No visit to Innsbruck is complete without a visit to the Top of Innsbruck, the mountain closest to the city. The mountain offered visitors a panorama view of the city and the surrounding mountains. The whole point of coming to Innsbruck is to visit the Nordkette.
Making our way to the Top of Innsbruck
The Nordkette is perhaps one of the easiest mountains to get to from the city centre. A system of funicular and cable cars (costs €52 for a round trip ticket) transports visitors up 2,200m to the Nordkette from Congress Station in Innsbruck Atlstadt. The way to the top of the mountain requires us to take three modes of transport. We started our trip up the mountains with a funicular ride and changed to two cable car systems. To get to Congress station, we took a bus towards the train station (also covered in our Innsbruck Card) from the stop in front of our hotel (casino) and alighted at Innsbruck University. The funicular took us across the River Inn as we transited higher up the mountain. We got off at the final station, Hungerburg.
Hungerburg – Our Prelude to the View of Innsbruck
Technically, the funicular was not directly linked to the cable cars that run up the mountain. There is a short walk from the funicular station to the cable station. Along the way, we stopped by a viewing platform, where we were able to see the entire Innsbruck City and the mountain ranges beyond the city. The view was magnificent here, and I highly recommend visitors stop by for the scenery. The snow-capped mountains beyond Innsbruck formed a very scenic backdrop for the city. We also spent some time identifying places like our hotel, the ski jump and Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof, among other attractions (apart from taking numerous photos at this spot) that we had visited or will be visiting. A small museum inside the cable car station at Hungerburg displays the history of this cable car system and the mountain ranges on Nordkette. Though modest, this museum was a great way to kill time while waiting for the cable car.
Seegrube – Fun in the Snow in the Mountains
The next cable car up to the Top of Innsbruck took 8 minutes to hoist us from 680m to 1,900m, the longest cable on the Nordkettebahn. As we ascended the mountain, the landmarks we previously saw at the viewing platform became increasingly unrecognisable. In exchange, we got a better view of the entire city, the neighbouring cities, and more mountain ranges at the back of Innsbruck. Mountains after mountains, seemingly donning white beanies, start to pop up as we ascend. The view was breathtaking. The scenery underneath the cable car also changed from concrete buildings to a sea of pine trees that called this mountain home. We started to see trails of snow on the forest ground the higher we ascended. Soon, most of the green pine tree forest ground was covered with snow.
Our initial plan was to stay in Seegrube for 1 hour for breakfast and see the view of the city from the Cloud 9 Terrace. Unknowingly, our stay got extended to 3 hours. We were captivated by the amount of snow and the spectacular view that was before us the moment we stepped outside the Seegrube cable car station. We could see more cities and almost the top of the mountains afar, coupled with the snowy ground forming the foreground of our photos; the terrace is an excellent place to take pictures. We saw a staff setting up deckchairs near the edge of the mountain. I told my friends that this was the Cloud 9 Terrace I read online, and the purpose was to let visitors relax and enjoy the view of Innsbruck from Nordkette. Shortly, the snowflakes we felt falling from the sky got us even more excited. We came to Austria in winter to experience snowfall (we don’t get snow in Singapore), which is exactly what we got. We were enticed to stay at Seegrube longer, playing in the snow, feeling the snow from the sky touching our faces.
We headed inside the restaurant for a warm cup of drink. As it was 1 hour before the restaurant started taking orders for lunch, we decided to have our lunch here before going up to the Top of Innsbruck (we were merely giving ourselves excuses to enjoy the snowy weather). After coffee, my friend and I went outside to play in the snow and take pictures. As we played in the snow, we spotted a small cordoned-off area. A sign beside it told us we could play on the sledges and snow bikes we saw here for free. Unsure what to do with it, a family we met showed us how to use it and encouraged us to join them. And I am glad we did that. We were cautious on our first try on the sledge, partly unsure how it worked, if we could brake in time or if we would do something embarrassing. However, the family we met was very encouraging and told us not to worry and just have fun. Our first try was indeed fun. Though we had sledged in Hokkaido some years back, the sledging was in a relatively more controlled environment. Staff were around to tell us when to brake, and barriers were set up to ensure we braked in time. Sledging up here feels like sledging in the wild, and the snow with people around enjoying the fun with us was a different experience. My friend and I initially wanted to do just three rounds. After the third round, we told ourselves, this is just too fun to stop at three. We ended up spending 1 hour sledging. We returned to the restaurant to meet with our friend and have lunch. After lunch, we encouraged our friend who had not sledged before to go sledging (partly because we wanted to play more). Unwillingly, she joined us after assuring her that it was safe and that we would be beside her. She also had fun sledging in the snow. We went for another three more rounds before heading to the Top of Innsbruck.
Hafelekar – The Top of Innsbruck
We took another cable car to the Top of Innsbruck, perched at 2,256m up the mountains. This is the highest point accessible to visitors on Nordkette. On a clear day, we will not only be able to catch a panorama view of Innsbruck but also be treated to the view of the mountain ranges. The cable car ride from Seegrube to Hafelekar took about 2 minutes to cover the 300m altitude. It was still snowing outside, and I was telling my friends we might not be able to see what we came for. True enough, we were soon disappointed to find out that we would not be able to see the city due to the low clouds and snowfall. The snowfall up here was heavier than we experienced at Seegrube minutes earlier.
We exited the cable car station and only saw a sea of white. We spotted a building up a slope not far from the cable car station and decided to go near it. This is the Victor Franz Hess Observatory, the world’s first high-altitude cosmic ray observatory. Walking up the slope near the observatory was another challenge due to the icy path. We wanted more time in the snow out here, but one of our friends was cold and headed inside the cable car station. Meanwhile, my other friend and I explored the place near the cable car station to take more photos. We spotted a railing that might be the viewpoint from which we looked into the mountain ranges. But we barely see the mountain peak due to the snowfall and the low clouds. After some pictures, we returned to the cable car station to join our friend. We took the next cable car back to Seegrube after spending about 20 minutes up here since there was nothing much we could do here. At Seegrube, we went a few more rounds of sledging because we had so much fun. This time, my friend and I used another sledge that looked somewhere between a sledge and a ski bike. We thought this sledgebike was more fun as it was more slippery.
The Alpenzoo – The Highest Themed Zoo in Europe
We took the 3 pm cable car from Seegrube to Hungerburg. Since we had some time, we decided to visit the Alpenzoo (costs €15, opens till 5 pm) to maximise the value of our Innsbruck. The alpine-themed zoo has 150 animal species, mainly curating animals living in the Alps. To get to the AlpenZoo, we took the funicular from Hungerburg towards Altstadt for one stop and alighted at Alpenzoo station. It took us about 5 min walk from the funicular to the zoo. The first exhibit had a beaver sign, but we did not see any beavers when we tried looking for them. Most of the animals we saw were birds and marine animals in the aquarium section of the zoo. The only interesting animal we saw was the Lynx; even the snakes were nowhere to be seen in their tanks, perhaps enjoying winter hibernation. We felt the zoo was boring and lifeless. Even the biggest animal we saw, the moose, does not have their antlers. We left the zoo after walking around for 1 hour and thought it wasn’t worth paying €15 to visit the zoo.
Iconic Photo Spot at Marktplatz and Evening in Altstadt
We spotted a bus stop in front of the zoo as we exited. Considering the funicular might be crowded, we took the 4.50 pm bus back to Innsbruck. Incidentally, the bus’s final stop was Marktplatz, located next to River Inn. This was the place I wanted to bring my friends to, where the iconic photo of Innsbruck featuring a row of colourful houses in front of the river could be taken. We stopped by to take some photos with the houses by the river and Nordkette as the backdrop. The Marktplatz was about a 7-minute walk to Maria-Theresien-Straße. We strolled in the Old Town, looking for dinner, and eventually settled dinner in a Chinese Restaurant. After dinner, we returned to Maria-Theresien-Straße, looking at and taking pictures of the St Anne’s Column and enjoying the tranquillity the quiet Sunday night brought.
