Heading into Innsbruck, Austria the thing we all looked forward to the most? Clean clothes. Packing for our trip had been minimal and being that my super power is my keen sense of smell we were now desperately begging for a little clothing agitation. The past several locations NO public laundromats, trust me we hunted, inquired, and hoped. It had been several weeks since the south of France and our fully equipped apartment and intense hiking and sweating at Lake Garda has taking its toll. To escalate our necessity for freshness was the misplaced “help” that reception in Riva del Garda imparted which was the location of a self-laundrymat in town. Thank you madam but apparently that closed 2 years ago, a fact that we were not made privy to until we had crammed our dirty and only somewhat soiled clothing into bags retiring them from the line-up until further notice. Our associates at the laundry facility seemed taken aback by our celebration in fluffing and folding as well as the jubilation of a child as she made a wardrobe change immediately responding to the buzz of the dryer.  Photo from BubblePoint Website says it all!  Innsbruck riverside clean dress celebration  Innsbruck Old City
Heading into Mayrhofen, Austria another Alp location Rick was shocked of the changes since his last visit to the Valley many years ago. Things had progressed at a rate more advanced then he imaged, although asking someone from our area in New Jersey they would be just as taken aback of the Route 1 megalithic “advancement” but in contrast you cannot compare the two. The lovely and quaint downtown remains intact. It makes our adventure more organic to arrive into a town, select a location to stay, and then how long to visit. In many destination locations in Europe you can arrive anytime night or day and there is a electronic board of hotels with a map method or a listing each with lights of available rooms. Prior to seeking out the board we stopped into a few hotels that we viewed through prior research that may meet our needs. Eh, not to impressed and/or the price did not accurately match the facility.
 Lovely Austrian church
On our way to the hotel vacancy board a wee voiced pointed to a sign for Hotel Veronica, “What about this one?”. Anxious to set our footing down we proceeded onto the board. Through searching on the board and the attached computer system and reviewing the options the same voice comes through, “What about this one? I want this one it looks beautiful.” It was the same hotel again, a fact too intentional to ignore. Upon laying our eyes upon it Hotel Veronica was perfect, a small boutique hotel with an apartment and most importantly to a child a small indoor pool in the lower level.
 Hotel Veronica  Hotel Veronica
The cable car in this town, which we took, was the largest in Austria. It is not the size of the Bahn, the angle in which it steeply ascends the mountain, or the speed but the elevation above the ground below. The operator on the cable car looks begrudgingly as he enters his booth onboard but more relevant looks as if he was awake into the wee hours possibly watching one of the world cup semi-final matches. The view from the summit made it all worth while one again as you can tell from the photos this time displaying a wide range of the Alps in the not to distant background. Visiting a 500 year old mountain dairy was attempted but the pungent smell and the massive amount of flies from the mild winter kept us a bit at bay. The descent was more nerve racking as the car was brimming with prepubescent, mostly male, riders chaperoned by a handful of uninterested counselors.
 Retired cable car  View from the top  Chaos on the Bahn  Mountain Food – shared plate bigger then your head!
While in Mayrhofen we attended a beer garden with traditional music and enjoyed the atmosphere and pageantry. Ila in her traditional gown, that has now replaced her crown as her daily garb, fit right in!
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Living Wherever We Are 