To fill this day I did a quick explore of Innsbruck town and then got on the road down to Merano.

Click any of the pics in this post to be taken to my flickr where you can access larger versions or view them on a map (they’re all geotagged).

First we kick off with my all too common complaint about the clarity of the skies.  Here I am nestled in the heart of the Alps and the air is still thick with smog.  I really shouldn’t complain, it does create some nice depth.

The Alps provide a dramatic backdrop for the boldly coloured buildings in Innsbruck.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the tight streets of old Innsbruck.  Lots of boutique shops tucked away beneath the stonework.  But of course it wasn’t the boutiques that grabbed my attention.  Here’s a nice warm bakery contrasting against the cold clean lines of the stone.

The autobahn is great for getting from A to B fairly quickly, even if a little dull.  Since I’d already been down the Brenner A12 the day prior, I took the smaller 2 lane road that weaves alongside the 6 lane autobahn.  Doing this gave me the view back up at the autobahn.  This is the Europabrücke (Europe’s bridge). It’s a 777 meter long bridge that slashes like a scar across the Wipp valley south of Innsbruck.  At 192 metres high it was once (until 2004) the highest bridge in Europe.

As lunchtime rolled round I jumped off the main road and trundled down to the nearest town:

Then up and over the mountain pass – Jaufenpass.  Good fun, plenty of corners:

There was even some fine espresso at the top of the pass (2094 meters above sea level).  As you’d expect really, everywhere in this country seems able to produce espresso perfection.

More corners and dramatic mountain views:

…and eventually I found myself down in Merano:

Such a gorgeous little town that I decided to stay a couple of days longer than original plans…  Could have been something to do with Marta Sophia’s cooking too, more on that in the next post.