Day 9 - Exploring the Dolomites

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After a noisy night in Cortina, most everyone was able still to get a good nights sleep. The 120 km race began last night at about 11:00pm and there was all kinds of activity in the center of town. There is music playing continuously and some guy announcing over a loudspeaker, but mostly it is just a party atmosphere and everyone is having a good time. We left the windows open in our room to cool it down until we were ready for bed and then closed everything up so it wasn't too noisy. Fortunately we like the music selection of mostly classic rock, so it just put us right to sleep. We are all getting near the end of this trip and are all a little tired. A couple of people are fighting colds, and Jody and I are lucky so far as we have been able to avoid them. Today was another "relaxed start" as it was about 9:00 when we needed to be at the bus. We've been waking up before the alarm for the last few days, so that makes for a relaxing morning. So, after a nice breakfast in the hotel dining room, we were in the bus and ready to go by 9:00. Jody had a little run-in with the waiter this morning. We were at a table for 8, with 3 other couples and the waiter had placed 2 pots of coffee on the table. Naturally, Jody finished the first pot practically all by herself, and placed the empty pot by the edge of the table for the waiter to bring more. The waiter took the empty pot, but basically told her we needed to finish the second pot before he would bring any more. We all thought he was acting like the "Coffee Nazi" like the "Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld, but decided that making Nazi jokes while practically in Austria was probably not a good idea. We all finished the second pot, and Jody got her fresh pot of coffee before breakfast was over.

We headed out on the bus up a windy mountain road to a place called Passo Falzarego. This is the base of a cable car that will take us up to the top of the mountain. The base of the cable car is at 2117m (6946 ft) and we ride it to the top of 2762m (9061 ft). The road up the mountain was awesome, and reminded us of some of the many mountain roads we traveled in our previous motorcycle trips out west in the US. Pancrazio did an outstanding job navigating the hairpin turns, even when some of the tourists heading downhill would try to go by downhill in the turns. The locals were smart enough to hold back while the bus was in the hairpin turn. One thing we did notice were lots of bicycles riding up and down the mountain, but there were also hundreds and hundreds of motorcycle everywhere! It made me wish I had my Goldwing over here and could ride through these turns myself. It didn't see and Goldwings, and there were only a few Harleys making the trip. There were quite a few sport bikes, but the vast majority were dual-sport bikes. We noticed that in the US also, dual-sport bikes with removable had bags were becoming the preferred method of long distance motorcycle riding. The Europeans also take their protective clothing very seriously. Everyone was in full protective gear, mostly complete racing suits, gloves, boots, and full face helmets. No t-shirts and cut-offs for the Europeans!

When we reached Passo Falzarego, there were only a couple of people too afraid of heights to make the cable car ride. I'm afraid of heights, but I wasn't going to miss out on the opportunity just because of a little fear. So I sucked it up and rode the car to the top, and it wasn't bad at all. The car held about 40 standing people, and it only took 3 minutes to get to the top. On the ride up, I just stayed near the center, but by the ride down, I was looking down from the windows to get some good pictures of the view. It was a beautiful day at the top of the mountain. It was bright, sunny and in the upper 70's with no wind. We mostly wore long pants and carried jackets in case it was cold and windy, but they weren't really necessary. There was still plenty of snow at the top of the mountain, and lots of hiking trails to follow. We had about an hour to explore, and I was able to go to most of the places, though there were a couple of spots where I stayed behind because they were just too close to the edge, so I let Jody take the camera and explore by herself. Since it was such a clear and sunny day, the views were spectacular, and we got some awesome pictures! There were plenty of locals and tourists who were hiking the mountain trails. We would have like to hike also, but these are serious hiking trails and we would need hiking gear and much more time to participate.

After the cable car ride down the mountain, (luckily we saved our return ticket or we would be following the hiking trail instead), we again boarded the bus for a short trip down the road to the Rifugio Valparola restaurant and bar. While we are technically still in Italy, it felt more like an Austrian bar. Outside, in the parking lot were motorcycles everywhere of people who had stopped for a little refreshment while they rode all over the Dolomites (is my jealousy showing again?). This is obviously a popular stop along the way for thirsty motorcycle riders. Somehow, Pancrazio managed to find a spot to park and we all headed in for some delicious apple strudel and cappuccino. The view from the restaurant was awesome! And, of course, the strudel and cappuccino were delicious also and really hit the spot. We were only there for less than an hour, but it was just the pick-me-up we needed. Before we knew it, it was time to climb up on the bus and head for the last of our morning stops, the World War I museum.

The WWI museum was a lot more interesting than we expected. There was evidently quite a lot of fighting between the Austrians and the Italians in the Dolomites. Each side lost about 4-5 thousand men in actual fighting, with tens of thousands more who were either injured or died in hospital of their injuries. This museum consists mostly of artifacts found on the mountain after the war had ended, or souvenirs that were donated from the locals. The museum itself is built from the remains of an old fort, and we met the owner, a man in his seventies who had made the establishment of this museum his life's work, His father had made money from selling metal found in the mountains left by the WWI soldiers, especially valuable were bullets and shells. His father was only interested in the scrap metal value of the found items, but he was interested in the historical value, especially items of the soldiers day to day life. That was the start of a lifelong passion for collecting these items. After years of trying to get funding for his museum, he eventually received some government support in the late 1990's and the museum has been around ever since. The museum is full of guns, knives, ammunition and other typical items of war. But in addition are personal items, tobacco pipes, ration cans, clothing, post cards, etc. There was even a box filled with human bone fragments! We finished at the WWI Museum, and loaded back on the bus to head back to town for an afternoon of free time.

It was an excited atmosphere as we returned to town at about 1:30. The first of the runners from the 120 km run had returned and there were people lining both sides of the street applauding the runners as they arrived. If the runner was a local, sometimes members of their family would run alongside while the applause from the crowd was especially loud. We went back to the room to change back into shorts and check out the town. But it was after noon, and some of the shops were closed for lunch and were not expected to reopen until 2:30 (what a great concept!). We were looking for t-shirts of course, and went to the first souvenir shop we could see. We found a t-shirt for Jody, but decided to keep looking for me. So we wandered around town checking out the shops, most of the clothing was a bit expensive, and most of the shops catered to sportswear as this is a primarily a ski town. We found a place with some cheap diet coke, and eventually found a nice gelato shop (there aren't really any bad gelato shops). I had some chocolate chip, coffee, hazelnut and caramel, while Jody only had the chocolate chip, coffee, and caramel. It really hit the spot! We also found a local artisan jewelry and crafts shop and Jody found a really nice silver daisy pendant and some matching earrings so, of course we had to get them. In the end we found out that the first souvenir shop we went into was actually the only souvenir shop we could find, so we went back and picked out a t-shirt for me also. While we headed back, we found a store that they called a co-op. It didn't look like much form the outside, but once inside it was five floors tall and sold everything from groceries to clothing to children's toys to sewing to luggage. It was quite the place! By now, the shops were mostly open, some were closed for the day due to the race. We had checked out most of the town, including the book store and several art galleries. So we decided to head back to the room to rest. We tried to watch a little TV, but there was almost nothing in English and in fact, most of the channels seemed to be shopping channels. So we gave up and rested until it was time to meet up for dinner at 6:45.

For dinner we ended up at a place called Ospitale which is a restaurant and Bed and Breakfast that was across the street from a small 13th century church and had been in operation in one form or another over 1000 years. The place is run by a husband and wife who greeted us and invited us to view the church before dinner. Most of us headed across the street to check out the church and it was very small but interesting. We headed into dinner and fount that they had set up a single table in the center of a large room and all of us sat around the same table. The first course was some sort of spinach patty in a cheese sauce which turned out to be delicious. Jody was amazed to even see me eat spinach, never mind enjoy it. Second course was a pasta dish with spinach noodles in blue cheese sauce and egg noodles in a meat sauce. Both were delicious. For main course we could have either a marinated beef or a pork shank.. Jody and I both had the pork and it was great, others who had the beef said it was good also. In the meantime, Jody has built up a reputation with the group for her love of sparkling water. I must admit it is much better than the flavored seltzer water we usually drink at home, but most people in our group prefer the regular water. So they pass the fizzy water down to Jody who at one time tonight had 4 bottles in front of her. For dessert we had a choice of vanilla gelato with raspberries or tiramisu. Jody had the gelato and I had the tiramisu, and I must admit that the tiramisu was the best I have ever eaten! As an after dinner treat, they passed around shots of grappe. No one had ever heard of grappe, but it is evidently the local "fire water". It is essentially a type of hard liquor made from the remains if the grapes after they have been used to make wine. They had 3 different flavors and many people tried it and the consensus was that it was awful. Jody and I don't drink, but we smelled it and it smelled like paint stripper, so I can only imagine the taste.

Tomorrow is the last day for Pancrazio. When he drops us in Venice, we will no longer see him as most of the travel around Venice will be by boat. We were all sad for him to leave, and will miss him when he is gone. Anna played music for us on the bus ride back to the hotel, and we had a little sing-along. Especially those that had tried the grappe! Tomorrow is Venice!

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