Dreamy Europe Trip Summer 2024 - Part 5 Top of Innsbruck Austria

We only had one night in Innsbruck, but somehow we managed to pack our time there with the things we wanted to do. Or to be more precise, the things that I decided we wanted to do :D After spending one night, we had our breakfast buffet at the hotel which was included in our room rate. The breakfast was pretty good, we enjoyed it very much. Then, we took the car and found free parking near the station where we wanted to take the funicular train to the top of Innsbruck. The tickets were very affordable, especially when compared to cable car tickets in Switzerland or in Canada.

We made sure to arrive early enough to beat the crowd, and there’s another reason why we wanted to be early… Happy Hour promos! So if you buy the tickets and take the train and cable car before 9:30 am, you get 20% discount.

OK so when you want to go to the Top of Innsbruck, you can take the funicular train from the city centre to Hungerburg. This is where we first stopped. We then boarded a cable car to go to Seegrube, where we got off and boarded another cable car to the Top of Innsbruck.

Just our luck, when we got to the Top of Innsbruck it started raining. It was a light drizzle with a lot of VERY cold wind. I definitely wasn’t prepared for the temperature drop, so I turned around and stayed indoors while Miss Kiki and DH continued going up. Oh how I had wished I had my winter jacket with me, but it was supposed to be a summer vacation!

Inside the funicular train

Funicular rail

The funicular train

View from Hungerburg

Warm weather in Hungerburg

Through the telescope

Little wild flower from Miss Kiki

Just before lunch time we took the cable car and train back to the city centre. We walked to our parked car, and stopped at a playground on the way. Yes, our teenage girl still loves playgrounds. :D After grabbing a few things at a grocery store for lunch, we started driving towards Italy. Our next destination was the Dolomites.

Driving from Austria to Italy was quite pleasant, despite the toll roads in Italy being narrower. It took some time to get used to the narrower lanes especially when they are built so high above the ground in the mountainous area. There were many tunnels involved, and that wasn’t fun but still okay.

For our stay in the Dolomites, I booked Gstattlhof via Booking.com. The location is amazing, it is within walking distance to the famous Lake Braies. We got a 2-bedroom suite on the second floor, and it had an amazing view of the hills!

Our suite had a full-sized kitchen, so we took our time to enjoy our lunch that we bought in Austria and rested a bit. We had planned to go to Lake Braies after lunch but I should have known better, mountain weather is often wet! It started drizzling when we were about to leave, so we stayed back and waited it out. When the drizzle stopped, we hopped into the car and drove for a couple of minutes to Lake Braies parking lot. Alas, as soon as we parked, it started pouring. We saw people scrambling out of the lake area into the parking lot into their car. Despite all that, I insisted that we wait 15 minutes in the car in the parking lot. Sure enough, after 15 minutes the rain subsided and we got the lake almost to ourselves! The sky was a bit cloudy, and it was super windy. We went anyway.

We all walked down the path, I was a bit disappointed with the view because it didn’t look like the pictures I saw before. It was mostly because of the wind and the clouds. Not wanting to get sick (I know you don’t get sick from the cold but I am not taking any chances as I am the only driver in our group), I turned around and waited for DH and Miss Kiki at the Bar Chalet. The only cafe that was open. I got myself tiramisu and apple strudel, and that was my first and only tiramisu in Italy!

About 40 minutes later, DH and Miss Kiki showed up. They actually walked all the way around the lake. I’m happy for Miss Kiki that she has her dad’s resistance to cold, despite growing up in the tropics. Lol.

From Lake Braies, we searched for a restaurant that is open for dinner on Google Maps. There weren’t that many options, but we chose Sonnleiten for that evening. When we arrived, we were told they only had pizza available so we ordered two for the three of us. We also ordered Crema Catalana, which was similar to creme brulee but has slightly different ingredients. It came with fire on top, literally. Just outside the restaurant, the view was incredible. Miss Kiki and I had the chance to take some photos while waiting for our food.