Today I am meeting my solicitor. I have a nice lie in, a leisurely German breakfast and spend some great 'me' time playing on this very computer. Soon it's time for lunch before my two o'clock appointment. There's a sandwich shop in Bozner Platz and that's what I have, brie and salad, and a coffee. As I'm eating, I notice the people around me. They all seem to have very angular faces and sharp pointed noses, wide mouths and thin lips. I wonder if this is the typical Tyrolean facies. Not everyone looks like this, but a lot do, and rather pale as well. Suddenly I start to feel as though I'm in a Hans Christian Anderson story and the faces of the people look more pointed, and the heads get larger in proportion to their bodies. They seem to be talking about me, some even smiling knowingly to each other about me. I wonder if they're all psychiatrists at this conference, and at the same time turning into witches and goblins and sorcerers.
If you were psychotic, how would you know?
I wake from this brief day dream as the alarm on my phone tells me it's time to go to my solicitors chambers. Christoph is my advocate and he will take me through what's happening over the next few days.
We will meet tomorrow at 7.20am and go to the site of the accident. I explain my reluctance to do this, and if it is possible for me not to go. 'Zeeez feelings are qvite normal' he saying reassuringly and says that the legal system is calm in Austria, rather matter of fact and unemotional, so 'zere is no need to vorry'.
There will be a ski expert there who will listen to our respective stories, look at the lie of the land and make a judgement about who is at fault. It seems clear that it can't be me. How else could the impact be on my cheek bone?
Deanna will also meet us there. She's my witness and was behind me. She saw the whole thing, and has been particularly keen to prosecute the case as she is herself a nervous skier and hates these macho locals who ski too fast.
Then I'll be taken to see a medical expert who will go through the injuries and decide what damage has been done to me. Upon this examination will depend whatever compensation is due, if any. The trial date is 3rd, Thursday. Christoph thinks it wont take too long, as it's a matter of the experts presenting their opinions and the judge making a judgement.
I feel much more confident that everything is in place now for the trial. I am going to have a little nap, then have a stroll round Innsbruck.
***
Dom St Jakob or the Cathedral of St James, is beautiful inside. The marble is real marble, but the dome ceilings are not. The cathedral was bombed in the second world war, by the Americans, and only the pillars remained. Everything has had to be renovated since.
The original ceiling and the new ones are both flat, but the frescoes are such as to give the illusion of domes.
The alter is typically Catholic with a marvelously ornate silver backdrop forming a huge picture frame to a valuable painting of the Virgin Mother and Child.The Madonna is portrayed in simple clothes, with red hair and without the previously bejeweled and sparkling crown. The reason, we are told by the guide, is that this is Martin Luther country and he was keen to make the Virgin Mother as recognisable and identifiable to ordinary people as possible.
I wanted to ask how that all fitted with it being a Catholic cathedral, but I wasn't supposed to be even listening in, never mind asking questions. I'd been looking for the cathedral, and when I found it, so did a group of middle aged Asian English speaking gentlemen. They had hired a guide and looked distinctly like a group of psychiatrists. There is also a Hapsburg family grave in the cathedral with a statue of St George slaying a dragon. At least that's what I think he said. I'm not absolutely sure since by now I was getting suspicious looks from the group of shrinks. I continued to hang around but in a slightly detached way so I couldn't quite hear what the guide was saying.[The House of Habsburg, often Anglicised as Hapsburg and sometimes referred to as the House of Austria, was one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being responsible for the Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empires and several other countries. Originally from Switzerland, the dynasty first reigned in Austria for over six centuries. A series of dynastic marriages brought Burgundy, Spain, Bohemia, Hungary, and other lands into their grasp. Modern Europe would not have been the same without them]
***
I had found my way to Dom St Jakob by seeing it from the Stadtturm or city tower. This monument rises 31 meters above the town and is next to the Old Town Hall. The 148 steps rise up from street level 51meters and from the balcony you get a panoramic view of the city. Surrounding the city are the snow covered mountains reaching up over 2500 meters above sea level. Today the sky is grey, and the wind makes my stay a brief one.
I had spent a couple of hours wandering the streets and even walked across Innsbruck itself. The river beneath is full, fast flowing and grey-cold. It seems to be too cold for anything to be melting off the mountains but it must be. I wonder what the river is like once spring arrives and all that snow turns to melt water.
The buildings either side of the river bank are multicoloured in an attempt to brighten up the place. They look like old warehouses, but now probably modern flats. They remind me of Amsterdam, but with a bit more space. Away from the river the buildings are exciting and varied. In parts the architecture is reminiscent of Gaudi but elsewhere it is more like a bigger and better York or Chester, with interesting little overhanging back streets and markets. In between there are modern bars and shops that wouldn't look out of place in Manchester itself, but everywhere is clean.
On one bank is a covered market. I go to explore. There are lots of fresh vegetables, presumably imported, cold meat and bakery stalls, and wine stalls, but nobody's in to buy the produce. It's a bit weird, someone seems to have magicked them away. Then I see the goblin woman that I'd seen in the cafe earlier. Maybe she's taken everyone away. Where's Hamlin, it's around here somewhere isn't it? I rub my eyes, and she's gone again. I breath a sigh of relief and carry on.
I wonder around, eyes watering in the cold breeze. This is a city to drift around, and have coffee or a beer and watch time and people go by. On my own I'm a bit worried about getting lost, but actually I don't and everything is fine. By 5.30 it's too cold and too dark to carry on, so I head back to the hotel. Soon it will be time for dinner, an early night and another early rise to establish my fate and responsibility for the ski accident.
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