So, apparently the traffic starts at 04:15 and the cars go quite fast along the road under our apartment! It is not the quiet town that I had pictured when we booked this location. With the blackout blinds on the windows, it felt like the middle of the night though. I was able to sleep until 07:30. Tavis and I got up and walked to the bakery and the cafe to get breakfast. The prices here are much more expensive than in Udine and Trieste. It is similar to being in Whistler, we are in a ski resort. When we got back, I put in another load of laundry and did some work while Tavis went back to bed. Today we decided to let the kids sleep in a bit.
We actually didn’t get out of the apartment until after 11:00! We walked 2 minutes to our bus stop to catch the bus up The Plose at 11:15. Our Airbnb included a Brixen card which gives us free access to all transit in South Tyrol, aswell as the gondolas up Plose, and other attractions such as free admission to the local pool and all museums in South Tyrol.
The bus ride was 15 minutes straight up! The hairpin turns in a bus are terrifying! When we got to the gondola, we went straight up the mountain, no line ups. The view of Bressanone as we went further up was incredible. The towns in the valley are scattered and the mountain ranges seem endless!
Since this is Addison’s leg of our journey, we let him be our guide. He took us straight up to the first peak we could see. Our legs were burning, and most of us were out of breath. Little did we know that our journey was going to take us back down the other side of the peak, only to go up the next peak, and the one after that, and the one after that! We hiked up for almost 3 hours before we turned around and walked back to the top of the gondola. It was cold up there! We learned that sweatshirts and windbreakers are a must when climbing the Dolomites. There was a bit of complaining but we all agreed that the hike was worth the views! We also saw lots of sheep and many other hikers and bikers on the slopes. What we thought was a small local ski hill, ended up being huge. I can only imagine the vastness of the mountain in the winter and beauty of the area covered in snow.
We returned to the apartment around 17:30 and went grocery shopping for dinner and lunch tomorrow. Then, Ayva, Ari, Tavis, and myself went to the Aquarena to use our free pass at the pool while Addison stayed home to make us dinner. I was quite impressed by the size of the local pool. They had a water slide, lazy river (what was definitely not that lazy when it was on), whirlpool (that wasn’t hot), a salt water pool, underwater loungers, and an entire outside area that we didn’t even get to. The water slide was if-until except for 2 boys who mooned us every time they went down. It was a very disturbing experience have a teenager stick his bare butt in the air before going down the slide. I guess he figured it made him go faster? Only in Europe???
When we got back to the apartment, dinner was ready and we all enjoyed a home cooked meal of Tortellini with meat sauce and a baguette. Then Ari washed the dishes while I spent the night getting caught up on work. Tonight we are all turning in early because tomorrow we plan to get up before 06:00 so we can get up to Tre Cime in time for parking. We read that we have to be up there by 08:00 before the parking lot is full.