The
next stop on our route was Innsbruck. The van had not felt very well since we
left Guernsey and it had p
rogressively
got worse so we decided to try to find a Volkswagen dealer around Innsbruck
that could fix the manifold gasket. In our guidebook we also found that there
should be two campsites, possibly, open at this time of the year and we had
figured out from previous experiences that if you like to have electricity you
need to be there whilst the office was open, usually for o
ne
hour between 5 to 7. We did not have a very good map over Innsbruck but even
just driving all the roads around the area marked as having a campsite we could
not find anything. After eight o'clock we
resigned,
went to Mac Donald's and then kipped at a service station out side the town.
The following morning we drove to a VW dealer we had seen and after a bit
of discussion they agreed to have it fixed that day. We walked in to town and
tried to explore Innsbruck as tourists but neither of us really felt like it
so most of the day was spent strolling through buzy streets looking at some
spectacular architecture or sitting at a cafe reading a book. We walked back
to the garage as the sun was setting only to realize that the job was three
times as expensive as we had been told in the morning and even worse, they did
not take foreign credit cards. They agreed for us to take the van to a cash
machine and back before closing time, in half an hour, to enable us to have
somewhere to stay the night. Even though we had spent the day dis
covering
Innsbruck we did notice a severe shortage of cash machines and we had just half
an hour to find one. Well, we made it as well as finding our way to one of the
illusive campsites before closing down for the day. The following day we drove
up to Axamer-Lizum, where the 1976 winter olympics were held. Steve went
out to explore the slopes while Malin stayed cozy in the van finishing a very
compelling book. As the book was finished by the end of the day Malin joined
Steve the following day. The slopes around Axamer-Lizum are quite difficult,
long and steep, so the last day in Innsbruck we went to Stubai which has very
nice easy runs at the top of the glacier. Malin then felt confident enough as
a snow boarder to be more adventurous so we said goodbye to Innsbruck.