The Hills Are Alive.....

Thursday, June 21 (Happy Solstice!)

Today we drove through the mountains to, Canazei, a town a few towns away to hike in the mountains again.  We took two cable cars up to the top and began to climb.  It is not completely flat, but the hills and valleys aren’t horrible.  I wore thicker pants to protect against more scrapes and to keep the scrapes I have already from opening up again.  We all put on a ton of sunscreen, and then I covered my blister on the ball of my right foot with a bandaid and also engaged in a bad fashion choice, wearing socks with sandals.  My athletic shoes that I wore yesterday were horrible (I didn’t have a chance to replace them or purchase hiking boots before we left).  So today I wore my Teva sandals which are listed as a hiking sandal.  With the extra cushioning of socks, they were very comfortable; not bothering my blister and protecting and supporting against the pain in my heel I normally get after a lot of walking.  

Today the trails had less people than the trails above Ortisei.  We were up above the tree line.  There were also fewer wildflowers.  It was also a bit chillier, being up further.  Once we started hiking, we warmed up though.  However, when we stopped for lunch (again, another great view) it was quite windy and cold.  There were several restaurants along the trail, one even had a separate place to store bikes.  A few times we had to jump aside as trail bikes bore down the hill behind us.  At least yesterday they used bells to warn us.  It was very pretty though, very green and peaceful, though having restaurants and hotels along the way kind of took away from the “back to nature” feeling.   Lots of great views and good exercise.  We even walked in snow.

Every few days we stop for gelato--yummy.  Fresher tasting than ice cream (less cream) and so many great flavors!  The raspberry is still my favorite of them though, even though I continued to find seeds in my teeth for the rest of the afternoon.  

On our way back after hiking, we got behind a tour bus, how annoying!  A huge line of cars behind him and it never pulled over to let all of the rest of the traffic go on!  We had to keep stopping and our car doesn’t like to start on an incline.  Finally after the pass we were able to pass it.  Then we got behind a line of cars stopped for a double-trailer trying to make it through--really???  The car in the lead was not moving over, so a man in one of the cars went up and directed them to move over so that they could go ahead.  There was a line of vehicles behind the trailer as well.  One guy on a motorcycle started gesturing to him to pull over further as well.  The big trailer guy needed all of us to move so that he could make the curve.  After the lead car finally made it around, the guy that walked up there got back in his car.  I applauded and he could see me through our windshield and took a bow.   Don’t they have any regulations about what types of vehicles can go on which roads?  I understand that they have to be able to get to where they need to get to, but be realistic!  

Well, we are back in the car going back for a rest and Randy is going to the internet place he found in town by stopping in at an internet service place and asking if they knew of somewhere.  He will upload my three blogs, even though the speed is really slow.  It took him half an hour to upload his last two blogs and 5 photos.  You pay by the half hour.  Now he’ll have my three and his from today.  Yikes!