a good choice to stay for a few days.
We had to walk from the cable car to the tourist information center. I wanted to meet the nice woman, Marion, that helped me on the phone yesterday. I also wanted to get directions to the apartment. The walk to the tourist information center was up. It was slow going with all the weight we were carrying. We met Marion. She was very nice and helpful. We got the directions to the apartment. Of course this was also up. It was along streets and trails. At one point I wasn't sure if we were going the correct way. So I decided to leave my pack with Laurie and I would check it out.
I went to one house. The houses are really spread out. They were probably wondering, who in the world would be ringing their doorbell. The woman came and I showed her the brochure. In her language, she told me, along with hand signals, that it was up further. I found it. I rang the doorbell and a man answered. He didn't speak English, but got his wife. She seemed a little surprised. Come to find out, she didn't expect us until tomorrow. There was no problem. She just needed to make the beds. Liz, brought me upstairs to the apartment. It is above their house. I was thrilled with the place. It was big, clean, and had a great view of the Dolomites. The kitchen was complete with everything. There was a nice porch looking out to the mountains and town below. There were two bedrooms. This will be the first time since I left since I have had my own bedroom. What a treat!
I went down to get Laurie and brought her up. We decided that we would stay four nights instead of the three we had originally planned. It is such a nice place and cheap. It is only 44 euros for the night.
We settled in and then had lunch on the porch. We just relaxed. We wanted to go to the center and pick up a few more groceries and the stores didn't open until 3:00.
About 4:00 we went to the center of San Genesio and picked up a few more things. We also went back to visit Marion and tell her how much we liked the place. We also asked for suggestions on some hikes. One great thing about our location is we can start hiking right from our door.
We got back to the apartment about 6:10. I showered and then washed some clothes by hand. I made dinner, ate and the night was gone.
There is a terrific view of Bolzano from the porch at night because of all the lights. Sometimes I realize just how lucky I am.
September 19, 2003
Today was a very long day. Laurie and I left to do a hike about 9:15. I had lost the maps that Marion, at the information center, had written in, but Laurie had another map. We tried to remember what Marion suggested.
It was a nice day out except that it was hazy toward the Dolomites. The trails were marked in the beginning on most trail junctions. We had a little trouble at one point and were cutting through fields and hopping fences. We saw a group of people walking, so we tried to follow them. Once we caught up, we saw that we were on a trail. Not the one we wanted, but we knew where we were anyways.
We walked up to a place called Stoaeme Mardin. It was a hilltop about 6,265 feet with hundreds of cairns. We got up there about 2:15. We had a better view of the Dolomites. After a rest we walked down.
We were going to take a different way down. The map we had was not very detailed. We weren't sure where we were, but knew if we kept going straight it would bring us to the wrong spot. We decided to take this dirt road down into the valley, because we knew we needed to be on the other side.
We made our way down into these steep woods that brought us down to someone's driveway. There were three little boys playing. They must have thought it strange for these two old women walking down out of these woods. The driveway took us to a road that told us which direction to head in. We had a long road walk from there.
I ran out of water, but I kept thinking we would be there soon. We finally found a road that we were on earlier. We still had quite a ways to go.
I saw a trail called "P" which I knew was by our house. I talked Laurie into taking it, but shortly afterward realized it was the wrong "P" trail. We walked back to where the trail split and continued on.
Once again I saw another "P" trail and said this has to be the one! We started down. It was very steep. After descending quite aways I said I am wrong again. We were walking in the dark. Good thing I had my head lamp. I felt so bad. We were both tired and just wanted to get there and we didn't need to do any extra walking. We turned around and hiked back to where the trail separated. We walked down the road and it took us only twenty minutes. We arrived back at the apartment at 8:30. We were both very tired and could hardly walk. Laurie thinks we hiked over 20 miles. I can't venture a guess. I just know it was a very long day and I was glad to be home. For awhile I didn't know if we would ever find home.
I cooked rice. We were going to have salad, hamburgers and rice, but we were both too tired to cook and eat. We just had cheese and crackers, rice, and ice cream.
I layed on the couch and watched "Face Off" in Italian. "Face Off" is a movie with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage. I had seen it before, but I would like to see it again in English because I don't remember the beginning of it.
I went to bed at 11:30. A late night for me.
