheless, it's beauty makes up for its size. There are some great old buildings dating back the the 1400's that look fairly unrestored. 

Our first stop was the Tourist Information Centre who were extremely helpful. We asked about the toll issue of yesterday and she told us that police randomly pull people in to check for valid vignettes. They don't have a camera system so it looks like we'll get away with it. However I did purchase one from her then and there.

The kids and I climbed another tower - this time it was Stadtturm - a 15th century tower used to house prisoners. This offered unique views of the city and alps and I grabbed some great shots. 

We walked into the middle of a political campaign where flags, wafers and donuts where thrust upon us. Team Stronach for Austria is a political party founded by and named after Austrian-Canadian businessman Frank Stronach. He gave a speech as did a candidate Martin Veith and although it was in German I asked some aides about the party. They said that the party supports Austria leaving the Euro and returning to the schilling. Also, unlike other anti-euro parties, Stronach is not anti-immigration. The party advocates cutting bureaucracy and instituting 25% flat tax on incomes. Team Stronach also supports ending conscription and introducing an all-volunteer army. The news team was there so if you happen to catch the Austrian news today you may have seen us.

Tomorrow will be a big day as we will visit that tiny country Liechtenstein just for the day. So it's up bright and early tomorrow.