Tuesday 4 July
Our new accommodation is Residence Boe, a block of apartments managed and run by robots (we believe). When you arrive you check in by speaking into a phone, and a voice tells you to put a blank key card on a little plate and then tells you that this is the key to your room. It also operates the underground garage door. Then you let yourself into your apartment, and it is spotlessly clean and extremely well equipped but entirely devoid of character. It does of course have mountain views at least. When you check-out, you just deposit your key card in a box.
Anyway, after last night’s dull burger dinner at the only place within 20 minutes drive that scores more than 4.0 on Google we decided to self-cater for the rest of our stay. So the well-equipped apartment is a boon and a very nice pasta sauce was created and devoured.
Today’s hike was a pleasant one, along the Rasciesa Ridge above the Val Gardena area where we’re staying. It was a bit less grand, as it was meant to be a sort-of rest day after the Kaiserjager (though at 3+ hours it maybe wasn’t restful enough!) and so it was a bit galling that the weather was sunnier and the clouds higher and fewer than yesterday. The weather was meant to be getting worse! We actually got views clear across to the white-capped Austrian Alps many miles further north.
It was also quite a busy hike. Just as in the Val Ombreta we got to marvel at the skilful way in which a family of four can occupy the whole of a path that is easily wide enough for three people to walk abreast. Whether plodding along at a snail’s pace or even just standing around chatting, they can still make you leave the path to get around them. And wow can some of these groups chatter. If all they wanted was a good old chat with friends, why didn’t they stay at home and walk around their local park?!?
To close on a positive, today was our first ride in a classic Alpine four-person cablecar (the lazy way to get back from this hike, so it’s 3 hours instead of 4.5). No-one told me how much the cabin rocks from side to side as it leaves the station and plunges off down the mountain! Also no-one told me they typically cost around £15 per person for a five minute ride… wow.
Having found the rifugio at the top of this hike to be closed (note: always pack snacks even if you plan on lunch at a rifugio; it might be closed!) we needed a late lunch in the little town of Ortisei. Here we learned a subtle distinction that might have helped us on other occasions in Italy had we known! We passed up two or three promising cafe/bars as they said lunch finished at 2pm. At the next we tried asking, could we stop for lunch? No, sorry, they’ve finished doing food. Okay, do you know anywhere else in town we could get a sandwich or a piadina? Oooooh… you only want a snack? Sure we can do that! Clearly, lunch = a proper cooked meal.
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