Yesterday was rest day, people who know me may wonder what a restless me does on rest days. I had a ton of great ideas what could be done on rest days – climbing on the climbing tower on the campsite for example, or take the bus and visit the town of Sexten, go for a walk, etc. But the other half meant rest day serious, so I went for a small walk around the campsite, picked some flowers, took some pictures, gave my feet a bath in the super cold river.

I did the laundry as well. They have a super handy thing here for free when you wash your clothes by hand, it’s a spinning machine that really gives the laundry a crazy spin so it is almost dry after 5 minutes – amazing!

The rest of the day was then spent on reading Haruki Murakami’s “South of the border, west of the sun” in a newer German translation. He is my favorite author and if you are into novels that carry deep emotions and have a bit of sci-fi in it, you should definitively get one of his books. By the way, he also has written a book about running (“What I talk about when I talk about running”). When I was preparing for my first half marathon, I incurred his mantra “Suffering IS an option” and I still carry on to use it to overcome challenging situations in life.

 

Tre Cime di Lavaredo

Today we took the bus (10 EUR p.p.) from the campsite to the Auronzo hut, as we are super close to the famous Tre Cime we also wanted to see them before we leave to the next stop tomorrow.

We decided to take an easy family friendly hiking route that would take us back to the valley and a bus station. Initially, I wanted to do the Paternkofel via ferrata, but we agreed that it would make more sense to do this some time later this year or next year, as this is a popular via ferrata and we would not be at the start early enough to enter the route.

As mentioned the Tre Cime are famous and the front line between Italy and Austria during World War I ran through the Tre Cime peaks.

There are a number of fortifications, trenches, tunnels, iron ladders, and commemorative plaques in the area.
And there were TONS of people.

So the view was breath-taking again – it gave me goosebumps, but while walking on the easy paths at the beginning, we were surrounded by chatter in all languages and tones.

I will come back for undoubtedly but I will make sure to take other routes and sleep over in one of the huts to be able to inhale the unbelievable rough beauty of these mountains.

Do not get me wrong, I of course appreciate that this world heritage is made accessible for everyone by the South Tyrol travel association. I am simply not made for mass tourism 🙂 and large crowds (if it is not a music festival).