If it’s Saturday it Must Be Austria
16.11.2014
13 °C
We started the week in Switzerland and passed through Austria enroute to Munich in Germany. We then stayed in Bavaria, just a five minute stroll across this typical Tyrolean landscape back into Austria… 
Mid-week we took a short train ride to the Austrian city of Innsbruck and viewed its impressive 16th and 17th century architecture… 
Christmas is coming and Innsbruck, like many European cities, is getting spruced up for its ChristkindlMarkt. 
The streets are being decorated with grotesque effigies denoting historic figures, (the one on the right is James)...
Many of Innsbruck’s buildings have murals that date to a time when knights in armour jousted on horseback and this part of Europe was under threat from the Ottoman Empire in the east. This is an original 1566 mural in one of the narrow lanes within the old city walls…
Innsbruck has a number of ancient colonnaded shopping streets which have changed little in five centuries – although most of the goods in the stores would be largely unrecognisable by the knights and their ladies who strolled here in the middle ages…
The landscape of Europe has been shaped by wars since the days of early civilizations and many of the great fortresses and walled cities of the medieval period still stand today. This is the 16th century city hall and clock tower...
But, since the formation of the European Union, the fences and border posts have disappeared entirely and we are now back in Austria for the fourth time in a week without once showing a passport. This time we are in Salzburg for a Mozart concert in the city’s ancient fortress. But trans-European travel wasn’t always this easy and it is difficult to comprehend that a mere 70 years ago foreigners like us were being shot by the parents and grandparents of the many wonderful people who have welcomed us so warmly and treated us so well.
Looks like I am the first at 2:15am. I woke up thirsty and made some cocoa and now I am going back to my warm bed. I love getting your stories. Will you be home for Christmas. It's finally cold and frosty here. love Jean
by Jean McLaren