Innsbruck Nordkette - Jewel of the Alps

Had a nice breakfast and sorted out my padkos for the day and then a little prep then was time to head out.

2*Ham, cheese, salami, tomato & cucumber brochen/rolls. Nuts & dried banana. Cream Cheeses. Yummy strudle

I was on the move from my hotel just after 8am and heading to the Congress stop.

"In" the Innsbrucker Nordketten Bahnen

You take the tram/funicular for the 1st bit of the trip to Hungerburg. Then took the first cable car to Seegrube and then another one up to Hafelekar which was the very top stop. Did the normal cable car photo thing, this one was bigger and fuller so I had to make sure I got a good window view place.

First thing I did at the top was look around at the various viewpoints down over Innsbruck and also in all other directions at the amazing Alps. Took loads of amazing photos and made some great videos that show the scale of everything. So cool !!!

Nordkette Cableway map

Innsbruck

Innsbruck and cable car heading the other way (down)

Heading further up

Top of Innsbruck sign

Innsbruck

Cross at top of Innsbruck

Nordkette

View point (where the cross is)

Me taking a snooze (OK, I was only posing for photo)

Nordkette

Nordkette Panorama

I had spoken to the lady at the hotel reception and got a pamphlet and I had a challenging walk in mind.

Strava recorded route
Distance: 13.28km
Moving Time: 4:04:33
Pace: 18:25/km
Elevation: 714m

From the top I found the sign where the walk started.

Walks sign

Start of my walk

It was a 2 hour walk from Hafelekar to Pfeishütte. Wow was it tough going at times, but so amazing to do and experience. It took me about 2h20min to get there. I guess if don't stop to take photos all the time or stop for breaks you can do it in 2 hours.

Walk with chains to hold onto

Nordkette

Innsbruck

Mountain wildlife

Nordkette

I bought a Radler when I got to Pfeiushütte, that didn't last long. enjoyed my lunch padkos and relaxed a little bit and then refilled my water and head back in the reverse direction.

Pfeiushütte

Radler and Lunch (padkos) at Pfeiushütte

Amusing sign at Pfeiushütte

Just after the start of the return trip I met up with Martin & Steffi, who had met on the way there. So we teamed up and walked together. That was pretty cool to have some company to motivate you a bit and just to chat to now and then on the way. Got back to Hafelekar at about 16:00. Took a group shot and then they headed off to the cable car and down to Seegrube, I spent a bit more time at the top checking a few other view points.

I'm heading down there, well about halfway

Innsbruck

Martin, Steffi and Me after the walk back from Pfeiushütte

I then headed back to Seegrube myself, got off there and took some other photos. I was going to go and check out this one viewing platform but someone had told me it wasn't that great but only when I saw it when going down I regretted not going there. It was a bit of a walk to get there though, so ... oh well.

Nordkette map/info board

Cable Car arriving to take me down

Hungerburg Stop, where you change from cable car to funicular

Got back down to the end (I could have got off earlier at Löwenhaus but wanted to go all the way as it was cool) at Congress at about 17:30 and then headed to the shop to get something to drink. Martin had said he'd recommend a beer called Stiegl Goldbräu which was from Salzburg which is where he was initially from. I found that and enjoyed it. It turned out that from the 11th-14th at Spar they were on 25% discount as well, I had wondered why I paid quite a bit less than I had expected for it (I only saw the special, and thus the reason for cheaper, in a newspaper a few days later). Bonus.

Stiegl Goldgräu

Seeing as I had enjoyed the Wiener schnitzel the day before I decided to have the same thing again as it was well worth it. I'm like that ... if I find something I really like I'd rather have it again vs chancing something new elsewhere, especially when there are so many choices, and some could be not that great.

Dinner (again)