Awesome Alpine Adventure Day 3 - Innsbruck bus tour

Day 3 (morning) - Innsbruck bus tour
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The reason I was fascinated by this was I'm just not used to seeing things being around since  1599.  Also it was a rainy day and this was how my morning was. 


Day 3 -
Today was the day when the real fun started.  Some of the people went out and explored on their own the day before but we were too tired and just enjoyed the room we were in.  So when we got up and ready we were raring to go.  The trouble was it was raining.  We found out from the wait staff that in the mountains it snowed the night before and that this was part of that cold front that had come through during the night.  We had been told to pack umbrella's and rain poncho's and I was glad I also had my rain coat.  I was also glad we were going on a tour bus for the morning.  So in spite of the rain we still had our tour and what a tour that was.   The bus tour that was to last all morning long.  We were to see Wilton Basilica, The Bergisel Ski Jump, the old town with the Imperial Palace, St James Cathedral, Helbling House and the Little Golden Roof.    Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Innsbruck

One of the best places to see the town was to look at it from the Bergisel Ski Jump area:

A view of Innsbruck Austria from  Bergisel Ski Jump area

Just look how low the clouds were and block the mountains.
 I did scan a map of the town to help me with things.

And here's the regional map I had to do it in two's and don't know how to splice them together.

I thought it was a very quaint a peaceful town.  It was so full of history and of interesting building & things to see.

(11-30-13 I just came across this geologic cross section of the alps and it mentions Innsebruck so I'm including the link so you can see how complicated the geology is.
http://www.stol.it/Artikel/Chronik-im-Ueberblick/Lokal/Vom-Schlern-bis-Bad-Toelz-Mosaik-zeigt-Alpen-Querschnitt)
I know these aren't the best pictures but it was raining the whole time we did the tour.  Because the rain  was heavy at times it just made me glad that I was in the nice warm bus.  I went ahead and took pictures anyway because I wanted to have them.
This was just a typical home on one of the streets we turned down to get over to the Ski Jump.

 The one thing I did notice was that there were a lot of churches in the town.

 And every once in a while you would see something really modern looking inter dispersed among very old structures.

 This was an arena of some sort

 The town was built along the river Inn.  The guide told us that Inn meant green.  It was named that because of its light green color.  The bruck means bridge and so Innsbruck means the 'the bridge over the river Inn.' The first bridge built was done by the Romans.  Since then there have been other bridges built.

The river Inn in Innsbruck

 What really caught my attention is the way they liked to paint the walls with frescos

 Another bridge over the River Inn and the way into the old town.

 This is a good look at the old town and how it was built close to the river.

 Most of the building were close together since most of these were built before there were cars and most people had to walk.

 Another interesting looking church.

 This modern building was the main hospital.

 A typical street with all the buildings right next to each other.  They liked to paint them different colors to help people find the location they were going to.

 I liked seeing the ornate gates.

 and finally I just thought this was a pretty building I liked the colors and the masonry work that was done on it.

This was the Imperial Infantry Museum

 One of the things I really like was this: Triumphal Arch.  It was ordered to be built in 1765 by the Empress Maria Theresia for the wedding of her son Leopold to Maria Ludovica of Spain. 

Triumphal Arch - Innsbruck

  Since we were driving by it was hard to get a good shot of it.

The tour 1st stop was at Wilten Basilica which I posted yesterday.  To be continue....

PS:  I do want to thank the group that took us on this awesome adventure and all the wonderful people we got to know while going on it.  You know who you are - THANK YOU.

Also I want to give a special thanks to my husband for this wonderful opportunity.   You truly are awesome and made this adventure so awesome.