European winter destination: Innsbruck, Austria

Cosy, small and surrounded by nature, Innsbruck has it all

I got a lot of choices to pick out to fill up this winter. Would I like to go to Morocco to do surfing, travel trough south America or...
Nope, somehow, I ended up in Austria! 🇦🇹
And not just somewhere in Austria, but in the gorgeous Tyrolean city Innsbruck!

I rode a Flixbus, the cheapest transportation from Amsterdam, took a sleepingpill and woke up here, in this cosy little town. I stayed with 2 sweet local girls I knew from Chouchsurfing, who lived on walking distance from the busstop.

The girls took me to the party of a classmate, so I got to talk to a lot of people, and they were all so nice! - But hey, that's not where I wanna talk about. I wanna show you a very special city :)

The next morning I woke up, ate an apple and went out to explore the city with the bike my Couchsurfing host borrowed me. The destination for the day was the old town, with the old houses and the Christmas market!

As I cycled, everywhere I looked, even though I was in the middle of the town, I could still see the mountains on the background with white, snowy tops. That's actually what I loved so much about Innsbruck!

I parked the bike and walked further into the oldtown, Altstadt in german. There was a lady performing as a statue as you can see in the pictures below, with a big Christmas tree at the background, and as you look further you can see the mountains.

As I walked further away of the citycenter, I walked along the river. The water was clear and streamed peacfully down. The river is actually more powerful in spring and summer, when all the ice and snow from the mountains is melting. But for now, the mountains are just starting to be snowy☃

Along the river are growing some trees showing off the sign of the autum with their yellow and bright orange leaves, in front of the colored houses which cheer up the streets. Way better than all those cement colored houses like you see in too many cities nowadays. Do you already think Innsbruck is unique

I passed by this cute church on my way to the altstadt, to one of innsbrucks many christmas markets. They have around 14 Christmas markets only around Innsbruck already

And we are here! The Christmas market! It was actually a bit smaller as I expected. More about the coming together, having a drink than about shopping. But with some Christmas decoration stalls, foodstalls and of course gluhwein it looked very much like Christmas is coming! So I couldn't do anything else than getting a GLUHWEIN! 🍷 With only an apple for breakfast, the gluhwein gets very strong I can tell you, but I loved the taste! It definitely asks for more!

The entrance of the market

Plenty of people socialicing on the markt, often with a gluhwein in the hand

A carousel with in the background one of the market stalls

Okay, I let me share some pictures to let you taste some of the vibes!

I love shooting through the window to give the subject a more dreamy atmosphere

Gingerbread, a classic Christmas treat, often heartshaped with sweet texts on it, almost too sweet to eat them right away

Slowly, it started to get dark and the Christmas lights started to add some atmosphere to the cosy town. That was where I was waiting for!

Wanna see some more of the Christmas lights? Because hey, what is Christmas without the lights!

ohh how I love those out of focus shots of lights, please don't hate it

Okay now it is dark enough, cold enough and late enought to go home, I hope you enjoyed my pictures and I would appreciate it a lot if you leave a comment :)

thanks for following me trough the gate to this cosy little town :)

Ohh and hey, I will stick a little longer around Austria so probably I can show you more snowy pictures next time! ❄

Cheers,
Sash