Dolomites Trip - Day 9

Today we took a gondola at Passo Falzarego. We were lucky to get some of the last parking available in the lot. This was the base station area featuring the Lagazuoi Cable Car terminal building.

Once we reached the top of Lagazuoi, we followed the Austrian Mountain Troop Path to lookout points. The sky was pretty hazy today.

From there we began our descent through the WWI tunnels along a via ferrata route. We had brought gloves and headlamps for this experience. My headlamp ended up not working so Chris handed me a small flash light. 

We didn’t realize that we needed to get helmets at the base terminal building before starting up the mountain. I might have knocked my head a couple of times, but learned to be careful. Chris had to bend down even more. 

We passed a few people who were locking into the cables and going slowly down the steps in the Lagazuoi tunnels. You didn’t need to lock in. We were able to go around them. There were also people hiking up the tunnels which was kind of annoying. 

We explored a few of the offshoots and overlooks. 

The hike down through the tunnels took us about 45 minutes. We popped out on the "Martini Ledge" and paused for a snack before making the rest of our descent and trails down the mountain. It would have not been an easy climb up. 

More hiking along the narrow trails of the mountainside.

We stopped for a piece of Sacher chocolate cake at Rifugio Col Gallina on Passo Falzarego. The cake was so dry. But it seemed as though most of the local cakes and pastries were this way. 

Rifugio Col Gallina is the main mountain hut directly by the road and parking area of Passo Falzarego.

Another view of the Church of Santa Lucia.

We ate dinner at Fursil again.

Sisters Cruise - Day 6

Time to go home. That wasn't too fun, and Amy woke up with a stuffy nose. Seems to happen whenever she travels!

She slept at the airport before leaving!

The girls separated for their flights back to Colorado and Utah. Kristen and Amy were able to make it onto an earlier flight. Their bags didn't. 

Kristen was bumped from her seat because the airline separated them so another couple could sit together. When Amy saw this, she complained to the staff that they didn't consider that two people with the same name already sitting by each other wanted to to sit together.

The staff moved Kristen to a row behind Amy and gave her some travel points as an apology.

Misha waited around at the airport, but Chris was able to use some of his upgrade points to get her upgraded to business class on the way home.

1st Annual Sisters Cruise is in the books. 2027 is in the planning stages!

Sisters Cruise - Day 5

Today the ship stopped at Celebration Key. The girls had booked a catamaran cruise with snorkeling so they had to hurry and get breakfast, leave the ship and meet up with their group.

Flat Dad with his snorkeling mask.

Dolomites Trip - Day 8

Chris was finally starting to feel better. We drove back up to Passo Giau with its 29 hairpin turns—tornanti. They even numbered them with a sign at the bottom of the mountain telling us exactly hairpin turns there would be. The pass links the valleys of Ampezzo and Livinallongo.

You'll climb a nonstop 9% average incline passing many bicyclists along the way. It is one of the feature roads in the professional cycling race, the Giro d'Italia (similar to the Tour de France).

Today we planned to hike around Cinque Torri—5 Towers. We took the gondola to the top of the mountain and hiked first to the Nuvolau Rifugio (the hut at the tip top of the mountain). They use a small gondola to bring supplies up to the hut.

There were so many people hiking with us. We sat at the top for a couple of minutes, before returning to the base and climbing down the mountain side to Cinque Torri.

We sat on a grassy area and ate a picnic lunch overlooking the towers before starting our hike around the towers (one of which collapsed back in 2004 due to erosion). The 5 towers were the main view on the right with Rifugio Scoiattoli on the left (the 5 Torri Chairlift brings tourists up from the base of Baita Bai De Dones in the valley). The Dolomites were the setting for many WWI battles; we hiked around the battlements and fortifications. 

We walked on pathways through and around the towers.

Instead of walking straight up the hill back to Rifugio Averau at the chairlift station, Chris found a path around Mount Averau. We had two young girls following us for a bit, overtaking us, and then suddenly stopping in the middle of the trail to rest. They weren’t happy that we continued on around them. They tried to overtake us again, but we out-hiked them.

We followed another narrow path around the mountain until we were back at the Rifugio Averau. I noticed that they served hamburgers, so we stopped for a proper lunch. The burgers were huge. I finally folded my top bun in half like a taco shell with the hamburger in the middle, discarded the bottom bun, and ate my hamburger like that. Too many carbs with both the top and bottom bun. 

We ended our day with a gondola ride back down the mountain to Rifugio Fedare next to the Giau Fedare chair lift. Nuvolau mountain wasn’t covered in clouds today, so Chris was kind enough to stop for me so I could get a better picture. 

On our way back to the rental, we stopped at the nearby village of Selva for a few groceries and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Sisters Cruise - Day 4

Today the cruise ship docked at Nassau, Bahamas. 

Kristen woke up itchy from something, her sheets possibly. Amy gave her some benadryl and it began to make Kristen very sleepy.

The girls got off the boat after breakfast and explored in Nassau a little. They enjoyed a little ice cream and souvenir shopping.

Kristen got some rings.

Amy found a cool airplane.

They didn't stay in Nassau for too long before returning to the boat. They watched an Indiana Jones movie and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool.

Dolomites Trip - Day 7

Chris woke up Tuesday morning and still wasn’t feeling great. Not sure if it was the”lettuce” epidemic or food poisoning. We rested at the apartment for the morning; since it was overcast and rainy, we didn’t feel as though we wanted to head out quite yet.

This was the Church of Santa Lucia on a cloudy morning.

By mid morning, Chris was getting stir crazy. We drove to Cortina d’Ampezzio, expecting something amazing. It was the second base for the 2026 Winter Olympics. We drove around a bit, found a parking spot, and walked through the old town area. It was mostly high end shops. 

We did see one of the olympic ski jumps being dismantled as well as the curling arena.

We drove from Cortina up the mountain pass—Passo Giau—to the base of Mount Nuvolau. The rain had cleared but it was still wet and chilly. 

Mount Nuvolau at Passo Giau. I hope that I can take a picture of it on a clearer day.

If you click the pic below to make it bigger, you can see the path through the valley and then on the right side of the pic, there is a narrower path along the mountainside. We walked along the narrow path.

We walked toward Nuvolau Rifugio (hidden in the clouds), but without hiking sticks it was a little challenging. We turned around after talking with a Danish couple for ten minutes or so. 

We drove back to Santa Lucia and had dinner at Fursil again.

Sisters Cruise - Day 3

The cruise ship docked at Carnival's island, Half Moon Cay.

After breakfast, the girls walked off the boat and just spent the day relaxing at the beach. They might have gotten a little too much sun and returned to the boat a shade or two darker.

Misha took one of my favorite photos!

Chris and I even came along to the beach!

The girls attended a game show in the evening on 70s and 80s music "Guess That Song". Kristen came in second!

The adventure for the day, the ship's drug sniffing dog flagged the girl's cabin. Turns out Amy's anti-anxiety meds were the culprit. After determining the drugs were a legit prescription, she was allowed to keep them. Made for a few tense minutes though.

Dolomites Trip - Day 6

We left Val Gardena, a valley in the Dolomites comprising the main municipalities of: Ortisei (Urtijëi), Santa Cristina, and Selva (Sëlva). All towns are listed in both Italian and German.

Our drive took us up and down mountain passes toward Colle Santa Lucia. Chris was not feeling great. He had been taking meds for a couple of day hoping that his nausea and other symptoms would go away. He even hiked while not feeling great. It was time for a slower day.

There were lots of cars, motorcycles, and bicyclists along the narrow mountain roads. 

We stopped at the Marmolado reservoir because the pictures online looked beautiful. The real life version of the reservoir was much more disappointing. Still we walked along the reservoir, rested at the rifugio on the other end of the reservoir and then walked back. 

That was a little too much for Chris. He was happy to settle into our new vacation rental, Cesa dele Angele in Colle Santa Lucia—a tiny hamlet with a few homes, one chapel, one restaurant, a hotel, post office, and our rental. The chapel sat perched on the edge of the hill surrounded by stunning peaks. 

This was the view from our rental.

We had dinner at the local restaurant, Fursil, then wandered around the village where we would stay for the next five days.

Dolomites Trip - Day 5

This was one of our bigger hiking days. We drove about a half an hour outside of the Val Gardena area. 

We were hoping to park at the Zans Trailhead, but it was closed and police were directing cars away from the road. We took the road to Runi and parked in one of the parking areas along the road side. The parking kiosk was broken, so we gathered our stuff and headed out. 

Instead of walking back to one of the shuttle pick ups, we decided to just hike up the mountain from our car and meet up with the trailhead. That was an extra mile and a half each way plus 900 feet of elevation gain in 1.5 miles.

After finally reaching the Parcheggio Malga Zannes (Parkplatz Zanser Alm) in Val di Funes, Italy (every city, mountain, hike has both an Italian and a German name on all signs), we made a quick pit stop. We continued climbing and started on our intended hike along the Zannes Trail that we had planned for today.

The hike followed another service road as we continued hiking. We finally left the road for a narrow pathway and passed a German couple who had stopped to catch their breath. It was a strenuous climb for us as well. We were sweating buckets. After catching our breath, we continued up the steps along the trail, until we finally arrived at the Rifugio Malga Gampen Alm. 

It was hopping with activity, lots of people eating lunch, a live band playing, and servers trying to keep track of it all. Lots of people arrived via e-bike, some drove, and some hiked. 

I had German dumplings for the first time. I liked the pine nut and the bacon flavor better than the beet flavor, but it was all good. Chris and I loved when the band played John Denver’s Country Roads. 

Leaving the refugio, we followed the Adolf Munkel Weg (Walk) section of the trail. It was up and downhill, with lots of scrambling over rocks and roots. 

There was always the ever-present sound of cowbells. We stopped a the Dusler Alm and enjoyed some ice cream. We figured we had burned off plenty of calories on this hike. 

The path back to our trail led through a pasture with 3 horses. The horses barely looked up as we walked on by. 

We took an offshoot from the Adolf Munkel Weg and bypassed the trailhead back to the Parcheggio Malga Zannes parking lot. 

We still had our mile and a half hike down the secondary trail to our car in Runi. 

So nice to sink into the rental car and be done. Instead of driving back to our hotel, we drove through a small town and up the mountainside. It was one-lane road that was meant for both lanes of traffic. You had to watch carefully for oncoming traffic and one or the other car pulled over at a small pullout to let the other car carefully pass. 

We turned around after the driving became too intense and stopped at a restaurant we had passed along the way—Dreimadelhaus. 

The view of the Geisler/Odle Massif was amazing. I was glad to get a few pics as we arrived when the clouds were still above the mountains and then a sunset view.

We returned to Garni Snaltnerhof and happily fell into bed.