Welcome to Innsbruck! An internationally renowned city for winter sports and
a famous tourist destination for people who want to enjoy the Austrian Alps.
Unfortunately, this year because of COVID-19, tourism has been put on hold.
So, we'll show you how this city is managing life in this coronavirus pandemic and what all you can visit,
when the tourism opens up again.
It's very cold. I really gotta pack myself in.
It's minus three degrees here! Even though the sun is out, it feels extremely cold.
This is Innsbruck's main pedestrian street, the “Maria-Theresien-Strasse“.
The monument in the middle is called St. Anne's Column.
Unfortunately, the shops are closed at the moment.
But this square is quite a sight in itself.
It is because we can see the Nordkettenbahn mountains behind.
It's very unique for a city center to have such a view of the mountains, right from the center!
Fortunately, for us, there are still many things in Innsbruck which can still be enjoyed from the outside.
Like this Golden Roof behind me or the Ottoburg... or the Triumphal Arch.
Considering the current situation, the amount of tourists here is absolutely zero!
There is literally no one behind me.
We were here in the summer time also and this place was packed with tourists.
Infact, this is so empty here that my voice is literally echoing while I'm talking to the camera.
There are some public sanitizers that the city of Innsbruck has installed everywhere
so people can always remain sanitized and safe.
That is a very popular tourist attraction also.
If you Google for "Innsbruck", that's the image that would come up — the rows of houses behind me.
And over there, you can see the Nordkettenbahn line going up there.
We'll soon go up the very top of that mountain.
It's already very, very cold here. I don't wanna imagine how cold it must be at the very top of that!
The name of this river is “Inn" and the word “Brücke“ means bridge.
So, that's where the name of the city "Innsbruck" comes from.
As you can see here, all the shops are closed. Even the restaurants are closed.
They're only open for takeaway.
That means if you wanna eat lunch, we take away food and we're not allowed to eat anywhere around the restaurant.
This is the Imperial Palace.
From the inside, they have very beautiful rooms, but it's closed right now.
But you can have a look when you come to visit after the pandemic.
Luckily, we will get a small, temporary respite from the cold because the train station is here.
The one that takes up to the top of the Nordketten mountain.
And inside the train we can be warm until we go to the top and bear the extreme cold.
And of course, here we also wear a mask!
In all these mountain trains, cabins and cable cars, this mask is not enough.
They have a requirement that you need to be wearing an FFP2 mask.
These masks can be purchased at the station itself.
There are four different stations for Nordkettenbahn. This Congress station is where we went in.
There is an Alpine Zoo station, nice Alpine Zoo at the third station.
And right now we're at the fourth last station — Hungerburg station.
After this, we have to take a cable car to go at the very top of the mountain.
Wow! The whole city of Innsbruck is here!
But we are still not at the top. We have to go there.
This looks like the edge of the world!
Actually rather dangerous to stand here!
Gyms and indoor sports are closed here at the moment.
But there is one thing that is open even during these times, which the locals here love to do!
It is skiing!
As you can see behind me, there's a lot of people skiing here,
because there is a small ski resort built at the top of the Nordketten mountain range.
However, it's a bit too small for us, we won't do the skiing here.
We plan top do it tomorrow in another nearby ski resort, which is far better for beginners and a bit bigger in size.
So, you take the camera, turn it on already, let's run outside, film it and then run back inside.
Yeah! That's a good plan because it's unbearable... the cold, now.
Okay, ready? Ready? Yeah!
Oh look who's here!
Who's here? Oops! He's gone!
"Top of Innsbruck".
It's crazy! The view from here is crazy! It's full of snowy mountains all around.
After taking the Nordkettenbahn, we take two cable cars to reach up to this very top
of the mountains called "Top of Innsbruck“.
From here, we can also walk up to that cross mark.
When we were here in he summer, we actually went up that point and we filmed a very nice drone shot.
So, you can see how that view looks like, from up there. I'll insert the drone shot here.
But that was in the summer.
Right now, we're not sure if we should actually risk going up there because the snow and ice might be very slippery here.
As you can see, that there's no one here apart from us.
This whole place is empty!
This looks very dangerous. Down there, you can see the whole city of Innsbruck.
Up here, at this time, basically, nothing is open.
This point is almost at 3,000 meters. It is so high that some people may feel altitude sickness, going up this high.
But I would say, this is a must do if you come to Innsbruck.
If you can't bear the cold or the height, just come up here for 15 minutes only.
Because the cable cars keep going down from here, every 15 minutes.
So, the normal masks are not allowed here. You have to wear the FFP2 configuration of mask, which is this one.
So, we had to especially buy it here.
There's many different measures they've introduced as a result of corona.
They're asking people for their own safety.
Wash your hands regularly, maintain social distance.
Even on the ground here, in the ski resort, you can see the lines here, meant for social distancing.
However, we did not really need them because there was hardly a crowd here. As you can see.
As it is not open for tourists, so there's not many people coming here to ski.
Are you ready to ski?
Yes!
We must keep the windows open for ventilation. These are open, good.
You must be wearing a mask at all times.
We are wearing a mask. And... pay attention to the instructions.
No selfies!
Filmings are allowed!
The snow is literally flickering!
The normal season when the tourists are there... before corona, all these would have been full.
We would be sitting here with three more people at least!
And now, we're going up the cable car. These are our skis.
It's rather empty here. In this one gondola, only three people are allowed to be sitting, at maximum.
And behind you, we can see the whole city... the village down there.
Innsbruck is over there.
Oh wow! How is that even possible?
Is the dog skiing also?
As you can see, it's really, really empty. There's no tourists... only local people.
These kids are doing a better job than me!
This Zirmachbahn takes us all the way up there... where the skiing path number 4 starts from.
In normal times, these two would be also open. But right now, there's not that many people.
That's why only two of these lanes are open. And for social distancing... true!
Almost everyone here is following the coronavirus regulations very well.
Everyone is wearing a mask inside. Outside, you've to cover your face also.
But it's nice to see that even here, at 2,240 meters, the life is going on as usual!
Normally, we have these restaurants to have lunch in between skiing, but at the moment, they're closed of course.
So, you gotta bring your own lunch.
It's extremely pleasant here. But, there's hardly any people skiing.
Down there, you can see the village Fulpmes. That's the name of this village where the ski resort is located.
Beyond that mountain is Innsbruck.
So, this is the whole map of this Schlick 2000 ski resort.
We started skiing from here, which is at 2,136 meters, took the path 1, which is the easy path, and 1 B...
we slid here... here... here... here… until we reached this point which is a middle station.
Then, we took 7 to come back to the lower station — Talstation.
But there's so many different possibilities, as you can see. And almost every ski route is open.
This is the village of Fulpmes. We came here from Innsbruck by car.
It took us 20 minutes. Well, you can also use the public transport. It takes 40 minutes.