7/13 cortina

Guest entry - Lisa
Woke up to the sound of church bells - others disagree, but I think one on quarter hour, 2 at half, 3 at 3/4 hour, and 4 at top of hour; plus bells to indicate the hour.   Plus a crazy sequence at 6.30 to tell people it's time to wake up (and go to church?).

We awoke at the Hotel Bachmann in Niederdorf to one of the clearest skies we've had. That was more appreciated than usual because the views of the mountains in all directions were even more notable with the perfect visibility. The town of Niederdorf looks like something from a postcard or a set for a play. It's a 4-layered scene: The boxy Italian homes and inns, cream-colored and outlined in dark-brown painted wood with flowers in flower boxes on every terrace, set against the steep sloping green hills with evergreens at the higher points, which in turn are set against the granite-colored mountains set against the blue skies. Lots of color and yet a simple style.

We were all down early to make sure we had time for one of our now-expected wide ranging and filling breakfasts, before setting off at 8:30 for our 33 kilometer bike ride preceding our adventure hike in Cortina. (Yes, we're metric now).

The ride quickly joined up with the beautifully maintained bike path that hugged the bottom of the hills as we rode the 5 km to the outskirts of Toblach. Once past the town we started a climb up a wide path, that toggled between paved, dirt foundation mixed with gravel, and sometimes rocks and looser sand. We were biking through a forest and along a river for much of it. The path head straight up toward the Domomites. At one we have the impressively vertical 3 peaks (Tres Cime?) on our left while we biked up with the snow and sand covered peaks directly in front of us.   Some of us found the climb challenging, but the gradual incline was a much less extreme than some of our other, but admittedly shorter, stretches. We were able to maintain a decent pace and not stop too often. Plus, the path was well-marked without too many opportunities to turn out or get lost. 

When we hit 20 kilometers,  cimabanche at 1527M,  we started the descent down, which truly lasted all 13 kilometers that remained to the hotel. We'd heard about the tunnels and had already done a couple - There was one that particularly stood out on the downhill portion - There were no lights. We were travelling down hill in high gear, suddenly in the dark, gradually realizing that there may be bikers heading toward us (or potholes, or anything else), and none of us could see. Of course, it didn't occur to us to turn our bike lights on. 

We arrived in town at 11:30, having enjoyed the quick dash through the forest, and headed straight for the place that rents the equipment for hiking while harnessed to a cable. 

Have I mentioned the views?

After checking into Hotel Olimpia -- where our luggage had miraculously arrived just as we were checking in! - 7 of the group headed up the trail we just came off of to do the adventure hike, complete with waterfalls and ledge walks. Two others of us head back up the same bike trail, about 6 km, where we went to the river to sit, eat, relax, and stare at the very large nature all around us .The light aqua-colored river moved quickly and was too cold to do more than wade in, but it was cool to watch it move over the rocks and past the Fiames Hotel and Campground. Meanwhile, Donna was off on a ride up the mountain, taking full advantage of her really light road bike. She was a little sad that it wasn't yellow and didn't say "FunActive Tours" in big green lettering, also that she didn't have a rack to carry a 8 kilo panierre, but she had a good time, anyway.

Everyone arrived back around 4:30+.

At 5:00, Jon and Donna joined their friends who they met during their Cortina trip last year for a drink.

We're looking forward to a nice dinner in a highly-recommended restaurant (all camin). We've done pretty well with food so far - We've had filling and impressive tasting meals mixed with local color and good experiences, but this will likely be the first night that we'll be going out to a particularly nice place.  51km.