Today we cross the Alps. For some reason I was quite tired and thus was giving in to the urge to sleep. I only picked up on some of the stories and info that Alison was imparting. [Sorry Alison]
When Austria gave back this area to Italy, Mussolini made them change all of the Austrian town names back to Italian names. Also, they say, when the Euro was introduced, it not only made everything expensive but it took the character out of the countries. It made them "European". Alison was also giving us a brief history lesson and explaining how the assassination of Fernando and Sophia Hapsburg led to WW1 and she also explained events that culminated in WW2.
We were going to exit the National Park of the Dolomites soon.
Alison explained a bit about the three police... the Polizia who are the general, local police with the red stripe on their leg, then the Cabineri who are the military police with the pink stripe down their leg and the Finance police with the yellow stripe, who were brought in to curb the laundering, corruption and tax evasion. These latter ones are interesting. It is because of these ones that you must get a receipt for every transaction and why shops give you it even for a 30 cent postcard. They have the power to intercept you as you leave a shop and ask you to produce the receipt for a purchase you've made. If you can't, you can be fined heavily for not having one and the shop will have to pay three times the value and a fine for not providing it in the first place. Interesting.
We went through the Brena Pass and the Brena tunnel. This is supposedly where Mussolini and Hitler met. This is also where Hannibal crossed the Alps with his African elephants. The poor elephants, they actually made it over the alps but died soon after. They still served their purpose though. Before they died they were seen in action by the Romans and word got back about the beasts but they didn't know they died. It gave Hannibal time to get through the territory. He advanced so far and could have beaten them but for some reason went back. I forget the name of the commander who witnessed his army get slaughtered but he went back with intelligence on how Hannibal fought and with this information taught a new army and when they fought again, Hannibal was defeated.
Since we're heading to Innsbrook, there's an important story to relate... During the Austrian occupation of Switzerland, the Swiss were supposed to bow three times a day to this hat, thus showing their allegiance to Austria. William Tell wouldn't bow down. Himler heard about this and heard he was a good archer. They arrested him and Himler forced him to shoot an apple off his son's head... he'd be free if he could do it, if not, the son was to die. William took two arrows and aimed the first one... he successfully shot the apple. All was well, except that Himler asked why he'd taken two arrows.. he replied with honesty that the second was for Himler if he'd missed. Naturally, he was arrested. He was sent away on a ship. He was apparently a good sailor too... when the boat was in trouble the crew asked him to take over so they wouldn't hit rocks. He steered away but at the last minute steered back and abandoned ship. The ship was lost but he survived. Himler came after him. While William was waiting for him, he fashioned a new bow and arrow... When Himler arrived, he was shot in the heart... this ended the Austrian domination of Switzerland.
It was still raining when we stopped at the AutoGrill for our "pee pee break". I was kinda getting used to Italian numbers but now the cost was being quoted in German! It was OK, just took a second to adjust.
Over the Austrian border we came across Innsbrook, our destination. Innsbrook means Bridge over the river Inn. The town has the reputation of not being very sophisticated.
Our local guide was Angelica. Our first stop was a church done in Rococo style. Rococo is just after Baroque architecture. We could see the onion domes of the baroque churches as we came into the town. Rococo is more frilly and in my opinion ugly and unnecessarily busy. The decorations inhthe church were pink and gold and although the paintings were good, I don't think they were conveying the 3D look the artist was after. Maybe I was just in a critical mood, maybe I had seen too many churches but it didn't really impress me too much.
While we were outside, people were posing with this fake dancing Austrian man... there was a hat to wear too. It was causing quite the commotion.
Next we stopped at the base of the new Ski Jump. When we were outside the church, I took a picture of the jump wondering what it was. It was a strange looking structure on top of the hill. This is where all the ski champions come to practice their jumps. While we were there a skier did a jump. We couldn't see him land but we assumed he was OK. It looked pretty impressive. At this stop there was a statue of Franz Joseph and another huge statue, I forget who it was. This was also the location of a shooting range.
On the way through the town we were told about the longer than average life expectancy of the residents, and the annoyance this causes for owners of apartments 'cos the rent can't be increased. Angelica said they live longer 'cos they eat a cake a day... but it only works if the cake comes from Innsbrook. It seemed this was a place that families had been passing on their businesses for generations... whether it be cannons and bells or candles or even crystal.
We were taken to Old Innsbrook. The old city entrance gates were quite impressive, even though we only got a brief glimpse as we passed by. We were shown a cafe where famous people had eaten... they had their names on the wall outside. They weren't written chronologically 'cos some people needed to die before they were famous. Among them was Maria Augusta (Von) Trapp in 1958 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1773.
We walked to the famous Golden Roof. When we got there, there was an oompa-loompa band playing underneath it. Angelica seemed to have been timing the tour perfectly, we saw the skier, now a band was playing. She was very pleasant. She showed us the church of St. Jacob, the candle shop and the Maxamillian Palace of yellow and white.
It's funny, every so often you'd see a tall snow white guy with shorter than acceptable shorts, socks and sandals... Hello Austria! :-)
Next stop was the crystal manufacturers, Shwarovski. [I think I spelled that incorrectly, whatever.] We got to see their exhibition and showroom. I think some in the group really had a field day. I thought that the animals, the dragon particularly, and the turtle were the best and the crystal birds were brilliant too. Lindy gave me some advice just in case I didn't know... she said that "girls like silver, women like gold". Interesting. :-)
It was getting cold and I was concerned that I wasn't prepared for such weather... so I bought a wind jacket and a long sleeve t-shirt. The shop assistant was very friendly. I must have tried on about 10 jackets and 7 shirts. They had a little waiting area in the back where you could sit, have a smoke (if you do that) and they'd give you a coffee... I just had a glass of water. We chatted a bit about various things. Apparently smoking was still allowed inside and he thought the slogans and pictures on cigarettes were a good idea since they don't have that. It was pleasant.
I had some fruit salad and a pastry of some sort for lunch, I didn't have time to sit. It started to shower a bit as we waited at the rendezvous point.
On the way back, as it rained outside, my shoulder was really tense and giving me a headache so I took some Neurophen Plus and listened to my iPod rather than Alison... Woops, did I just say that?
When we got back to the hotel I had a hot bath for my back and neck. For those who know me well enough this says something since I don't like laying in water at the best of times.
When I got out, I went to find some small speakers for my iPod so I could listen to it without headphones... I was feeling serious withdrawals from music after almost two weeks. I found some cool Sony ones that didn't require batteries. I also looked in the supermarket. My bathroom products weren't there, neither was there any Vegemite (I knew it'd be a long shot but can't hurt trying) but there was peanut butter, it was called Skippy... I didn't get it.
Just before I had gone out I was advised of drinks and the intended dinner plans of some of the group. I met up with the others in the bar and ordered my JD and Coke. It's always the same process... they don't know what JD is, so I have to say Jack Daniels... all good until it comes out... the JD is in it's own tall glass with ice, a lemon, two straws and a curly stick thing, once it even had a sparkly silver thing too... the coke, on the other hand, is usually in its original glass bottle.
The group decided on dinner in the hotel restaurant... This was very, very good food. It had to be... I found out they had two of the best chefs in the world! After a few others had left dinner, Lyn asked about me singing a song for them. Alison was there too on a table with Roberto and I looked to her to see if it'd be acceptable to the restaurant staff if some random person started singing in their establishment... She seemed to indicate to just go ahead so I reluctantly got up and sang Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps for them. I could tell all the way through that Alison knew the song, I don't think many others had heard it before. I was relatively happy with it considering I hadn't sung in ages and my nerves at one point could be heard. Oh well, they were appreciative of it anyway, which was nice.
Before I went up to bed Abby and her dad requested my assistance in the lobby with connecting their Mac to the hotel wireless network. It seemed that the login page for the hotel somehow triggered the VPN to be set up on a PC. On a mac I could get the timer going but of course the Mac needed further configuration changes that it wasn't getting automatically. In the end, I tried all sorts of things but couldn't get it going. I failed. When I get home I might play with a VPN so I can figure out what I was missing. It was quite difficult without knowing the nature of the network setup. It was apparent that the designer of the network wasn't counting on Mac users.
Anyway, I fell asleep straight away that night.
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