Friday was the end of our organized Gate 1 tour. We packed up our bags and checked out of our Venice hotel and started our 3 day independent Maria style tour. Our destination was a little Italian town in the Dolomite mountains. Geing there was a multi-faceted journey.
We walked to the Grand Canal to catch a vaporetto (Venetian public transportation) to the train station. The tickets were about 35euros each from Venice to Bolzano. The train journey was nice, as most European trips are. Great views, comfortable seats and time to nap, journal read.
I had booked a room at the Hotel Luna Mondschein over the phone. They told us to get off at the Bolzano train station and I thought they said to call them for a ride to the hotel. When we got off at Bolzano I decided if it was so close, then we could just take a cab. The driver took us to a hotel called Luna Mondschein which was right behind the train station. We quickly figured out that the place I was looking for was 36 km away. So the driver takes us to the bus station (which is across the street from the train station). Well that was 8 euros down the drain.
We found the right bus that would take us to the town of Ortisei but the bus driver didn’t speak English. A sweet old man sitting across from me did speak English and between the three of us we figured out where the bus should drop us off, just down the street from the hotel.
Bonnie and I did learn that the driver doesn’t get off the bus to load and unload your luggagein the storage areas. You have to do it yourself. This was when Bonnie realized a smaller bag might have been a good idea!
The hotel was just what we needed and we met an American woman from California who was chucking her life in the US after a divorce and moving to Europe to recreate herself. She had just finished a Backroads bike trip through Croatia – she is much more fit than the two of us. She gave us some suggestions on where to hike the next day in the mountains. Though again our idea of a hike probably wasn’t the same as hers – she had gone off the trail and gotten herself into a very precarious position on a steep slope. She was moving to either Paris or Barcelona to get certified in teaching English as a Second Language and then looking for a way to build business teaching and offering her life coaching services. We ended up going to dinner with her on our second night at the hotel.
We had one full day to explore this beautiful corner of Italy. Ortisei is in the Val Garenda (Garden Valley) district of the Dolomites. It is a ski destination with rolling hills, small towns full of Tyrolean architecture, farmland and towering Mountain peak vistas around every corner. The area is a mix of Austrian and Italian cultures.
There are walking/biking paths all along the river that will take you from town to town. But for serious hiking, you take ski lift or gondola up to the ski resort valleys. We chose to go to Alpe di Suisi by gondola (17euros round trip). The area looks like rolling meadows surrounded by Dolomite peaks and cliffs. It was cloudy for the first half of the day and we couldn’t even see the mountains.
By lunchtime the sun started to shine and the mountains began to take shape among the clouds. We walked down for about an hour, stopping to take pictures of a wedding in progress. We thought we could walk all the way back to town on a leisurely unpaved road because of a sign that said Ortisei 1.5 hours. Well we were wrong. We ran into some folks that advised us to go back up the way we came because the rest of the hike was steep, difficult and very muddy. So back up we went.
Later in the day we got on the free bus and rode to some other villages to see the area. Since it was the last day of the summer season things were very quiet. Most hotels and restaurants were closed already.
This area would be a great place to come back and spend 4 or 5 days during the hiking season really exploring the area. There are hikes for all levels of fitness.
On Sunday we packed up once again and started our trip to Munich. We both had flights out of Munich on Monday morning and I had booked a hotel room a the Airport Hilton.
We took the bus back to Bolzano where we got a train to Munich central train station arriving in early afternoon. We found a luggage storage locker and spent a few hours exploring the Old Town of Munich. There were people everywhere but nothing was open. Not sure if this was because it was a Sunday or a holiday. Octoberfest was over. We found one restaurant open – The Rathskeller. There was a small classical band playing the square – grand piano, flute and all. I bought their CD so I could remember that day while driving around listening to their music.
Staying at the luxurious Hilton was money well spent on the last night. Not having to struggle with local transportation in the morning!
Goodbye Europe. You were a blast as always. See you next spring!