Innsbruck has a quaint feeling to it. It's located among Austria's Alps with the mountains always visible except when exploring the pastel painted old town buildings along the Inn river. Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and '76 and we actually stayed at an Olympic training facility sandwiched between a stadium and practice fields and rinks. A ski ramp was visible from our room. Not bad. Except for the wi-if and the one drunk woman who hassled us on our last night.
The fist half of our stay in Innsbruck was dominated by Jorje getting violently ill. Whether it was a 24 hour bug or food poisoning, it was pretty awful. But we had time to stay in bed for a day and I appreciated the rest and Jorje was grateful it didn't hit while riding the coach bus. Then a student got similarly sick and another student thought he might have broken his foot playing soccer. So we took a little field trip to the hospital and everyone turned out to be ok, just needed liquids and ice, respectively. Also, the students payed hardly anything for the excellent medical attention. Socialized health care!
Jorje and I were able to explore the town a little bit but it was pretty rainy throughout. We took a cable car to the top of a mountain and saw nothing. But the town was pretty and had a Northern Europe vibe to it that I was all about.
Our one corporate visit was to Swarovski to visit Crystal World, the equivalent of Hershey World in PA or Coke's museum in Atlanta. EXCEPT IT WAS A MILLION TIMES COOLER. Crystal World had fifteen or so exhibits indoors that out-do almost any modern art museum I've visited. Everything from dancing animatronic legs to crystal installations to great use of neon. Then the park portion had a five-story playground (inclusive of adults), a cluster of crystal trees over a reflecting pool, and a garden maze. All this was surrounded by mountains and you should go as soon as you can.
Next up: Geneva, Switzerland.
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