Hello there from Innsbruck. We are back in Austria. I realized this morning that we were checking out of our last hotel. This week begins lots of our lasts of this trip. This is our last week here, today was our last day in Switzerland, tomorrow will be our last day in Austria, today was our last day in a hotel… This amazing three weeks is quickly coming to an end and I’m not quite ready to return to reality. It has been so amazing to have these three weeks of freedom.

We started our morning in Zermatt at the Hotel Jagerhof. I was of course happy to hear that they provided complimentary breakfast. It was a pretty good spread. The same basic items we have gotten everywhere, a variety of breads and jams, cold cuts, yogurts, fresh fruit and cereal. They also had bacon and eggs, yum! (minus the eggs for me).

I enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and we discussed our morning plans. We were regretting not scheduling more time in Zermatt, but at this point there was not a whole lot we could do about that. There are so many cable cars to various peaks in the area, you’d need several days to really experience it.

We got out pretty early and walked about the town, it didn’t take long for us to see the Matterhorn. Unfortunately the cable for my camera to download my photos is not working so I only have cell phone photos to share and I didn’t take many. We will get a new cable before we leave.

Matterhorn!

I didn’t realize that we would see it so clearly from Zermatt, but there it was in all its beautiful glory.

After admiring the mountain in the cold mountain air (about 30 degrees) we ventured into town to find the shops.We had about 40 Swiss Francs left so they needed to be spent. I told Jacob I wanted to buy chocolate so we were on the hunt for that.

We’ve noticed during our journey that if we get out the door before 9 a.m. we seriously beat the crowds, come 10 a.m. everyone is finally up and out and the town bells start chiming! Wake up, ya’ll! All through the town, ring, ring, ring.

We stopped in a few shops and I picked up a souvenir cow bell. Then we found a fancy chocolate shop and picked up some fancy chocolates. On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a bakery and bought a loaf of bread. The Milchbrot is delicious and nice to have for snacking in the evening or on long drives. After that it was time to head back to the hotel to gather our things and check out.

I enjoyed our hotel, except for the shower. The water temperature kept changing from scalding to cold which was a bit disappointing when all I wanted was a hot shower.

From there we were off to catch the train to Tasch, but not before we stopped at the BrezelKoenig and picked up a few pretzels.

Our time in Zermatt was short and sweet but we enjoyed it.

Once we were back to the train station we successfully located our car and were on our way to Innsbruck, a mere 6 hours away…

I’m disappointed my camera cable isn’t working now because I took some absolutely amazing pictures of our drive. We drove over the Nufenen Pass at 8,000 feet. It was so beautiful. I’ll load up some pictures when I can.

We were too busy trying to make sure a semi-truck didn’t catch us we didn’t stay long for cell phone photos at the pull outs.

After Nufenen Pass we drove through many small mountain towns and eventually found ourselves on a main freeway.

We got to drive along the entire length of Liechtenstein, which is pretty much a mountain between Switzerland and Austria. Its the town on the hill in the photo below.

Oh and I forgot to mention the title of this post. We must have driven through 50 tunnels today and I am not exaggerating. At first I thought the tunnels were cool but then I started to realize I am missing out on all these cool mountain views because we are driving through the mountains instead.

Today we drove through Switzerland’s longest tunnel, the Gotthard Road tunnel. It is 15 km long or about 10 miles. It used to be the world’s longest tunnel but has since been passed up. Jacob asked me if I had read about this tunnel to which I said no. He then revealed back in 2001 there was a horrific accident in the tunnel. Which led me to read all about long tunnels and tunnel accidents, etc. This wasn’t a good idea because we still had Austria’s longest tunnel to drive through, the Arlberg Road Tunnel, only 14 kilometers or almost 9 miles.

I can tell you I definitely noticed the emergency exits when we were driving through the Austria tunnel and all other tunnels after that be they 400 meters or 5,000 meters.

Also, if they can just build tunnel after tunnel like this, why can’t we manage a tiny one through Seattle?

After a very long day of driving we have arrived in Innsbruck at our AirBnB which is very nice. It is an apartment attached to a home. We have a full bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. It is definitely nice to have the extra space.

We got dinner from a local restaurant and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Tomorrow we are off to see some castles and then we arrive in Munich for the last of our journey. We have four nights in Munich and then we fly out on Sunday.

Only a few days left… 🙁