Travel Day or Oops wrong Flight

We wake up before 08:00 for our last morning in Italy. There is a decent breakfast at the hotel that is included. Back to the room to ensure we have everything packed and in the right place. Lana has reserved two seats on the 10:00 shuttle to the airport. It is about a five minute ride.

Being Italy, of course they don't drop you off at the departures entrance but at another entry at a completely different building which involves a very long walk to the check-in for Air Canada. No wait at the check in and Lana has our three pieces of luggage tagged under her name given she has Elite status with the airline which allows her additional weight. This will prove to be a great idea.   :)

Lana's priority is getting her VAT refund. We locate the proper desk and get in the queue. After we get through security and passport control we are in the queue for the actual cash refund. Her refund on the COS purchases was about 10% of the cost. I told Lana that I was her "tax mule" as the documentation was in my name given I had the passport yesterday when she made the purchases in Verona. 

There is no lounge in this airport. The security lineup isn't too bad especially given we get into the Priority queue. We find some food to take on the airplane that can be our lunch and an Italian pastry. We are at the gate in plenty of time and there is free airport wifi. I can update our blog from yesterday.

Our two Air Canada flights today: Venice -> Toronto and then Toronto -> YVR

Our Air Canada Rouge flight to Toronto is scheduled for 12:35 and it pretty much leaves on time. It is a full plane. Lana is sitting in Premium Economy and I am way back in row 33 aisle seat. I didn't realize that the Rouge flight has no video screens. The two offerings of food during our nine hour flight are inedible so luckily I brought my own lunch. Pretty uneventful flight for both of us. Lana was good enough to loan me her iPhone that has the Air Canada app so I can watch a couple of movies. 

We are a little early to Toronto Pearson airport. When I tried to use my Nexus card in the scanner it wouldn't work. The customs agent took a look and noticed some glue on the back of the card as the cause of the problem. He scraped off most of glue on the back (newly renewed card) and then it worked. I declared an overage on our 17 1/2 bottles of Italian wine. The Customs lady was pretty friendly and loves wine herself. We only paid $18CDN for the extra bottles of wine so that worked out to about $1 per bottle. Pretty good deal!

We have some time in the Air Canada lounge and then we both want to purchase some food. Lana has a favourite place that sells Thai food, but a super long wait. I pick up two pizza pieces. There is a lot of people at the gate, but we are first in line for Zone 1. Lana checks in and then the gate agent stops me to say I have the wrong flight. I am on another flight to Vancouver one hour later! What the heck! We check our itinerary and indeed Lana has booked me on a later flight in error. She was trying to find me a cheaper flight and I guess it was one hour later. We wait for everyone to be boarded and then Lana pays the change fee of $150CDN. At least we are on the same flight. We are the last people to board the flight. I am quite back in the plane but have a window seat while Lana is in business class.

Another uneventful flight except for the wrong booking. We both get pretty tired late into the flight given the time zone differential and the fact these are two long flights back to back. We grab a taxi and are physically back home by 21:15. Not too bad.

We are home!

We have a train to catch!!

DAY 13:  Sunday, September 24, 2017

Alarm at 07:00 so we can be on the road before 08:00 for the long drive to Venice Marco Polo Airport car rental return. We are pretty much packed last night but need to ensure ensure everything is accounted for before we leave. We are in the car by 07:50 so that is a good start. Weather in San Cassiano is very cloudy and it has rained. Good timing to be leaving Alta Badia.

Our rental car is pretty decent cornering, but not much acceleration on the uphill climbs. Lots of comments from Randy like: this car sucks on acceleration, this car has absolutely no guts, etc. etc. Fortunately, there is not much traffic going our way so early in the morning. When we do come across a slow vehicle I can usually pass within a short time period. The GPS is working well. We have one diversion and a couple of construction zone red lights. The hairpin turns and constant switchbacks are with us for a good portion of our 2 hour 20 minute drive to Venice.

We pay 7.80 Euro for the Autostrade toll road. Overall, it was a relatively quick drive compared to when we drove to San Cassiano. Our first challenge is finding a gas station to fill up before dropping the rental car at Hertz. The station next to the airport is not functioning - closed and they taped over the credit card slots. Our GPS can find the closest gas station and then provides the shortest route. We do find a 24 hour gas station although nobody is physically there. Lana figures out how to link the credit card to the exact pump and we fill up with about 55 Euros worth of gas.

The car rental return is right beside the airport terminal but on level 3. It just happens that Hertz is the most difficult and the last company to find on the top floor which has a one way path for all the cars being returned and also just being rented so between cars trying to park and those pulling out, it was pretty chaotic. Plus, raining on us as we take out our luggage and queue to provide our keys and the guy checks the car. Full tank and no damage. We find an elevator with our three suitcases (heavy with wine) and two backpacks. We get to the taxi stand and find out it is a flat charge to our airport hotel of 20 Euros for a five minute ride. Lana can't find the hotel shuttle spot and we are in a hurry to ensure we make it to the train station at a decent time to get to Verona. We grab a taxi for the exorbitant fare to the Best Western Titian Inn.

Problem is Lana has mixed up our hotel so we actually are dropped off at the Marriott. In checking in she discovers we are at the wrong hotel. She thought she had booked us using Marriott points but actually booked using Aeroplan points! This means dragging our suitcases and walking down the road in the light rain for about 5 minutes. We check in (11:00) but they do not have our room available so we must leave our luggage/backpacks. The weather forecast for Verona is for showers in the mid afternoon.

Going to an Italian Serie A football match was not in our plans for Italy. It just happened that I realized our day in Venice may not be that interesting and given it was a Sunday we might find an Serie A football match. During our European travels we have been to the German Bundesliga (Frankfurt & Mainz), English Barclay's Premiership (London), Spanish La Liga (Barcelona) and Portugese Primeira Liga (Porto). The only remaining league would the French League.

Our ticket for the Hellas Verona FC vs SS Lazio (Serie A) league game at 3 pm in Verona.

The only practical way to get from our hotel near the airport to the Venice Mestre train station is to take another expensive taxi. There is a bus, but it runs once an hour and would take a long time to arrive. We decide to ask the hotel to phone for a taxi. The 'taxi' costs 40 Euros for about a 15 minute ride. We realize later that it isn't a taxi, but a private flat rate vehicle. We arrive at the train station at 11:35. The game starts at 15:00. We grab a number for the train station customer service as it is better to speak with a human rather than dealing with a machine in a foreign country. There is an older guy working and speaks good English. The cost is 72 Euros for two return tickets--high speed express going there, slower train coming home. We really have to take the far more expensive high speed train to Verona if we want to make it to the game on time. We will be in Car 9 and seats 8C/8D. The only downside is that the seats are facing the opposite direction that the train is travelling in which usually doesn't work well for Lana's motion sickness but she does ok for the trip there. The lady sitting across from us is wearing sunglasses and a pink outfit. We know she speaks english as she is reading english literature. 

Our high speed train pulling up at Verona's Mestre station track 6 about 12:02. It will be approximately a one hour trip. Of course being Italy the train doesn't stop at the designated stop area for each car number. There is a mad scramble of passengers trying to get on the proper car number. Yes, Italy can be chaotic!

OK, so a little story here. Randy needed to use the train station bathroom. Lana provides 1 Euro worth of coins for entry. Without looking, Randy starts putting the coins in the slot and Lana realizes Randy is trying to access the Ladies washroom!! Yikes. A lady in the queue gives me a 1 Euro coin and I give her the rest of my change. The bathrooms are very clean, have toilet seats, toilet paper and a warm fan for your hands. BTW you can't really sneak into the washroom as you can see from the glass doors that only open when you've paid. 

Our first stop en route to Verona is Padova. The trip is mostly countryside. Forecast for Verona is 17 degrees Celsius with rain in the afternoon. We have one other stop before Verona being Vicenza. Our lunch will be on the train. We bring buns, salami, speck, mozzarella cheese and mayonnaise. Lana has a Swiss army knife to cut the buns and it is sharp. She remembers that the knife was one of her going away presents when she left KPMG in Regina back in 1995. As well, we have a leftover apple cake and a tasty German style cookie (all from San Cassiano). We vacuum down everything we have as we are both hungry. We purchased a bottle of water from a vending machine on the train platform for 2 Euros. Pretty good lunch! We arrive in Verona around 13:00.

We now need to walk to the Stadio Marc'antonio Bentegodi which is a bit of a distance. We brought our GPS unit although it provides a route using a vehicle route as there is no walking option. Despite the forecast it is a beautiful hot and sunny day in Verona! The GPS unit does get us to the stadium and we are there fairly early. Outside the southend of the stadium is an area full of food trucks and Hellas Verona football team memorabilia/swag. 

The food trucks are pretty busy. You can purchase food and drinks inclusive of beer. In fact, they sell hamburgers and hot dogs. Many fans wearing the team colours of Hellas Vernona; blue and yellow. There are police at each of the entrance gates. We sit down around 13:50 to drink a bottle of water and do some people watching. 

The family that sat down at our table had purchased these french fries. They use a stick to pick out their french fries. Notice they have  mayonnaise for a condiment here--very French.

To gain entry you show your ticket and pull out your photo identification as it must match the ticket information (your name is on the ticket). If you are bringing in a bag that might check it. Lana had her knife in her pack safe shoulder bag, but he didn't check it. Once you are past that security then you scan your ticket to get into the stadium. You must enter at a designated gate number. Once you have entered you don't have access to other sections. Our ticket is in Italian of course so we are not fully sure on which seats we have? Lana gets a staff person who shows us Sett O Fila 7 and Posto 25 & 26. Our seats are in the direct sun and a little above ground level.

The stadium early before many fans have arrived. 

The southside Hellas Verona (home team) zone. 

This is our view from the seats we purchased. As you can see this yellow structure obscures our view at certain angles. Now I know why so cheap compared to the other online ticket prices.

 Randy posing from our seating area. Hellas Verona warming up before the game starts. SS Lazio comes out at 14:20 to practise at the north end of the field in front of their fans. When the Lazio teams comes onto the field for their pre-game warmup the fans high in the northend of the stadium start loudly singing and chanting. Very cool. 

Hellas Verona team supporter area. Check out the glass partition ringing the entire stadium. There are spikes on top of the glass in case some super tall fan tries to climb over. It is practically impossible for irate or jubilant fans to enter the soccer field. 

OK, one of the reasons I love to go to European football games in person is the atmosphere and passion of the fans. It is so enjoyable. The fans are very knowledgeable and jeer at the opposing players and the ref on occasion. The Italian fans in our section are very boisterous. Constantly yelling all sorts of things and I hate to say like their stereotype constantly waving their arms when yelling/talking. You can smoke of course given we are outside and practically everyone around us is smoking. 

The game doesn't start well for the home team as they foul a Lazio player inside the 18 yard box leading to a penalty shot. They about 20 minutes later give up a pretty easy goal with some lax defending. It is 2-0 for Lazio at halftime. As a soccer player myself I am amazed at the skill level of these professional European players. Their dribbling skills, field awareness and overall skills on the ball are incredible. We are so near the field it makes it more fantastic for me. I sit in our seat, but Lana finds some shade standing up. At halftime I purchase a beer for 4 Euro and it tastes like a beer in any sporting event around the world. 

In the second half the home team makes a couple of substitutions including a South Korean player who is clearly a fan favourite. Lazio scores again though. More yelling in Italian and waving of arms on poor plays by the home team. I wish I knew some Italian. I stand with Lana in the wheelchair section and it is a better view as the obstruction isn't in my line of vision. Also, out of the sun. Halfway through the second half the thunder happens, dark clouds and then rain. The weather prediction was correct. At the end of the game it is raining and luckily Lana has her travel umbrella. Still warm though. 

Hellas Verona fans chanting

SS Lazio fans chanting

Oscar Mayer weiners even in Italy.

Yes, the home team Verona loses to the Lazio team from Rome. 

More thundering and rain as we walk the streets of Verona using the GPS to help navigate us to the COS store. This is one of Lana's favourite shops and while there is a store now in Vancouver's  Gastown neighbourhood. There are different styles available in Europe. Given Lana has accompanied me to the soccer game, it seems only fair that she gets some time in to do a little bit of shopping which has been fairly minimal this entire holiday. It is about a 25 minute walk to the store at a pretty good pace. We arrive at 17:20. I find a spot in the corner of the store to sit on the floor and update my notes for the day. Very busy store and all the sales staff speak good English. Lana buys two items; a dress and a sweater. There is free wifi in the store so I check my emails. For Lana to get the Italian VAT refund she needs a passport. She didn't bring hers but I have mine. The sales clerk tells us about a shop that would do the refund and it is about another 10 minutes walk. We arrive and nobody there. We wait and she comes out of the bathroom. When Lana requests the VAT she indicates it is 10 minutes from closing and she has already shut off her computer for the day so cannot do the refund. Wow! Italy can be so frustrating at times with their attitude toward business and efficiency.

This is our only picture of Verona. Not sure what it is, but there was a long lineup of tourists to enter?

We take out the GPS as we need to find our way back to the Verona train station. We need to eat, but one of the restaurants we stopped at indicated they were not open. Yup, that figures... We arrive at the station around 18:45 and our train is scheduled to depart at 19:21. We grab some quick food at Spizzico. Lana has a large slice of pizza and I have a sandwich. This isn't the greatest option for our last meal in Italy, but we "have a train to catch". 

There are no reserved seats. We go to the upper car area and find two seats side by side facing the direction of the train for Lana. Nobody across from us until about one minute before the train departs. A very tall young woman sits right across from me and instantly she is in my space with her knees and feet. My usual seat karma. Eventually after she steps on my feet for the third time and I gently push her foot back she moves to another seat. When we sat in our seats across the aisle was an Italian guy talking to himself. He really was crazy and very talkative. Very bizarre behaviour. 

We arrive back at Venice Mestre train station and it is dark. The taxi queue spot has zero taxis. Oh oh!! We wait for at least 10 minutes and finally a taxi arrives and a second taxi. We get the second taxi and this guy rips back to our hotel. He is a true taxi with a meter and charges us 23 Euros. Not the 40 Euros charged earlier today for the same trip. 

We grab our suitcases and head up to the room 123. It is around 21:30 so not too late. The room is small, but clean. The wifi works, but is brutally slow as I try to load our pictures. We have lights out around 22:30 as we will be up tomorrow before 08:00. 

Our stats for today:  16,000 steps and 12 kms. Not bad considering significant parts of the day we were in a car and two trains. Tomorrow is our travel day back to Vancouver. 

Slalom-style hiking in Alta Badia

DAY 12:  Saturday, September 23, 2017

Wake up this morning with some anxiety about our football tickets being received and then getting them printed. I check my email and the tickets have arrived late last night, but we need them printed. The San Cassiano Tourist Office opens at 10:00 and I forward the email to them with an explanation. Also, at 10:00 I phone them and the girl confirms they can print the tickets on our behalf. Yeh!!!

We have some errands to do this morning before we start our last hike of our vacation in Alta Badia. We stop first at the Tourist office to receive our printed tickets. Lana needs a couple of stamps for postcards and then mail the postcards. Plus, she had seen foot covers at a local bicycle shop and she wants to adapt them for snowshoeing. The bicycle shop is open and she purchases a pair. We stop at the bakery to pick up a goodie for the car tomorrow and some buns for lunch/dinner.

Lana here: as much as I enjoy hiking, steep up/down hill is hard on my knees!! To counter this I've started "weaving" or "slaloming" up and down the trail when needed. Despite Randy laughing at my technique, I have to say, it works for me. Going back and forth cuts down on the angle and stress on my knees. So even though I may not have the sheer muscle strength, I think my stamina is pretty good as the extra steps needed to slalom are not tiring. After six days of fairly intense hiking, I've had very little stiffness or tiredness in my legs. OK--maybe the two massages helped as well  :-)

Lana's slalom-style downhill hiking technique

We leave for our hike at 11:00 by simply walking out our door as there is hiking route #14 that passes right by us and then up the hill/mountain. I phone the La Crusc Rifugio S. Croce and the lady believes it is about a two hour hike? It is another beautiful sunny and warm day. The first 30 minutes of our hike are pretty much straight up which I would rate at medium-high difficulty, but more towards high difficulty. The first part of the walk is in the forest so mostly shaded from the sun. Much of the path is a real trail and not an access road. By 11:30 we have joined up with hiking route #15. Some light breezes are much appreciated as we are getting hot from the exertion.

Check out the flat tops on the Dolomite peak in the distance. 

 This route has the usual religious iconography and at many other points along the trail.

Lana loves these purple flowers. 

 Hmmmm, another purple flower pic.

This is an extremely steep and narrow path through the woods. 

Italian Alps in the distance. 

More Italian Alps in the distance. 

Early in our hike Lana takes out her ear buds and plugs into music from her iPhone. This strategy relaxes her, gives her a pace to walk to and "drowns out the screaming pain from my legs". Occasionally, she starts singing out loud--yup--she listens to music from the 80's! We were super lucky early in our walk when I stopped at a bench to wait for Lana and didn't realize my wallet had fallen out of my backpack. Just as we were leaving Lana (who always looks around before we leave and checks that we have everything with us) saw it lying in the grass behind the bench. Phew!

Dolomite peak Kreuzkofel looming above the Refugio. 

 We reached Refugio La Crusc-S. Croce Helligkreuz around 12:35 so a little more than 90 minutes uphill hiking to reach it. We are both a little sweaty. Lana is happy as she had a great pace and we passed four different hiking groups on the way here. One of the groups was five much younger people from Chicago, USA. Our stats were 11,200 steps and 8.25 kms. 

We find a table outside to bask in the sun and enjoy the superb views. When the sun is out it is actually hot. This Refugio is at 2045 metres. 

Just the right amount of sun. Picture taken by an older Italian lady who was sitting with her friends at our table. One of the ladies has a Dolomiti Passport where people collect Rifugio stamps and staple lift tickets into their passbook as mementos of all their hikes. We loved this idea and Lana wishes she would have picked up a passport when we arrived as we would have had 7-8 stamps as souvenirs from this trip.

Our lunch view--this Dolomite peak is right beside the Refugio and dramatically beautiful. It has a powerful presence. 

Lana's back up plan since she didn't have a passbook--she stamped her arm at the Refugio. 

Randy's lunch order of Kaiserschmarren + Bilbeeren. This is actually a German style dessert. We had this a couple of days ago on another hike. I couldn't resist. Yes, this is indeed my lunch. Not as good though as the first one we had. This one has no raisins, too much sugar, more eggy and not as fluffy and light. It was still good though.   ;-)

Lana's order of Eir mit Schinken. Basically eggs and ham. The eggs are underneath and cooked just over easy. Her ingenious idea was to take bread from the accompanying bread basket and make two delicious sandwiches which we promptly inhaled!

A Radler: blend of beer and lemonade. Also known as a Shandy. I think it tastes pretty good.  This washed down my lunch, er dessert...Lana drank some as well which is pretty surprising given she doesn't like beer. Lana starts laughing hysterically though as she knows beer gives people gas sometimes and says "we can smile and fart our way back to Venice".

Telephone booth in the Refuge. This is really old school.

Occasionally the sun is obscured by very dark clouds. This puts a chill into the air and everyone outside at the tables puts on another layer of clothing. Then the sun returns and everyone strips off that extra layer. We see another table enjoying an Apple cake so we decide to order one to go. As the Borg say on Star Trek "resistance is futile". The sun disappears again so we decide it is time to get going and hike back to where we came from. It is 13:45 and the lunch cost 35 Euros. 

This is the apple cake we could not resist. Packaged in aluminum foil to take home.

Lana sitting on one of these benches we find on various hiking trails. Notice the built-in table in the middle--perfect for having a picnic or al fresco lunch and drinks.

Example of the narrow trail we were hiking today.

Randy on a hill with the clouds behind. It did not rain.

I don't like her that much!

Panoramic shot of Dolomite mountains on the other side of the valley below. 

Somehow on the way back we miss the turn for hiking route #14. We continue on route #15 as it will take us to San Cassiano. This extends our return walk by around 30 minutes. The cool thing is we are walking high above San Cassiano so now we know what is up the hill. We come across a local dairy farm/cheese company and they had a cheese vending machine! Lana says "now I've seen everything!!" Plus, yogurt and some drinks available to buy. They had at least a dozen different flavours of cheese!

Vending machine with cheese. 

Lüch da Pcëi - vending machine owners/cheese trade. 

We are back to our apartment by 15:45. Still a beautiful sunny warm day. Stats for the day: 24,500 steps and 17.3 kms. Pretty decent day of hiking and scenery and food and weather...We checked our weather app and the high today was 18 degrees Celsius. 

We want to treat ourselves to a nice dinner tonight. We make reservations for 19:00 at Tana dell'Orso in Badia. Lana did the research for a place that wasn't a Michelin star restaurant, but was highly rated and not casual. Alta Badia has a number of Michelin starred restaurants. We wanted to keep this trip fairly casual in terms of dining. This will be our last decent dinner on our trip. The food in Alta Badia has been as good as advertised. 

Online pic of Tana dell'Orso

Even with GPS, not the easiest place to find in Badia. We drove up onto the hill/mountain to find this unique restaurant. There are three separate rooms each with their own motif. We were in the teddy bear room. When we arrived we were the only table occupied. Weird to be surrounded by teddy bears of all shapes and sizes. The menu has classic Italian and the local Ladin specialties. Lana is on a mission to have a pasta dish. Within a short while the restaurant really begins to fill up. There is another server, but this place is disorganized. The food is fantastic, but service poor. 

Teddy Bear room.

Our appetizer of ham, smoked sausage and three different types of delicious cheeses. A very simple starter plate, but one we should use when entertaining. I ordered a glass of Gewürztraminer and it paired well with the apple plate and my entrée.

Lana's order of nettle-flavoured tagliatelle with fresh chantrelle mushrooms. Lana loved this dish.

Randy's order of pork with fried potatoes. Very delicious!

One of our tasks was placing each of our 18 wine bottles into the plastic wine skins. We need to get everything packed tonight in readiness for an early departure back to Venice. Our goal is to be in our car before 08:00 to travel back to Marco Polo airport to return our rental car and then get our room. A great meal to end the day. 

The Häglofs Shirt saga

DAY 11:  Friday, September 22, 2017

We woke to a brilliant blue sunny sky. The predicted high today in San Cassiano is in the mid-20s. A perfect day for another hike and to a famous area. We had looked at the weather forecasts when we arrived about a week ago and then thought we (well actually Lana) would need some conditioning hikes in advance.

Taela Apartments where we are staying in San Cassiano. We are staying in an apartment on the second floor in the rear of the yellow building. Quite a drive or walk up a steep incline to the Apartments. 

Our plan is to drive to the Sexten/Sesto Dolomites east of our location and hike around Tre Cime di Lavaredo or in German Drei Zinnen. They are the "most famous" mountains in the Dolomites and "a must for every hiking enthusiast". It is located not too far from the village of Lake Misurina. The only way we can program our GPS is to input the GPS coordinates. There is no "address" for the area so that is our only option. It is another snaky, curvy, hairpin obsessed and slow road all the way to the nature park area. Fortunately, a beautiful day for a drive and not too many cars on the road going our way.

Map of the Drei Zinnen--located on the upper right of this image. 

Geographical location. San Cassiano isn't too far from the big red S. Naturpark Drei Zinnen is the general area. 

It takes us a little more than an hour to drive the distance. One cool thing is we drive through Cortina which is a famous winter ski destination. When we reach the Naturpark there is a gate and you need to pay a "parking" fee to enter the park. The fee is 25 Euro - a little steep. The benefit is you drive up one side of the mountain to find parking high on the mountain making your hike we think a little easier. Not many parking spots available even at 10:25 arrival time. Very steep driving and of course more winding hairpin turns. Lana is a little car sick from the drive  :-(

On arrival, it is pretty cold given the wind chill factor. It is equally sunny in Tre Cime di Lavaredo. I put on my gloves although within about 15 minutes there are off as it is that warm. I am wearing my shorts which is perfect for the weather. Lana gets pretty warm as well early into the hike. Regrettably, where we park the only way to the hiking route #101 is down a very steep and slippery (snow) slope. She is very careful with her steps and seems like an eternity (for me anyway) before she is at the main trail. Lana is still suffering from a little car sickness which is giving her vertigo so she is finding it difficult to look down the trail or up at the peaks. The trail is absolutely packed with fellow hikers! We are not used to this! Plus, the majority of hikers have hiking poles. Get ready as there are a lot of photos in this blog!

Hike along the south face of Drei Zinnen. Check out the snow on the trail. The grey/salmon coloured rock face is the actual Dolomites. 

Spectacular view from our trail down into a valley below. Not sure what town that is in the distance?

The only flowers we find along the trails are "always purple".  

The south face of Drei Zinnen on a sharp uphill angle. The south side of the rock is interesting but not as spectacular as the north face. 

More pics from the south face of Drei Zinnen. 

Yup, another pic of the south face of Drei Zinnen. 

Basically, from where we parked we start our hike on the south side of Drei Zinnen and then make our way around to the north side where the pictures are more representative of these three famous Dolomite mountains. 

Excellent map of the hiking area that we need to ensure we find our refuge for lunch. It really is slippery in some spots and then trying to avoid other hikers clogging up the trail. The trail has some snow which is now melting and quite muddy/slick. 

View of one side of Drei Zinnen as we are hiking to get to the north side for the iconic picture taking. If you see the diagonal trail above that is what we hiked to get towards the north face and eventually the Refuge for lunch. 

This is a prime destination for fellow hikers given it is your first real photo op. It is really cold up here with the winds. Need to put my top on! Note the flat side of the north face which is what makes these peaks so dramatic. 

Randy in his Häglofs shirt! Pretty stylish hiker and the shirt is great for hiking/exertion. 

Lana here--so the story of the Häglofs shirt. A couple of years ago Randy started hiking with our good friend Stuart. Randy noticed that Stuart had a great hiking shirt that was blue. When he asked Stuart about it, Stuart indicated that the shirt was a Häglofs brand that is only available in Europe. Two years ago when we were on vacation in Portugal, Randy did some research and found a couple of stores that carry the brand. When we went to the stores to look however, we were told that they were only available online. Randy is disappointed he can't get a shirt. Earlier this year when we were in London, we again find several stores that were supposed to carry the brand. We tried to phone but couldn't get through. When we went to the stores, we were told, yet again, that they were only available online. At this point, Randy has completely given up on ever purchasing a Häglofs shirt for hiking. Never one to give up so easily, I go online and finds some shirts on Amazon. I order one back in March so it will arrive in time for Father's Day. It's coming from the UK but it shouldn't take longer than 4-6 weeks right? Well, months go by!! No shirt. Seriously. I finally contact the seller who tells me that they don't use tracking for their packages. By July we determine the shirt has been lost in the mail and I receive a refund. Ok, last try. Back to Amazon I go, this time I find a shirt, ON SALE EVEN, from another seller in the UK and not wanting to take any chances send it to my friend Tina who lives in London. The damn thing arrives and Tina is kind enough to bring it over with her when they return to Canada for a visit early September. The look on Randy's face when he opened the package was totally worth it. And he even liked the colour/pattern that I picked out for him!!!

Check out the trail and its gradual uphill climb. At this elevation (around 2400 metres) getting the oxygen into your lungs is much harder.

Great pic and note the Italian and German languages. 

Another beautiful peak in the Dolomites.

Lana carefully managing her way down a very slippery and in some places icy trail path. Pretty much everybody needed to go sideways to avoid falling. 

The Drei Zinnen or Tre Cime di Lavaredo

This is a very slippery slope.

Guess which peaks?   :-)

Another angle.

This is our destination for lunch. Dreizinnenhütte Refugio A. Locatelli S. Innerkofler. Elevation of 2450 metres. 

Picture from online source. This is taken from the north side with Drei Zinnen in the background. Wow!

We arrive at the Refuge at 12:15. Perfect timing for lunch as we are hungry after our 7,000+ steps and 4.40 kms. Doesn't seem like much, but a good part of our hike was uphill at a good elevation. It is so warm in the absence of the wine/breeze. There is seating with fantastic views outside, but you need to go inside and get your food/drinks and then take outside. We found a table and a couple of menus. No menus in English though. Very comfy on the inside and it was pretty busy. 

Lana's lunch of Frankfurter Würstel mit Halbmondkartoffein. Basically two wieners with fries. The fries were really tasty and different from our Canadian style fries.  

Randy's lunch order of Spiegeleir mit Speck und Röstkartoffeln. Pretty much yesterday's lunch order (breakfast?). Yup, pretty yummy and filling. Perfect halfway through our hike. Plus, I ordered a 1/4 litre of Südtirol Weißburgunder (white wine) for 3.90 Euros. Dry style and a little sweet with some small bubbles. Lunch cost us 30 Euros inclusive of our two bottles of carbonated water. We note the many languages being spoken around us. No English though.

Lana in front of Drei Zinnen. 

Panoramic shot of Drei Zinnen and surrounding peaks. 

More signage, although this gives you a great idea of the park and its location relative to other landmarks. I really needed my shades today!

Another panoramic view of surrounding mountains to the east. 

I thought this was a pretty cool angle. Lana says it looks like the Muppet Sam the American Eagle LOL (for those of you old enough to remember the Muppets).

On the hiking route on the south side of the mountains this is a great shot of the jagged peaks of fellow Dolomite peaks and more distant Alp peaks. 

We are back to our car around 14:45. A number of hikers brought their dogs. Some on leashes and some not. First time we have encountered this. Also, for the entire hike we were above the tree line. So many incredible jagged mountain peaks in this area. On the way back, we see a helicopter fly in and someone being airlifted out. Not sure what happened but must have been some kind of medical emergency? Some birds gliding around on the thermal updrafts. 

It has been a fantastic day of hiking, scenery, weather, people and relaxation. Now driving back to San Cassiano. Lana is pretty excited about having done this big hike after taking the past hiking days to build up some stamina to do it. 

Ever been slowed down on a main road by a horse and buggy?

The Dolomites 

Just to emphasize the incredible twists, turns, hairpin curves on the roads in the Alta Badia area. They are all like this hence Lana's car sickness.

Lana decides this is her favourite Dolomite peak. 

If you look closely, you can see a small structure on top of this Dolomite--we think is going to be some kind of chair lift?

We arrive back at our apartment around 16:00. Stats for the entire hike: 14, 125 steps and 9.25 kms. Super warm and sunny here. So warm that while driving we had our windows open! More traffic on the way back due to the time of the day. Into the bathtub for both of us to warm up. Great way to end an enjoyable hike. Lana has a full body massage at 18:00 to reward herself. I pick her up at 19:15 and we are off to dinner at L'Fana Pizzeria in La Villa. 

Fairly casual place located pretty close to where we are staying. We order a pizza and a Gemischter Salat. Plus, the usual large bottle of carbonated water. I order a glass of St. Magdalena Steinbauer wine. The food comes quickly as usual. The crust especially is the best we have had in Alta Badia--nice char, still soft on the inside and great flavour. Average meal, but we were looking for something casual and quick.

L'Fana Pizzeria Dolomiti Pizza - cooked ham, onions, hot salami and mushrooms. Half a pizza as we asked for only 1/2 with the mushrooms for Lana. My half is without. 

After dinner we met up with Egon our Airbnb host as we were hoping he could assist us in purchasing online tickets for the Hellas Verona vs Lazio Serie A Football match Sunday afternoon at 15:00 in Verona at the Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium. Of course, nothing is ever simple. Eventually, we made the purchase from an online ticket reseller. We needed Egon to print the PDF of the tickets, but although he received confirmation of the ticket purchase no PDF was received. Apparently it may take some time before they send a link to the PDF for the tickets. Yikes! He then changed the email address to my address as he was leaving tomorrow morning to Venice to deal with his wife's father's illness and wouldn't be back until Sunday night. We really appreciated his help and time involved. We'll keep our fingers crossed that we get the email PDF in the next day. We might have to use the local tourist office to print the two tickets.