Wednesday night after lots of deliberating with my friends and German students, a few of us on the trip decided to plan our free day to Innsbruck, Austria. We had been told to buy two regional rail passes and we figured that’s all we would need to go from Augsburg to Munich and then Munich to Innsbruck. Only if it was that easy. Thursday morning we got up early to catch the 8AM train in hopes of getting to Austria before noon. But, as we were on the train to Munich we realized our day pass did not begin until 9AM. So, we waited in the uneventful town of St. Afra until a later train to Munich came. Eventually we arrived at Munich and boarded a train headed to Innsbruck. But, out day pass was not accepted on this train because it was the ICE. So, we had to buy a ticket on the train with our only other option being to get stranded in the middle of Bavaria. Luckily, we pulled into Innsbruck HBF at around 11:15 with hopes of caffeinating and eating. We found a beautiful cafe that served all their meals with a bag of warm bread and a large cappuccino.

It was cold, rainy, and foggy in Innsbruck which was the first bad weather day of the trip. I kind of liked it though. I think that the thick low fog with the drizzling rain added to the overall experience. Nonetheless, I had just traveled to Austria on a whim so how could I be disappointed. After several hours of walking around and exploring the interesting city. We took a tram-like vehicle up one of the mountains to look at the city through the clouds. Halfway up this mountain, about 3,000ft in elevation, there are people’s houses. I find it wild to think there are people who live their day to day lives in the Alps about half a mile above sea level. We were supposed to meet Leo and Ryan in the city at 4:30 to discuss the ride back home. But, they discovered that the 4:38 train is the last one until 6:30 which would have us getting home past 11. With everyone exhausted and sleep deprived, we raced down the mountain and into the station right on time. We took 3 trains back and arrived in Augsburg around 9 with enough time to eat dinner and pack up for the early Friday am departure.