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Traveling Austria’s Ziller Valley Aboard a Narrow-Gauge Train
The 32-km ride from Jenbach to Mayrhofen was a perfect Innsbruck daytrip for a rainy first day of winter
A cold rain beat down on Innsbruck’s city center on the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
As I sat under the domed vaults of the 18th-century baroque Cathedral of St. Jakob for Sunday Mass, I felt colder inside the cathedral than I had outside.
A heating element emanated faint warmth from underneath my pew, so I bent my knees back to get my legs as close to the heat as possible any time I was seated during Mass.
It did not help much.
Warming up after with a much-needed melange coffee and a cheese-stuffed wurst at the Dom Cafe Bar across the plaza, I had an idea for staying warm and dry, while still enjoying the region: A friend of ours had recommended a restaurant in Mayrhofen.
I did not know anything about the town, but it looked remote, at the end of a narrow-gauge rail line.
And I am always up for a train ride.
With shops closed on Sundays, this seemed the best way to spend a rainy day, especially considering that I envisioned an Alpine ascent that would turn the driving rain into a magical…
