More Mountain Time

Since we had gotten our skiing in the day before (with good weather), we decided to get a little Alps hiking in while staying in Mayrhofen.  The weather was cloudy, with a little rain, but felt pretty appropriate for a fall day.

As we have mentioned several times, mountains are so much more accessible in the Alps than in the U.S.  We took a tram up to about 7000 feet so we could immediately start hiking in the Alpine.  None of this forest walking.

We did a relatively short hike (~1 hr.) to a hut that was still open called EdelHutte.  We were excited to do one more hut trip, since most huts are shutting down for the season.  Per usual, the hut did not disappoint. We had some homemade "kuchen" (cake), beer and coffee. This was a great way to warm up after hiking in the rain for a while.  Scott and I discussed (again) how to get the hut business going in the U.S.

We were pretty sad on the hike down knowing that this would probably be our last hike in the Alps for this visit.  We have enjoyed it so much, and hope to come back and explore more hut-to-huit hiking!  This view is looking down on the Zillertal Valley and Mayrhofen, where we were staying.

The next day, on our way out of Mayrhofen, we decided to do a little side trip to Innsbruck.  Innsbruck definitely gets a vote for potential "Places we would live in Europe".  Runners-up include almost anywhere in Switzerland and Munich.  The reason we know we would like Innsbruck is because it's a medium sized city surrounded by mountains.  Skiing and hiking opportunities are abundant.  Sounds like a little city we call home, right?  (Shout out to Seattle!)
Anyway, in Innsbruck, we climbed up the old town tower to get a good view of the area.

After a quick lunch and some sightseeing, we were on our way back to Vienna!