Up early the morning after dancing--the plan was to go to the Alpenzoo in Innsbruck. Christoph's left eye was swollen shut due to an allergic reaction to a mosquito bite in the night. We were all groggy enough to be tempted not to rally.
Ah, what the heck, we went, hopping the 10:30am train for the 45 minute ride into the city. From the station we walked to the zoo on the outskirts of the city, passing through the old part of town-- a tourist destination. Flea market on the perimeter, saw a couple things I wanted to get -- a skull cap with small antlers for Jack (a Jack-a-lope!) and an antique doorbell with a pig on top of it. Alas, we have no room in our small packs for such things. Sorry, Jack! It probably would have broken anyway :-(
Of course, the Alpenzoo was on the side of the steep foothils of the high mountains just on the outer perimeter of Innsbruck--more hard puffing for these out of shape and mildly sick tourists! This zoo set-up would never survive in America. "What?! we have to exercise to see the animals?"
It was a very sweet zoo--reminiscent of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle in its effort to provide beautiful natural settings for the animals. There was a great play area for the kids. We had to make sure the the slide worked properly :-) Does the Woodland Park Zoo sell beer in its food area? I had a Radler--half beer, half 7-up. Our favorite snack here in Austria is Snips--a bag of peanut butter flavored corn puffs. (the bag reads "Authentic American Flavor!")
Incidentally, what has the Woodland Park Zoo has done much better than the Alpenzoo? Odor management. There were areas that made my eyes water from the smell of general animal earthiness. Jeff says that Europeans have a better understanding and toleration of funk, that we Americans are too antiseptic. Mebee so. Not something I'm thinking I'll train myself out of.
A tired trot back to the center of town for a dinner before our ride home. Fabulous dinner at a restaurant Jeff and I had discovered last time we were here. I must admit I had a few bites of veal :-O ! It was the children's wiener snitzel--and it was so guht! My dish was a couple fillets of cold smoked trout accompanied by dry toast and a little bowl of tasy horseradish butter. Yum! Jeff had the Grillteller (grilled meat plate) with boiled potatos fried in butter. No lack of calories in our vacation diet...
BTW, the PC movement (not the computer, but the social sensibility) has yet to find its way here. A couple double takes since we were here: On the day of Gabi's party the children were playing a game with each other that resembled tag. One child would yell a singsong chant to a group of kids standing across the way, then they would race past him in a charge, trying not to be tagged by him. When I asked Kati what the chant was, I was told that he was saying something like, "I am the big Black Man -- who is afraid of me? Come and I will get you!" When I told Kati that this would never be okay where I was from, she got a quizzical look on her face and said "Wow, I never thought about this chant in this way. We played it as children, I always assumed that 'Black Man' was refering to a demon!" hmm, would fly even less with this... The other "huh?!" moment was at this restaurant in Innsbruck. Bernhard wanted chocolate cake for dinner--so the plate he ordered had a name which translated to "Negro in a white shirt". Gabi said that this dish was so well known that the cafe who invented this refused to call it anything else lest people not know how to ask for it. Not too much of an active African-Austrian population from what I could see.
At home again Christoph treated us to a DVD of "Dick und Dorf"--the German translation of Laurel and Hardy. It was more fun to watch Christoph convulse in laughter than to watch the film.
Schnaps makes a fabulous night cap.
Tomorrow we leave for Italy. Two nights in Verona, two nights in Venice, then we come back to Landeck Friday night. Don't know if I'll blog from there, but stories to tell when I come back if I don't.
Hey! I don't think I mentioned it, but they liked our cooking!
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