Innsbruck pics - as promised

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm much more lively today after sleeping 10+ hours. Yesterday evening I went out to eat with some old friends and new friends, and we had a great meal and lots of great beer. I staggered back about 11:00 pm Innsbruck time and became unconscious as soon as my head hit the pillow. This morning I got up about 9:15, cleaned up and then went sightseeing. My colleagues all had early morning meetings, but I came in a day early for two reasons. One, so that I could be a little less jet-lagged when things got going. And second, because I haven't been here before and don't know when I'll get back. I want to have some time to explore and just see stuff. So I've been wandering around Innsbruck today. This first picture is the Golden Roof which is found in the Old Town in Innsbruck. It was originally a royal residence built in 1420 by Frederick IV, with the guilt tiles added in 1500 by Maximilian I. There was a band playing from the top balcony this morning. You can't see them all that well in this picture but there were six or seven people playing brass instruments. The square in front of the building was full of people sightseeing and listening.

I took several pictures from around the square and various place in Old Town because the buildings were so pretty. This picture on the left is taken from the square. I was standing facing the Golden Roof and then looking to the right. The decorated white building on the end is called the Helblinghaus. It's a Gothic townhouse built in the 15th century and decorated like this sometime around 1730. I'm always amazed to think that buildings in Europe are older than the United States is.

This next picture is taken standing almost directly below the Golden

Roof and looking to the right. Gorgeous buildings and there's a glimpse of the mountains that surround Innsbruck. The umbrella tops at the bottom of these pictures were covering outdoor tables for the various restaurants and bars that line the square. I had lunch at one. I also did some sightseeing-shopping which is my version of not really sightseeing nor really shopping. I guess it's essentially scoping out the places where I may do some shopping later. I went to the Swarovski Crystal store, and actually managed to get out without spending money. Proof that there are miracles in this world.

I also tried to get a good picture of this church, Dom St. Jakob, but it was difficult to get the perspective. If I get most of the church you can't see the details, and if I get the details you can't see what the church looks like. So this picture is most of the church without much detail. I have lots of pictures of the detail also. I just had to decide what general pictures to post today. I'll have time to post others some other time when I can sit and sort them out better.

I walked over to the river, Inn, and took this picture looking across the river. Inn is the name of the river, and the bridge right there, Inn-brucke, gives the city it's name. The river is rushing and silty. I suppose it's fed by snow-melt. You can see in this picture that the clouds were lifting enough to see some of the rocky crags around the area. There's almost no snow left in the high country now.

Last night when we went out to eat it was raining pretty hard (really glad I packed a rain coat), and this morning it was mostly cloudy with flashes of brief sunlight. This afternoon it's been mostly sunny, but there were brief periods of sun yesterday too. I think daily rain is the norm here for this time of year. The Congress registration bag includes an umbrella! It's a pretty bright red with the congress logo on it. Even with my rain coat, this umbrella will come in handy. It's small and easy to carry if I don't want to lug the raincoat.

Anyway the clouds tend to be low, so you often can't see that Innsbruck is surrounded by mountains. I did manage to get enough break in the clouds to see the tops of some of the mountains and this last picture shows some of that. I should have time this week to get many more pretty mountain pictures. I'll be sure and post the best ones.