We're trying to go a bit more native these days. Last weekend, instead of making Iron Skillet Cornbread (one of my favorites, we decided to make Cream Scones for breakfast. We served them with Double Thick Clotted Cream and Jam.
After a long cold dark winter, spring is finally coming to London. It has been the coldest winter on record in London for 20 years. We've had snow, ice, frost, cold, and lots of rain. As someone put it, "I never knew 45 degrees could feel so warm".
Our last day in Italy began as a hazy overcast day.
We packed our bags, and carried them down to where the Snowmobiles were waiting to take them down to our car.
Everything at the lodge is brought up and down via the snowmobiles. It was an exciting, albeit, cold way to start the day. I dropped the bags off at the car, and went back up to the lodge to meet Tony for Breakfast. I had my last macchiato with the nice hostess who had made them for us each day. I learned to ask her for the same thing by saying, "Das gleich".
I paid for the hotel expense, and Tony and I rode the Snowmobiles back down the mountain to the car one last time. I was a little sad to leave, but I know that I would love to return here to ski again someday.
As our flight wasn't leaving until 3:55 in the afternoon, we decided to drive into historic Innsbruck and look around.
I know some people say that the Germans are not as organized or efficient as they would like the world to think, but it certainly looks that way from my perspective.
I'm sad that Alan and Wendy were unable to join us, and that as all vacations, it has to end so that my strange work/vacation in London can resume. I need to remember to think of my life as one big vacations filled with amazing sites and experiences wherever I am.
Another beautiful day in Italy. Though today we ecided to go across the border into Switzerland. The resort we're at is soooo large, that it encompasses 12 different resort developements that share the Dolomite Superpass that we bought.
There is this stunning massive cracked mountain over there, that looms over the resort. Tony and I took the lifts as far out as we could go, and found this cool "speed trap" run that would clock your speed. I managed to crack 78 kilometers an hour, and Tony got up to 80. Darn him.
As the lifts had closed, the only way up to the hotel is via the snowmobiles. This evening however, they had a large passenger Snowcat waiting at the parking lot. It turned out that a large Italian Seniors group was having a dinner party at the downstairs restaurant at the hotel. Tony and I rode up in the snowcat with the loudest group of men and fur clad women. Tony joked that he'd not seen this much mink ever. I don't think I've seen that much either.
That night for our final dinner at the hotel we had another wonderful meal including Beef Goulash, Spaetzle, and the best Apfel Strudel I had on the trip. A good way to end our wonderful ski outing.
We woke to a crystal bluebird sky, sun, and a light dusting of fresh snow everywhere. It is the type of day that skiers dream about. AMAZING! 
We'd seen a whole other area on the map that we hadn't touched. It didn't look that big, so I figured we hit it for the morning, then come back to the awesome slopes by the hotel and hang out for the afternoon. Little did I know. 
We skied out to a great valley called Colfosco. It was here that a nice German explained that we were off our normal map, and needed to look at the larger Dolomite map we had.
It turns out that the Dolomites are a series of resort towns all gathered around this giant central mountain.
Our Dolomites SuperSki pass is good for all of them, and they are all connected by a series of lifts and runs that makeup a giant loop trail called the Sella Ronda. There were vast runs and resorts that lay far beyond that area of Val Gardena where we are staying.
We decided to take a break for Hot Cioccolates and a piece of Apfel Studel at this cute lodge called the Refugio Edelweiss Hutte (a blending of Italian and German words). The view was to die for. In fact all the views were astounding. I've skied a lot of resorts, and this is the most gigantic amazing beautiful place ever!
We decided that we'd come this far, so we might as well go for the Sella Ronda.
We took numerous chair lifts, gondolas, and trams that carried us untold vertical feet, and gave us one of the greatest skiing days I've ever had.
One of the great things about skiing Italy is, as you would expect, the food. We stopped for lunch in this cute little town called Arabba, where we had Hofbrau House Weissbier. I had a plate of Spaghetti Carbonara, and Tony had a Barley and Smoked Bacon soup. Both were fantastic. It is also fortunate that at the base and top of every lift there is a conveniently placed lodge where one can stop for a snack or an espresso for energy. And the views are enticing enough to make you want to stop just to enjoy them.
We made our way around the mountain, and eventually the welcome site of our hotel came into view. We were both quite spent and had more than earned our apres-ski
Tonight we are looking forward to a dinner including Lasagna al Forno, Chicken with Speck (bacon) and Tiramisu. I love this place!
We woke to a partly cloudy sky and panoramic view of the Dolomites. It was stunning.
Yes, in typical German/Austrian efficiency, we had been assigned a table the night before without even realizing it. To quote the great British line, "Sorry". The couple whose table we stole gave us dirty looks, but didn't say anything to the rude and brash Americans. We enjoyed croissants and nutella, some sliced meats and cheese and enjoyed our breakfast and view. I had a fantasitic Italian espresso machiatto.
Tony and I looked over the trail map of the mountain. It is MASSIVE. We won't be able to ski this place in one day - let alone three. In hind site we had NO IDEA how HUGE this place is. We wouldn't get an understanding of that until tomorrow.
In order to get our 3 day passes, Tony and I needed to ski down to the Ski Pass office in town. It was easily a good mile or two.
Thankfully it was a beautiful downhill series of runs. We felt very fortunate to be in such an amazing place.
The runs are groomed nightly, and are absolutely fabulous. Most are easy to intermediate with few really challenging runs, and the ski lifts are almost all detachable. There are also many gondolas, and they have one huge tram. We'd later learn that throughout the mountain, there are several trams. I can only imagine how many people this resort is built to handle, but for the most part, there were almost no lines, and the runs were not crowded at all! I'd come back here again easy!
We took the gondola to the top, and admired the amazing scenery. It is unbelievable how beautiful this place is.
The food is great too. We had a Hot Cioccolate as a pick me up, and then later had pizza while sitting on a deck on what looked like the top of the world. I've seen some amazing pasta dishes that I can't wait to try.
The hotel also has a spa, so I went down there to steam and clear my sinuses before dinner. We then attempted to use the WiFi and Skype to talk to family and friends back home. The signal wasn't very strong, so we had to go down into the bar/restaurant to use it. I managed to reach my parents in Arizona briefly, but it was difficult keeping a solid connection so we eventually gave up.
We had a wonderful dinner of entrecote, homemade pasta with venison, pumpkin soup and mushroom polenta and retired to bed. I fell asleep dreaming of Big Snow the next day. I had no idea how much there would be!
