The Nordkette cable car — Hungerburg and Seegrube

No other city in the Alps puts a mountain this close. The Hungerburgbahn starts beside the Congress in the old town, runs under the city and over the Inn on Zaha Hadid's glass stations, and sets you down at Hungerburg at about 860 metres, with Innsbruck already spread out beneath the terrace. From there the Seegrubenbahn cable car lifts you to the Seegrube at 1,905 metres, and a second car goes on to the Hafelekar at 2,256 metres. Centre to summit is roughly twenty minutes.

The Seegrube terrace is the frame most people come for: the city directly below in the valley, the Inn a pale line through it, the Stubai and Tux Alps filling the far side, and the rock of the Nordkette rising at your back. The drop is severe enough that a couple standing at the rail reads as two figures against a whole valley.

Light is straightforward — the terrace faces south over the city, so it is lit all day, and the best hours are early morning before the valley haze builds and the last two before sunset, when the opposite ranges turn and the city goes into shadow first. Cloud sits in the valley on autumn mornings and leaves you above it.

In winter this is a ski area, the terrace is packed snow, and the light is short but very clean; in summer the slopes above Seegrube are alpine meadow and the walking starts at the station. It is always around ten degrees colder than the city and often windy. The railway runs all year but has seasonal timetables, a last descent, and maintenance closures each spring and autumn — check the day's first and last cars, because missing the last one down means a long walk.