AUSTRIA - DAY 2

The day dawned wet and raining so we changed our plans for the Alpine Zoo and instead headed across town to the Glockenmuseum and Glockengieberei Grassmayr. We wandered around this bell foundry and museum and saw the process from ore to bell. It was fascinating to discover how bells are made and that each bell is made up of 50 tones for a note so that if you were to cut the bell into thin slices each slice would make a slightly different sound.

After leaving the bell foundry we headed back into town and entered the Court Church (Hofkirche). The Court Church of Innsbruck houses the tomb of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519). The cenotaph is ringed by 28 larger than life bronze statues representing the Emperor's ancestors and his heros of antiquity. Originally he had commissioned 80 statues but he died before they could be completed. In the gallery there were a number of small bronze statues representing saints from the Habsburg line. This was a fascinating place and we were spell bound by the detail on each statue. We spent quite a while here just admiring the place.

We then looked through the Museum of Tyrolean Folk Art. It had an exhibition on nativity sets made from wood, to paper, to porcelain and everything in between. We then wandered through the various rooms admiring the masks, costumes and furniture of the Tyrol.

It was getting towards the end of the day so we headed towards the Triumphal Arch. It was erected in 1765 on the occasion of the betrothal of the later Emperor Leopold II to Maria Ludovica. His father Emperor Francis I Stephen of Lothringen died during the celebrations. One side of the arch symbolises the happy event of the wedding, the other side the grief at the emperor's death.