Day 5

Guten tag,

After breakfast with Buzzy Bee, we packed our bags into the Clio and headed off to Innsbruck in the Austrian Alps, a drive of just under two hours.

The Clio has a little 1.2 litre turbo charged engine and a cool little 6 speed dual clutch automatic. It has a set of brand new tires and it steers nicely. Oh, and on the autobahn she likes to boogie in the fast lane. Traffic was a bit heavy today, so we only managed 160 km/h, but the little Clio has more to give.

Innsbruck is a stunningly beautiful city of about 160,000 people, roughly the same size as Hamilton, but not as spread out. Most people seem to live in apartments. Even so, buildings cannot be over a certain height (about 5 or 6 stories) as they are not allowed to block the views of the mountains.

In every direction there are beautiful mountains. It must look magical in

winter when they are covered in snow.

We did a cycle tour with a very nice man named Rodrigo. It was just the three of us (and Buzzy Bee) and we cycled all over the city.

Despite being surrounded by mountains, Innsbruck is very flat. There are cycle-ways everywhere, and bicycles rule this city. Everywhere you look there are bicycles.

It was a very warm day, so we took our time. Our guide was impressed with how fit we were, and how young Koro looked. Rodrigo said that people bike all year, even in the winter when it is snowing.

If you ever come to Innsbruck, Rodrigo’s cycle tour is well worth it. It is only supposed to be two hours, but we ended up taking three hours, because he kept talking and showing us more stuff. And photos. Rodrigo loves photography and he took lots of photos of us (even of Buzzy Bee). We will add these to this story once he has emailed them through to us.

We stopped at a local dairy farm, where all the cows are kept in barns. Even so, they milked twice a day. Grandma noted that they weren’t as big as the dairy cows we see in New Zealand.

At the farm gate were two dispenser machines. One looked like the ones we see in New Zealand that dispense chocolate bars and chippies. Except this one dispensed packs of farm fresh eggs and plastic bottles. The plastic bottles could then be used in the next machine which dispensed farm fresh chilled milk. It cost about €0.90 for a litre of this unpasteurised milk. And it was busy, There was a constant stream of housewives coming to buy their milk and eggs.

Rodrigo bought us a bottle and the milk was delicious. Grandma said it would make a beautiful rice pudding, like Mum used to make.

Innsbruck has a cool little “old town”. These are the buildings dating from medieval times that made up the original city. It is closed to cars, and mostly to bikes. Very much like the old parts of Barcelona or Florence. We are sitting having dinner as we write this at a pub in a narrow lane in the old town. It is a very warm, beautiful night.

We are going to have a bit of a wander, then drive back to our Air BNB apartment for the night, We have to plan our day for tomorrow. Koro has been impressed with the Clio so far, but tomorrow it will be put to the test.

Love to you all from Grandma, (fit) Koro and Buzzy Bee.