Last year during my yearly visit to amazing Innsbruck, Austria…my wife, daughter and I took the tram up to the top of the surrounding mountains. The tram just opened up to this location within the past year. It was a nice 60 degrees in the city this day and up at the top of the mountain it was about 30 and chilly!! With some fun snow!! A bit scary when you look over the edge on certain viewing platforms. An amazing experience…kinda like you are on top of the world. Innsbruck is know for the 1976 Winter Olympics. It is a cute little city…and also my favorite airport in the world! You fly in on these small Austrian Airline planes with props. At the right time of year..snow cap mountain are in all directions. Then you see this little valley ahead and that is Innsbruck! You get out of the plane on the runway and mountains are all around. Very surreal!
Here is some info from the web: Imagine having lunch in town, browse the shops, – and then change to a mountain restaurant for a leisurely afternoon coffee. In Innsbruck this is reality, thanks to a total make-over of the rail and cableways leading up to Nordpark, a Mecca for skiers, snowboarders and hikers right on Innsbruck’s doorstep. According to the Innsbruck Nordkettenbahn Ltd, the company responsible for this ambitious construction project, the ride from the city centre to an altitude of 2,300m takes just 20 minutes.
Section 1 has just gone into operation, with two gondola cable cars taking passengers from Hungerburg to Seegrube and Hafelekar. This means fast access to the Nord-park’s winter fun for skiers, snowboarders and sun seekers alike, to its extreme down-hill runs for pros, off-piste slopes for nature lovers, pipes and backcountry for boarders and freeriders, as well as the sun terraces for those who love to just lounge in the sun. Thanks to the careful adaptation of the upper and lower terminus buildings, which date back to the 1920s, the new mountain link provides an unusual and interesting contrast between state-of-the-art technology and architecture of special historic interest. At the Seegrube there is a choice between a self-service buffet area and an upstairs restaurant with breathtaking panoramic views of the town and surrounding mountains thrown into the bargain.
Talke Photography Settings:
- Camera: Nikon D300
- Lens: Nikon 18-200 VR f/3.5-5.6
- Setting: Aperture Mode
- Focal Length: 31.0mm
- ISO: 200
- Exposure: 1/640 second
- Aperture: f/13.0
- Gear: Hand Held
- Post Process: Adobe CS4
Innsbruck, Austria is a small city in that reminds me of a storybook. Surrounded by breathtaking mountains and at this time of the year, snow still tops some the mountains and the hilly countryside is green and beautiful. Sometimes when you look, it seems surreal. Must be an amazing place to live! We arrived last week and had a little time to see some sights. We decided to stop in at Swarovski’s Crystal World. About 20 mins from downtown. It was a beauty of a day and I had always wanted to capture the “Giant” of Crystal World” at the entrance of the tour. 
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