Sunday    19.9.2021
  233km Total: 4622km   4h 18m Total: 73h 9m 

All the scenic routes I had planned today are swept away by the rain hammering down while I load the bike as the forecast shows persistent rain all the way.
As boring as the Brenner is, it is fast and comparatively safe.
At least the motorway looked fast on paper, but since it is the most heavily trafficked road across the Alps, it was perhaps not entirely unexpected that I would run into quite extensive queues during the day.
The average speed for the day was thus only just over 50km/h when I roll into Innsbruck but with a modest day's stage I still park outside the Binders Hotel in Innsbruck around half past two.

The receptionist is so overwhelmingly happy, friendly and accommodating that it feels as if I have moved to another planet and not just crossed a national border.
Checking in before the official check-in time was no problem at all and when she didn't even want to charge me for parking the bike in the garage, I almost had to resist the urge to give her a kiss.
They call themselves Budget City Mountain Hotel but the only thing that somehow signalled budget was the size of the room, otherwise I have stayed in "luxury" hotels with significantly lower standards.

I throw myself into almost hostile weather as I wanted see at least some part of Innsbruck before the sun went down but it was basically a fruitless battle against the clock and the elements.
While I'm eating a very late lunch, the weather goes from bad to worse and after I leave the restaurant, a rain shower sweeps in so brutal that it was like standing in the shower.
I take refuge at the entrance to a closed business and wait out the worst of it, but it eventually only subsides into a steady rain.

My sightseeing is thus basically limited to going from roof to roof in the old town, but I quickly throw in the towel and head back to the hotel.

The evening's excursion to a relatively nearby restaurant makes soaks me to the point that I can wring out my underwear when I get back to the hotel.
I really hope that it rains out during the night otherwise tomorrow's wait for the train will feel infinitely long.

Queues on the A22 and this is still sixty kilometres from the Brenner.

Wet turbo tourism in Innsbruck

Monday    20.9.2021
  51km Total: 4673km   1h 3m Total: 74h 12m    707km

The weather is overcast but at least it is not raining which I'm extremely grateful for as I have to pass the time until the loading of the train at 7.45PM and need to leave the room already at 11AM.
The cable tie fix I replaced the screw in the windscreen will undoubtedly last the rest of the way but as I still have time to spend I start the day with a trip to Triumph Tirol.
It took them <1 minute to find the right screw and it cost me €0 so it was clearly worth the trip and it was a nice ride there too.

I googled a bit on what you could see around Innsbruck and from where I am now, the Swarovski Kristallwelten is five minutes away so why not?
It was perhaps because of my zero expectations a pretty fun place but then again Swarovski have invested 34 million Euros into this place and it has an area of 7.5 hectares.
Their Chamber of Wonder had artefacts from artists such as Brian Eno, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí which are people even an uneducated yokel like me have actually heard of.
I spent a couple of hours there but now I'm moving on to a more conventional tourist destination, Schloss Ambras.

Ambras is a Renaissance castle and in its heyday was the main castle of the Tyrolean counts.
Built by Ferdinand II in 1653 on a site where a fortification had existed since the 12th century, Ferdinand built the castle with the intention that much of it would be what it still is today, a place for collections of art and weapons.
Ferdinand was ahead of his time with the innovation of collecting objects in museums but he must have done a good job as parts of the exhibition in the armoury have remained unchanged since the 16th century.
Some of the collection has been moved to the Museum of Art History in Vienna but what remains is certainly nothing to be ashamed of, the main idea was to pass the time and that was certainly not difficult to do in a place like this.
Even in such parts of the exhibition as the portrait gallery which I had minimal interest in they had some of the most amazing furniture I have ever seen.
I strolled around for about an hour before having a late lunch in the castle's restaurant (which isn't as nice as it sounds but it wasn't bad either) after which I walked on until the castle closed for the day.
In total, I probably spent somewhere between three and four hours on the castle's grounds and exhibitions and it never got boring so this was a real lucky find.

But now I actually have nothing more I can think of to do so I go down to the train station and sit in a waiting hall.
I don't have to sit there for more than 5 minutes before a gentleman comes in and asks if I'm taking the auto train to Hamburg?
When I confirm that indeed I am, he directs me to where I can ride onto the carriage even though the time for that was actually set for two hours later at the earliest.
The Germans are well known for their efficiency but they are obviously not far behind down here either.

Since the bike was checked in and strapped down, it meant that I could spend the wait until the train left much more comfortably inside the actual station.
That wait was also unexpectedly short as we were able to board the train almost an hour before departure so ÖBB continues to impress, this was like a dream compared to spending a full day on the autobahn in temperatures of 15ºC (59°F) or less.

Kristallwelten

The world's largest hand-cut crystal.
62kg (137lbs), 310000 carats.

It was not difficult to see which of the works bore Dalí's signature.

Chandelier of Grief by Yayoi Kusama.
Det var individuellt insläpp i det här rummet för att man skulle vara helt omgiven av speglar.

Taj Mahal by a Russian duo calling themselves Blue Noses.

This is the way... to financial ruin.

Ambras

The Armoury

Other exhibitions

Spanish Hall. The ceiling is as much a work of art as the portraits.

It's important to hunker down when riding on the train, because the clearance is not very high.

Glad I was able to book my own compartment at an affordable price because it's claustrophobic enough without having to share it with up to four other people.

Tuesday    21.9.2021
  97km Total: 4770km   1h 14m Total: 75h 26m
  441km Total: 1957km

If the weather didn't encourage any major excursions in Innsbruck, it does so even less here.
As I get off the train in Hamburg, a light rain is falling, the mercury is parked at 12ºC (54°F) and the rain just gets worse and worse the closer I get to Kiel.

But once in Kiel I have a well known and proven refuge, Citti-Mark and their wonderfully dry free-to-park garage.
I spent the entire last day at Citti the previous year in shit weather so it will have to do this year too and I was so grateful to be dry and warm that the day went by at record speed.

Down at the quay I managed to dodge the rains long enough to go through check-in and board the boat.
I did not sleep more than 2-3 hours on the train so I quickly do what "needs" to be done as to food and duty free before I park myself under the covers.

Unloading at Hamburg-Altona

Apparently I wasn't the only one crazy enough to take a bike holiday at the end of September. They where nice people.

The cabin felt like a palace compared to the compartment on the train.