Skating On No Ice

We knew that Europe has had a very warm New Year's with rains washing away most of December's snow but that hadn't really affected us until today. We ventured higher up into the mountains (bus 165!) which should have been covered by snow at this time of year but which looked more like a spring day according to the locals. Our afternoon activity of ice-skating was unfortunately a no-go as both the natural lake was not frozen, and the artificial outdoor rink was non operational as ti was too warm. 

We did, however, have an amazing morning experience tasting apple juice at Kohls! We were the only ones there and the surrounding area was pretty dead. It was also a little bit of a schlep to get there but the experience was unique and we all enjoyed it! This would probably be a better experience in the summer when combined with a hike. We booked a "PURE enjoyment package" through Teresa, the travel planner mentioned in our earlier posts, which included a brief tour of the apple farm, the factory floor as well as a tasting of their 6 single variety apple juices. The cynics in us questioned just how different apple juices could taste from each other. We were happy to be proven very wrong! Even the children could taste the unique quality of each variety. The flavour of the apple juices were also very intense. Sophie, our guide and also the marketing manger, was very generous with her pours! She also kindly included a tasting of one of their "blends" - apple juice and hops. Also surprisingly delicious! We thought it would taste like beer but it did not, in fact the family consensus was that it had hints of lychees! The proof of how much we loved it came in the 6 bottles of apple juice that we purchased to take home, as well as the fact that the kids wanted to buy it as gifts for their friends!

Beautiful views even from the bus

Apple juice tasting time!

An apple named after Elliot AND Jonah!?!

Yes very dead looking apple trees as it is winter. But they were trees not grapevines! Usually all this would be covered in snow...

Factory floor

Red apple juice! From an apple variety aptly called Rouge. The most "sour" almost has a rhubarb taste

Onto juice number 2, the kids favourite, Gravensteiner

With ice-skating off the agenda, the rest of the afternoon was making our way back down to Bolzano using various scenic transportation options all include in our museomobil card. First up the Rittner Bahn. In summer there are many hikes that start from the various stops. We used it to get to Sopra Bolzano where we took the modern gondola down the mountain. The original railway went all the way to Bolzano. With an early return home, we took the opportunity to wander the shops, repack for the next major leg of our trip (ski safari), have some currywurst for dinner and chill. 

Edited to add: The apartment was advertised to have a washing machine but the laundry room was no longer available for use! The owners were apologetic and ended up doing our laundry for free. Bonus that it came back all folded. Yay!

We hopped on the 165 all the way up to the end of the line. The station for the Rittner Bahn was there

1907 narrow gauge railway

Spectacular views of the Dolomites

Lunch stop. The hot chocolates now taste like Swiss Miss!

Typical South Tyrol "toasted sandwich"

Give the man beer and sausage and he is happy

Hopping off the Rittner Bahn and onto the gondola (stations right next to each other)

Picture of the gondola

Looking down at Bolzano in the valley. And an appreciate of just how high we were!

Bolzano

Bolzano

With our whirlwind eastward travel completed, it was time to head north. Our destination was Bolzano, capital of South Tyrol and gateway to the Dolomites. We started to see luggage change to include ski gear. The signage were now in both Italian and German, and there was a distinctive German feel in the old town. For one, sausages now seem to be commonplace! Bolzano has a long complicated history. We'll summarise by saying that it has both German/Austrian influence from the north as well as Italian from the south. It was part of the Austrian empire from 1813 and was only formally part of Italy from 1918.

We opted to take 2 trains with a change in Verona rather than the direct train to give us an extra 4 hours in Bolzano. Fortunately for us, the trains ran to time and we didn't have to change platforms! We dumped our bags at our apartment in the medieval city centre and set about to find lunch. We thought we'd try something non-pasta non-pizza and visited Schnitzelhaus. It was good without being great, and at least it was good value!

What one does when one has a spare 15 minutes in between trains. Practice "using the force" photos

Our apartment. The 3 windows above the bistro on the right

The apartment has lovely owners. They were responsive and let us put our luggage in whilst it was still being cleaned and gave us the keys then and there

The spacious living area

Bedroom 1. The beds were really comfortable

Only one bathroom but the toilet is split 

Schnitzel

Everything was in both Italian and German. If you're lucky in English too!

Next was a date with Otzi the Iceman. Well...we should have made a specific booking for the date. Seemed like we had dropped many balls this trip. Must be out of practice! We did not realise that reservations were separate to tickets. The confusion came from the fact that we had bought a museomobil card. To cut a long story short, we did NOT make reservations and timed reservations were gone for the day by the time we realised. To our horror, we saw a long standby line. Fortunately for us, we only had to wait 25 minutes to be allowed in. So...if coming in the busier summer months, do make a reservation on the website . This is separate to the entry ticket itself which can be purchased onsite at the ticket desk (as soon as you enter after waiting your turn in line). Alternatively, entry is free if you have the museomibil card. Just show your card at the ticket desk and they will print you a ticket for entry. 

With the minor panic moment out of the way...we actually enjoyed the Otzi museum. They probably let more people in than they should have, which we were grateful for as it meant we had a shorter wait, but it meant that it was very full inside. Despite that, the musuem was well done. It actually got us interested into who Otzi was, how he died and why he was important. Definitely something to visit in Bolzano!

Lining up to meet Otzi!

The man (well recreated) himself. The original frozen version can also be viewed but no photos were allowed

That's not my caveman

With a combo card, came the need to maximise the value of purchasing the card. So we utilised Bolzano's good public transport system to bus our way to Schloss Runkelstein or Castel Roncolo in Italian. Famous for having the largest secular medieval frescoes, it was a case of the bourgeois wanting to be on equal footing with the nobles. Construction began in 1937 and the castle was a lot prettier than we expected and quite fun to explore in the 10 minutes that we had to explore it! We arrived at 1640, ten minutes past the last entry of 1630 before closure at 1700. Then came the hard work of walking up a steep path to get to the castle. By the time we ran (with difficulty) up and got to the ticket counter it was past 1645. The kind man at the desk said, be fast you have 10 minutes. Grazie and danke! It was great as there was only one other couple there. Unfortunately the downside was that we didn't really have time to read about all the various things that we were looking at. Fortunately, we were there at the right time to view a beautiful sunset looking down the valley into the township of Bolzano.

Yay a gate! Nope keep going up

Made it! If the kids said it was tiring then it was tiring!

It literally was just snap and keep walking

No that's not an ewok. That's me in my Mickey beanie

This is THE bus that took up and down the mountain. Bus 12 in case you were interested

Back home and time for dinner at the bistro below

Very cosy and nice decor

My gin based berry aperitif

Meat, potato and polenta stew