Railroad Alley: Innsbruck, Austria Comes in a Poor Second Place to Mother Nature

I took the scenic route from Salzburg to Innsbruck, involving two trains, one going through the Brenner Pass.

This perfectly captures what it's like gazing out the window from a train

Sometimes when you go around a bend, the train leans over & so does the world

These frosted trees are way, way up on a high mountain, just before the end of the tree line

This adorable line of buildings in Innsbruck looks like a painted backdrop

Swarovski crystals are manufactured near here, so stores sell fantastic creations made from them. You have to walk up a staircase made of crystals just to get into this store.

You are greeted by a giant bug made of crystals

And a dragon

The use of crystals in fashion design

What is Tyrolean culture? I hunt down a folk art museum. The guard tells me that they argue all the time about which objects are worth displaying & which are not. They have many cake pans & lanterns & items devoted to carding wool & weaving.

Spinning wheels are always cool

These figures are from the Mood Disorders shelf

There are many photos & manikins devoted to native dress

Classic milkmaid

Marriage vows

These are items from a photographer's studio, showing his canvas backdrops & manikins

Hmmmm...what kind of scenario is this manikin used for?

I have seen many of these in palaces & museums all around Europe. They are ceramic heaters, the system that came after fireplaces & before modern heating. Wealthy people had small false doors hidden behind the unit. Servants could then fill the heater with wood or coal out of sight, so as not to offend the sensibilities of guests.

Many are beautiful works of ceramic art

Extremely complex miniature dioramas

Most are religious in nature, but that core is surrounded by intricate depictions of village life

Adjoining the folk museum is a church...not really a church...a shrine dedicated to Emperor Maximillian, progenitor of the Hapsburgs. He was supposedly a modest person, though this self-designed hallowed temple to himself would suggest otherwise.

This is one of many busts he had made of himself

Clearly, he did struggle with the modesty/vanity part of his life. He explicitly left instructions for his death portrait to portray him exactly as he was at death...no teeth, eyes sunken, skin shriveled.

This, however, is the black marble tomb he designed years before his death, with carved figures all around the side depicting his marriage, battles, losses, victories, captures, recaptures. All along the sides are rows of larger-than-life German Renaissance black cast iron statutes of family members & kings & emperors he considered his forebearers. They look like giant chess pieces.