Cortina

September 15, 2018

Cortina - A Rest Day

Keith taking over today for Kathleen. This should be easy. After taking a little bit of grief for not booking our hotel for 2 nights since we had planned two nights in Cortina I went for a stroll Friday night to check out possibilities for Saturday night as our hotel was fully booked. In addition to the CN duties I somehow have become the chief booking agent. We were hoping for a cancellation at our hotel. We waited until breakfast ...no luck, so okay, we are out of here. Got online and booked another hotel which is actually nicer than the one we were in last night. With my again gimpy sidekick I heroically rode my gear over to our new digs, checked in and then went back to escort the wounded warrior with her panniers loaded on my bike no less.

This was our first day off the bikes in almost two weeks and I am suspicious that Kathleen went down just to put her feet up for a day or so. She just miscalculated slightly.

We coincidentally ran into the hiking group that we met 2 days ago in Belluno at the restaurant last nite. After catching up on our respective adventures the past 2 days they highly recommended the tram ride up the mountain overlooking Cortina. Good planning on my part as the bottom of the lift was about 500 meters from our hotel. We arrived at the beautiful tram building, except it wasn’t.

We managed to redirect ourselves to the tram station. There were 3 cable car lines to get to the top. Perfect, no crowds. I think there were 4 of us on the lift. The first stop was a short one for coffee and strudel.

We enjoyed our server who was from Puglia.

The final stop was just short of the summit. There was a short hike up to the summit with a strong cable strung along the rock to provide support on the way up. It was a steep drop and a false step could have had very negative consequences. The last bit had no cable to hang onto so we bailed so as not to tempt fate (read “chickened out”). It was a long way straight down. We watched real climbers clamouring up the adjacent summit, and took numerous photographs before we headed down. The scenery was fantastic and changed minute by minute as the clouds passed through.

We carried on up that narrow path on our way to the summit. When we got around the corner and the last bit was straight up scrambling we bailed.

This is looking back up at where we had been.

At a summit across the way were the real climbers. This is very zoomed in.

Then we headed back down into Cortina. The previous evening on my stroll I had popped in for a look at the hockey arena. There was a recreational game taking place, high quality hockey with music blaring when there wasn’t any action...no fans though. Passing by the arena on our way back to the hotel today we stopped and had a look. My idea. There happened to be a tournament on so we had a chat with a couple of players. No Canadian team but a goalie wearing an Oilers sweater. I am looking forward to getting back on the ice when we get back to Victoria.

Keen to get out there. One more fan resting under the bench.

A beer between games outside in the sun 😁.

Back in the room we had a nap. The best rest day reward. Then we walked all through Cortina’s pedestrian area and explored the town.

Keith and I had a discussion about this because I had seen it and he hadn’t. I was sure we must have ridden under it coming into town, and then it dawned on me. The cab ride to the hospital was when I saw it.

We had such a beautiful day to enjoy it.

We had dinner in the hotel. It was a delicious four course dinner that we really didn’t deserve or expect after such a sedate day but it was the only choice in the hotel, and we were feeling too relaxed (lazy) to go anywhere else, so what could we do? We tucked in and enjoyed it thoroughly. We have also decided to stay another night. One more day for the gimpy sidekick to recover and we are really enjoying Cortina.

We ate a great deal of delicious food tonight, with impeccable service.

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Helen StarkGoodness, you two are brave! I simply couldn't do those heights with my tendency to vertigo and my irrational fear (read phobia) of heights. Well done both of you. You definitely deserved the lovely dinner.
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