Innsbruck

The weekend before last, we were in Innsbruck for 4 nights. Philip joined Mary there, as she had arrived in Austria 2 days earlier for a work based meeting. We found Innsbruck to be a great place, clean, tidy, full of polite and efficient people. The architecture was interesting, our first glimpse of Alpine style buildings. We loved the Aldtstadt, with its narrow streets and picturesque buildings. Most places of interest were in walking distance from our hotel. The food was good: schnitzels, sauerkraut and dumplings etc , all at much cheaper prices than the UK. The souvenir shops were full of cuckoo clocks (of course), but we just bought a "fridge magnet" version. The weather was cool, with some snow, which started to settle on the last day. The city is in a broad valley, and everywhere you look you can see the snow-covered mountains. Around the city, the trees were showing some spectacular autumn colours.

York and Yorkshire

Last weekend we went up to York to visit friends there. Luckily the weather was quite warm and not the frigid cold we had expected. York itself is an attractive walled city, with an impressive cathedral (The Minster), and narrow winding streets (the Shambles). The autumn colours were especially beautiful "up north".

Our friends took us to Fountains (ruined Abbey) and grounds, a short distance outside of York. The Abbey was a vast complex, virtually a small town in its own right. It reminded us of the ruined Abey at Glastonbury in Somerset. The gardens were huge, with the usual ponds and out buildings.

Our next trip will be to Austria. Mary has a business meeting in a small village there, and Philip will join her afterwards for a few days in Innsbruck. In early December, we will go up to London, to act as volunteers in the trial of Heathrow Airport terminal 5.