Sunday, July 15, 2007--St. Veit to Innsbruck--Day 7

Today we had a beautiful, long drive from St. Veit to Innsbruck, the site of the 1956 Winter Olympics. The scenery along the way was so lovely as we traveled through the Italian Dolomites. We stopped for photo ops in Cortina and Lake Misurina, Italy as we dipped down from Austria into Italy and then back up to Austria. We got to Innsbruck around 5:00 p.m. and wandered through the downtown area for an hour before checking into our hotel. Innsbruck is so pretty, nestled in a valley completely surrounded by mountains, like a bowl. The only problem is the heat. It was in the low 90s again today, and the hotels in these smaller villages have no AC. We were all pretty ripe by the time we had dinner (not very good) at our hotel. And Europeans leave a lot to be desired in the hygiene department. We desperately tried to stay as fresh as possible with multiple showers every day and clothes hand washed in our bathroom sinks, but body odor apparently doesn’t bother the Europeans. We learned to breathe through our mouths early on during this heat wave!
So far this has been our least favorite hotel, but you can't beat the scenery. We have a nice big door that opens onto our balcony to let in fresh air, and the hotel has supplied an oscillating fan. But the balcony is a communal one running the entire length of the hotel, so we probably won’t be able to leave the door open tonight, and the windows don’t open. I’m hoping it won't be too miserable. We’ll have an early night, then it’s on to St. Moritz, Switzerland tomorrow, with some great-sounding side trips along the way.
Observation: the only English t.v. we’ve seen has been the BBC or CNN (no comment), but we’ve watched “Lost” and “NCIS” in German. It’s a hoot, hearing Jethro Gibbs spout off at Tony DiNozzo in Deutsch!