Another weekend behind us! Nick stayed with us through Thursday. Matt and Nick played golf at the Stuttgart Golf Club one day, visited Triberg one day, and Strasbourg, France another day. We did biergartens in the evenings for dinner. On Thursday, they both drove up to Ramstein to play golf with Ray.
Thursday night, Matt and I went to the Stuttgart Wine Fest. Winefest is like Oktoberfest, but with wine. Local vintners set up tents for people to come and sample the seasons’ wine harvest. Some of the tents also serve full meals, in addition to the usual german food stalls. This is the first time they’ve been able to hold the fest since 2019 so they stretched it out for 3 weeks this year.
Friday was a half day at school for the kids so as soon as we had eaten lunch, we started our drive South. This weekend, we were heading to the Italian Dolomites, with a quick stop in Innsbruck, Austria on the way.
After we arrived in Innsbruck, we grabbed dinner and did a short walk around the city center. Innsbruck seems like a really cool city with a busy downtown area full of restaurants and bars. The city has a palace and the mountains right on its doorstep. We all thought it seemed like a really cool place to come back to as its own trip.
In the evening, we went to a Tyrolean Dance and Music Show, complete with yodeling, alpine horn, and slap dancing. It was honestly one of the best shows we have been to, it definitely kept us entertained the whole time.
Saturday morning, we headed out early to finish our drive to Italy. Due to the constant back-up crossing the Alps, we were quickly detoured around the Europa Brücke which crosses a deep valley between Austria and Italy. We actually ended up going right under it through the valley below, which was really cool. We have crossed it a couple of times, but you can’t tell how tall it is from up top due to the side barriers. I googled it and turns out it’s 190 meters tall. We also avoided the €10,50 toll so it was a good trip all around.
We finally arrived at our first destination, Ortisei, Italy, where we were taking the Seceda lift up to hike the Seceda Ridgeline.
The Seceda Ridgeline can be seen almost immediately once you get off the lift. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy so it was half hidden by the clouds. Throughout the afternoon, we continued to get little peaks of it as the clouds moved through.
We had coffee at the mountain lodge and then hiked the ridgeline. Matt flew his drown out over the Seceda Valley and the kids and I took pictures.
Once we were done at the ridge, we took the lift back down to Ortisei, where we had a pizza lunch, complete with fresh mozzarella and tiramisu.
After our late lunch, we drove to Kastelruth where we would be staying. We took a nap and then went out for dinner, which was again, pizza.
Sunday, we had a super early wake-up call. We were planning to go to Tre Cime National Park which is two hours east of Kastelruth. The park is high up in the mountains, on a private road with limited parking so it was recommended to arrive before 9am (7am in the summer) or be turned away. We left the hotel around 6am, stopped for coffee, and arrived at the entrance to the park around 8am. At this point, the sign said there were 325 parking spaces left. You have to continue driving a ways up the mountain once in, and we weren’t actually parked until around 8:20. The road was so steep, we all had a hard time standing up straight once we got out of the car. By the time we had grabbed another coffee and gone to the bathroom (no more than 20 minutes), the parking lot was full so it was definitely good advice to arrive early.
We planned on completing a 6 mile hike around the Tre Cime peaks and got started around 9. We stopped and took so many pictures, and Matt did a lot of droning along the way; it was so beautiful. It was a clear sunny day, but the valleys below were still covered in clouds when we arrived.
There were a couple of huts along the trail that sold food and drink. The trails also had cow pastures along each side and we listened to the cow bells all morning.
The hardest part of the hike is the climb up and over “the saddle” of Tre Cime. We made it down to the other side and got some more family shots taken by people we met.
Continuing along the trail, we made it to another mountain hut, which is considered the halfway point. We grabbed lunch and ate at a table with the perfect view.
Matt did a little more droning and then we headed back towards the start of the trail.
After we left Tre Cime, we drove into Cortina D’Ampezzo for lunch, where we had more pizza.
After lunch, we made the drive back to Kastelruth. In the morning, we had taken the faster bypass route, but we drove back through the twisting Great Dolomite Road. By the time we made it back to Kastelruth three hours later, our brakes were squeaking so loud.
Monday was our last day in the Dolomites. We checked out of the hotel and headed to the Alpi di Suisi, which is Europe’s largest high altitude meadow. The meadow is accessible by car but only before 9am and after 5pm. The only other way to access it is via cable car, which we took up. Once there, there are several hiking trails through the meadow. Alpine cows graze here during the summer before being taken back down into the valleys in the Fall. In winter, this is a huge ski area. There are even more chairlifts throughout the meadow to help move you around once up there.
Once we arrived at the meadow, we took another chairlift and hiked around “The Schlern” which is the major landmark at the top. Matt did some droning and then we had drinks at one of the cafes at the top before heading back down.
Once we were back in town, we grabbed some pizzas for the car ride back. We had a six hour drive and barely made it back to the dog kennel before they closed at 7pm.
Next week, we have our first full week at home since July and we cannot wait to catch up on sleep!
Gilcrests Abroad 