36 Hours in Innsbruck, Austria

Written By Unknown on Senin, 04 Februari 2013 | 17.35

Dominic Ebenbichler for The New York Times

Innsbruck as seen from Seegrube mountain.

The Alps might be for skiing, but the self-styled "capital" of the Austrian Alps, Innsbruck, lives for just about everything après —  eating, drinking, shopping and partying. Despite its founding as the capital of the Tyrol in the Middle Ages, the city on the Inn River maintains a consistently youthful attitude, thanks in part to 30,000 university students in a population of just 120,000 residents, while a new interest in world-class modern architecture by the likes of David Chipperfield, Dominique Perrault and Zaha Hadid is starting to compete for attention with the Renaissance-era buildings and labyrinthine lanes of Old Town. By all means, enjoy the nearby slopes, like those at the Stubai Glacier. But don't be surprised if the lifts you enjoy most are the ones that take you to the city's many rooftop bars, upscale restaurants and dance clubs that go all night.

FRIDAY

4 p.m.
1. Kaffeeklatsch Contest

Locals love to argue over which is Innsbruck's best konditorei, or pastry cafe, with many picking the more-modern Valier (Maximilianstrasse 27; www.konditorei-innsbruck.at), just south of the city center, while hard-liners swear by the storied Munding (Kiebachgasse 16, at Mundingplatz; munding.at) in Old Town, which claims to have served its pie-like apple strudels and sugary stollen since 1803. Pick either one, grab a table and enjoy the afternoon kaffeeklatsch hour like a regular. Then move on to the other and order a second round of cake and coffee, just to make sure.

5 p.m.
2
. Local Brews

With its crisp grüner veltliners, fruity gelber muskatellers and steely rieslings, Austria's enviable wine culture steals much of the attention that might otherwise go to the country's growing —  but largely overlooked —  craft beer scene. In Innsbruck, the top-rated bar in Conrad Seidl's 2012 Austrian beer guidebook is Cafe Sowieso (Kapuzinergasse 8; 43-650 553-0506), a gritty, romper-room-like student pub with four to six unusual brews on draft and about 40 bottles, including rarities like Gerhard Forstner's excellent Styrian Ale, a hoppy amber brew from Austria's Steiermark region (4.60 euros, or about $6 at $1.29 to the euro). No, your beer-loving friends back home have never heard of it.

8 p.m.
3
. Meal With a View

Though the centrally situated, glass-covered Rathausgalerien seems to be nothing more than a flashy shopping mall, in-the-know epicures come for the top-level restaurant, Lichtblick (Maria-Theresien-Strasse 18; restaurant-lichtblick.at): an open, light-filled space with commanding views of the city from atop the seventh floor of a tower on Maria-Theresien-Strasse. Can you see all the way to the Alto Adige, just across the border? The cooking certainly seems to leap from Austria to Italy: earthy parsnips in a foam soup paired with fresh tuna fillets, or tender salt-marsh lamb accompanied by hearty polenta in tomato sauce and rich goat cheese. Dinner for two without wine: 100 euros.

10:30 p.m.
4
. After-Dinner Stops

Just how lazy are you? For an easy finish to the night, walk 20 feet from Lichtblick's door to 360° (Maria-Theresien-Strasse 18; 360-grad.at), a stylish, circular, glass salon overlooking the entire city. Finish up with a local wine, like the house white cuvée, produced for the bar by the Hiedler winery in Kamptal (32 euros per bottle). Then set out for the city's best cocktails around the corner at the 5th Floor, another rooftop bar, this time inside the Penz hotel (Adolf-Pichler-Platz 3; the-penz.com). Sample one of the 100 rare whiskeys (like the Wemyss Honey Pot, one of just 299 bottles produced) or try a picker-upper with a twist, like the all-German gin and tonic, made with Monkey 47 gin from the Black Forest and Thomas Henry tonic from Berlin (cocktails, about 11 euros).

SATURDAY

10 a.m.
5.
Pottery's High Point

Austria's influence on the global studio ceramics movement includes both the Wiener Werkstätte and the great Vienna-trained (but London-based) potter Lucie Rie. The high point for quality earthenware in Innsbruck is the 20-year-old Töpferstudio Kathrein (Viaduktbogen 1; toepferstudio.at), nestled in the arch of a railway viaduct on Viaduktbogen, where Hansjörg Kathrein makes and sells stylish but very functional hand-thrown cups, bowls, plates and pitchers. (Cups, about 8 euros; pitchers, up to 60 euros.)

1 p.m.
6
. Sweet Empire

The imperial-era home of the Sacher torte now boasts a small empire of its own: beyond the original Hotel Sacher in Vienna, there are related branches in Graz, Salzburg and here in the Old Town, whose Cafe Sacher (Rennweg 1; sacher.com/en-cafe-innsbruck.htm) reopened after a major refurbishment in 2011. Though most visitors come here for the cake, the kitchen's savory fare —  from classic tafelspitz to contemporary cuisine —  is not to be missed. Ornate fin-de-siècle-style décor and princely service create an Old World setting that counterbalances the very modern dishes of the chef Florian Prelog, like pickled char with sweet apple ricotta and spicy horseradish. Lunch for two without wine: 70 euros.

3 p.m.
7
Multifaceted

Pretend to contemplate the art while secretly shopping for shiny baubles at the Swarovski (Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse 39; innsbruck.swarovski.com) crystal shop, which reopened after a major renovation in mid-2011. Produced just a half-hour outside town, the crystals decorate the ground floor's exhibition of stiletto heels from eight different designers, as well as a huge multimedia installation, "Im Facettenreich," by Thomas Feuerstein. The shopping-cum-gawking continues upstairs, where crystals light up with synchronized music in a darkened wunderkammer, or chamber of wonders, and you can brace yourself with sparkling wine (5.60 euros) at the stylish bar before pulling out the plastic for Christopher Kane's glistening black crystal bracelet (250 euros).

4 p.m.
8
. Tyrolean Style


Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

36 Hours in Innsbruck, Austria

Dengan url

http://travelwisatawan.blogspot.com/2013/02/36-hours-in-innsbruck-austria_4.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

36 Hours in Innsbruck, Austria

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

36 Hours in Innsbruck, Austria

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger