Off to Italy, Friday, June 27

 This morning was a 2-cup of coffee morning.  I did not sleep well at all.  I guess I was too tired. I got mostly packed up before breakfast. We are to meet downstairs at 8:45 am to head out.

We were a few minutes late leaving. The meeting spot was right in front of the Hotel am Mirabellplatz.  It was quite a walk dragging our luggage.

Rudy is our bus driver (sp?). We made 2 stops along the way.  One was a restroom or WC stop and the other was lunch.

WC stop.  You have to put in coins to get into the WC.  It was 1 euro here.

This robot went around taking the dirty dishes to the kitchen area.

We had to have our passports handy just in case they wanted to see them when we went through Germany.  They didn't need them.

With the lunch stop, I had a vegetarian sandwich and Nathan had a pesto sandwich (also vegetarian).  Mine was very good but too big.  

I guess you could bungee jump from this bridge.  We did not see anyone try it.

There are a lot of castles around.

We finally arrived into Castelrotto about 1 hour earlier than predicted.  

It was another hotel which was awkward to get to from where the bus could park.

The hotel is right next to this church.  The church rings its bells every hour between 6 am and 10 pm.  They rang them a long time ago when we were unloading.  It was very loud. We found out later that they were ringing for a funeral. Whew.  Maybe it won't be bad. 

 Very quaint hotel. No AC.  No screens on the windows so I didn't want to leave the window open.   I have the hobbit room (505),  It is called that because of the short door. Nathan was 518. All the rooms started with a 5, the next number was what floor.

Otherwise the room is pretty standard.    No electric kettle again.  I was able to borrow one from someone else in the group (Bob from Beaverton).  I guess that the double rooms had electric kettles but the singles did not.  

 

Honor bar.  Just write your name down with what you got and the bill would be settled later.

Nathan and I went to ride the Marinzen cable car to the top of Mount Kronplatz.  We bought a one way ticket. We were planning to walk down.

There was a park at the top.  It was under construction.  Nathan and I did the slide and zip line.  That was fun.  

Then we hiked down.  It was a weird trail:  sometimes paved and sometimes non existent.  But there were always signs.  We were warned that most of the fences are electric so no touching. 

You can't see it very well but the pieces hanging down above the road are electric so cars can drive through and cows can't walk through.  There's was a side gate for people.

cowbells

Nice view of the Schlern, one of the mountains of the Dolomites.

You can barely see the field of wildflowers

The sign indicates how many minutes walking, not miles.

St Valentino's church was sort of on our way back to Castelrotto.  

It was not open. 

Electric fence on both sides of the trail. Don't touch.

The hills were alive!! Wrong country, I know, but it seemed appropriate.

Castelrotto

Nearly back to where we started.  See the cable cars.

Our hotel, the Hotel Cavallino D'Oro. The building has been here since 1326!! At least that is what the sign says.

We had a chance to get cleaned up before meeting in the lobby for a complimentary (Rick Steves) beverage.

Laurel's new role as bartender. Nathan asked for a Hugo.  Rick Steves had said that it was a traditional drink.  But Laurel didn't know how to make it.  We found out later.

I had this local red wine.  It was tasty.  The first glass was free, but anything after that we had to pay for. 

Nathan and I joined Laurel, Heidi, and Rudy for dinner.  We went to the restaurant at the Hotel zum Turn.

We sat in the patio.

Rick Steves said that the Hugo was the local specialty, so we each ordered one.  It was quite tasty.  (A classic Italian aperitivo, this Hugo cocktail recipe is flavoured with elderflower, mint, lime, and Prosecco for the perfect summer cocktail)

Nathan had the ravioli

I had the asparagus pasta

For dessert, Heidi ordered the chocolate bomb.  We all got to taste it.

After dinner, we walked around town.  We had heard that there was some live music somewhere, but we didn't find it.

We did see this party, but no live music.

We went back to the hotel.