Venice - a Travel Day with a bit of Bling

It's an early start, out of our little Salzburg hotel...

Into a taxi and to the train station for a 7:56 train to Innsbruck. And look who is on the train station with us! How perfect a sight in Salzburg, home of The Sound of Music!

Here comes the train...

..and on the train...

 It's lovely scenery, again - Austria is beautiful and we are heading for the Tyrol area.

In a couple of hours, we arrive in Innsbruck, then we find the luggage storage lockers and stow the luggage for a few hours. This is a fairly tight turnaround before the shuttle and I had been worried we would be rushing, but there is plenty of time - time enough to grab a toastie from the cafe in the station  that still allows smoking - every person in there was smoking!

Then it's on to the shuttle bus...

..through some lovely scenery...

..to Swarovski Crystal Mountain in Wattens.

 It's where Swarovski is made, but it's not a factory tour as such, it's a bit of a crazy world with all sorts of displays and art installations and stuff. We start in the Giant's Head - this is full of crazy displays and artwork, some of the installations are amazing and weird!

This was meant to be like actually being inside a crystal, with hundreds of mirrors and lights - quite amazing.

This one made shapes as you took steps - can't quite see it in the photo...

More displays...

An amazing room with gold branches and crystals - a bit out of focus but such a cool room.

Then there was a display section with costumes and jewellery, also a small section on Daniel Swarovski himself - not a lot of detail about him, just that it was a family business and he cared about the workers, his sons followed him into the business and one of the prototypes was the little mouse - Alison and I both have one! You can sort of see the mouse to the left of the cane.

Then it's through to the garden section - this is no ordinary garden! There is the Crystal Cloud section where there are trees with leaves made of fabric with 600,000 crystals all through so they shine in sunlight, reflect lights at night and are just generally extraordinary. There is also an unusual water feature - I'm in the middle...

Then there is the Play Tower, a huge five-storey tower that allows the young and young-at-heart to explore different levels - there is netting and little trampolines built into the floor, slides from one level to another, just incredible and fun for all.

This is Alison - the young-at-heart! And me - the bare-of-foot...

There is a maze and a lookout post. Also, the actual factory. Ugly factory but amazing backdrop.

 And the entrance to the gift shop! Plus Alison in the gift shop with the watch she got last time.

Just an incredible place! We had a coffee, waited a bit for the shuttle and then back to the station - some snaps from the bus...

Then a brief stroll around before hopping onto the next train.

Onto the train, next stop - Verona, Italy! The scenery on this section is amazing - really high hills and really low ravines, roads running up the top of the hills, arched bridges everywhere, little houses nestled in all over the place. And hardly any of the photos work as the windows kept reflecting the camera and us back. Here are a couple that almost show it... Impossible to get in the amazingness of it - is that even a word??

Sort of... Time for dinner, in the little restaurant car - fine Italian waiter... And delicious vegetable curry! Surprising for a microwaved train meal...

Then a wait at Verona for the next train to...

..Venice! It's a quick water taxi ride to our hotel, fabulous Venetian-style hotel - this is the European version of twin beds - they are actually two beds...

We did venture out to St Mark's square and then had a coffee next door in a place teeming with Mafiosi-looking waiters - even had the head honcho man, in a blue pinstriped suit! Then back and to bed, ready to explore and celebrate Alison's birthday tomorrow!

Travel days are long and tiring but a bit of bling can help...