On December 18th, I had a reserved time at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology to see Ötzi the Iceman. Ötzi is a glacier mummy and the whole exhibit was much more fascinating than I anticipated.
You can actually see Ötzi, but you aren't allowed to take photos of him. He has some tattoos and this is a video showing some of those, so you can see him in this video (or the back of him).
They have what is left of his clothing on display. He also had some tools that were displayed as well. They have tons of info about him. His stomach contents were actually preserved so we even know what he ate his last day. They've done tons of testing and have all sorts of interesting information.
Some artists have recreated him down to his exact bone structure, etc. This is what Ötzi would have looked like and what he would have worn (though he had a cape/coat too).
There was a whole forensic investigation where they determined that Ötzi was murdered! They found an arrow lodged in his shoulder that hit an artery and caused him to bleed out. He also had skull fractures.
After the museum, I stopped by Chiesa del Domenicani because I read they had wonderful frescos. I thought these were the frescos...
...until I entered this little chapel. Holy moly!
The cathedral looking pretty as I walked by.
I had to stop by the tobacco shop because they had sold me an incorrect ticket for the bus the day before and the lady at the bus station said I needed to go get my money back. I had to make my arguments two days in a row and hold firm, but I got my 15 euros back!
I found a sandwich which wasn't speck!
That afternoon, I took a train to Vipeteno (aka: Sterzing). I should have taken the earlier train because the one I took was delayed a bit and my time there was cut a little shorter than I wanted.
Some of the views from the train
I had to leave on the 3:57 train because I had a ticket for light show at 5:30 in Brixen (aka: Bressanone). It was about a 15 minute walk from the train station to the Christmas Market, so I took a taxi. He let me out and pointed down a street. I followed the garland and lights...
Oh it was a good one!
It's kind of hard to see but the windows are advent "boxes"
Inside the cathedral...
I made my way over to the Hofburg for the light show.
Once inside, just waiting for it to start (I was first in, so I was at the front)
It was SO COLD just standing there watching the show that I was happy when it wrapped up. I walked back to the taxi stand, but found no taxi, so I just walked back to the train station. I ended up going to a restaurant in Bolzano for pizza. It was okay, but not great. Then I went back to my hotel room to ice the knee and pack up since I was moving to a new country the next morning.
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