Ich bin dann mal weg - off we go - doei doei

It is time to say goodbye. We all pack or bags, get our hiking shoes on and go. The only difference: my backpack is very light as I packed only very few water and I'm not wearing my knee bands today. Because while the others keep on walking to Venice, I am done with it. My walk is a 10 minutes walk to the station where I take a train and then bus to my hotel in Jesolo. A quick hug for everyone and then our ways part. This is it? It felt very weird! I made my way to the hotel in roughly 2 hours and was happy with my decision for this hotel. But unfortunately I was not happy with leaving my hiking group. I rested a bit at the hotel and then packed my little backpack and made my way to the beach. Arriving there I was still sad. I missed the wonderful people I had met and regretted I couldn't be with them. I still don't have that 'I need to make it to the Markusplatz by foot' feeling as I hadn't started in Munich on the Marienplatz (or Sweden). But I would have love...

As you may have guessed, my plan did not really work out. First what wasn't as I wanted: Jesolo beach. The part of the track, 1 day walk away from Venice, that is on the beach. In my head it was a beautiful, quiet beach. Well, everyone who has been to a north Italian beach knows that this is bullshit. Looking at places to stay I could only find tourist places. with prices up to 900 euro per night! So I already got frustrated and didn't want to spend my last 2 nights in this tourist trap. Well, then we started walking as every morning. It was beautiful slightly hilly wine/prosecco area. Only it was already very hot in the morning. So I was looking forward to a nice lunch place and then a bus further. Again, in my head I had this romantic winery where we would do lunch and hang out and then an easy bus to wherever I want. Nope. The lunch place we found was nice, but could have been in my hometown. Nothing special, just a place to eat and drink. When I looked at how woo get to th...

This is it! Not only have I been hiking for 3 weeks now, but I also finished my last mountain. And every meter I had fought myself up yesterday we had to go down today. I really have to say that hiking doesn't fit with my efficiency principle! (some of you may call it lazyness). In total we went 1600m down today. In the Italian sun. 5-6 hours hiking. Anyways. I've made it. And there were still some amazing views back on the Dolomites, some even swear they could see the ocean already (I still think it was a cloud). And the treat I've got at the end oft he day was a beautiful place to stay. Described in the book as reminding of a venetian palace, expectations were high - and met! I loved it. Beautiful place, beautiful setting, great dinner. And not only because my standards got really low. You don't know how you appreciate your private bathroom and sleeping without a sleeping bag (Hüttenschlafsack) after 3 weeks :-) The only minus point: mosquitoes! I had been surprised,...

How did this happen? Most of the people we met on the way already stopped their journey - most of them planned, some of them unplanned. And I am still hiking! Again, I missed my way out in Belluno. Even though I had decided to fly back from Venice, Belluno would have been a great option to stop hiking. 2 hours by train to Venice and then enjoy the sun and maybe beach for a couple of days. But here I am again. Putting my hiking shoes, my knee straps and my backpack on and go challenge the last mountain on the way. Most people don't speak very nicely of this mountain, as it has ugly antennas on top. Right next to these ugly antennas however there is a nice little hut with amazing views: back to the Dolomites that we just had hiked through, and forward, when it is good weather they say you can even see Venice already. The day was full off annoying steep parts and acceptable steep parts. 1600m up.  After roughly 5-6 hours of sweating, enjoying and hating it we made it to the top. The ...

Finally I got my rest day! No hiking at all! I don't know how it happened, suddenly it was there. Our couple had decided to leave back home from Belluno, as many others do. The mountains are basically over, from here you can do one more peak, the other 5-6 days to Venice are in the flat. So the four of us booked our 'luxury' business hotel for the second night, and Jeanette and Alex packed their bags to go home. We brought them to the train station and waited for them to figure out how. Sitting in front of the station waiting, a car turns up and 4 other hikers we had met on the way got out! We thought we had missed them for good as they were ahead of us and wanted to finish in Belluno as well. But they had done the tricky part which we had skipped (we had gained 1-2 days by skipping). Some of them had the Klettersteig equipment or hired it. Some were plain crazy doing it without. Maybe I will come back one day with the right equipment and experience to do it as well, it de...

As said, we hade made the decision to not decide anything yet. We would walk to the lunch place,  Pramperet, and then see it from there. Hike further over the mountains and descend the next day, stay here or descend today. They day started off the same as the ones before. Hot, hot, hot. Even walking on a car road for a bit. Then up, up, up. You can guess most of it by now. I really enjoyed our lunch place. The staff was very nice and relaxed, maybe due to the reggae music that was playing.  Then, without a lot of discussion we decided to descend directly, the clouds seemed like the weather forecast was coming true this time. So 2.5 hours going down, the knees love it. I was again so tired that at one point I needed music. I had no clue where my headphones were, so I just turned on my speakers. I didn't care anymore.  And it helped! When the rain started we were nearly running towards the village and the bus stop (at least us girls). We found the bus stop, but unfortunat...

Not sure what to write today. We had planned another short day as again the weather forecast was bad for the afternoon. So we hiked 4 hours to the lunch place through the beautiful Dolomites in unbearable heat/humidity. Unfortunately that brings me back to suffer and suffer like on day 1, so I don't really have proof of it (too tiredto take pictures). But we have already agreed to share pictures in the group, so I'm sure I will get them later. At the lunch place the group waited for me and then we needed to wait further 30 minutes until 12 to get something to eat. Sometimes it is stupid to be fast. Then another one hour hike to our destination, Refugio San Sebastiano. Unfortunately they didn't get our reservation so we had to wait 30 minutes to see if they had enough space for us. Luckily Hermann and his 4 friends had never confirmed their reservation so we got their beds. In the end we didn't understand the fuzz at all as the hotel was and stayed half empty. However,...

Today we again had planned a short day for our sick participant & because the forecast said thunderstorm in the afternoon. 4 hours is a nice distance, I am very happy with that. The day started with a nice easy up and down. We passed a beautiful lake, but as it was early and not really warm yet no one felt like swimming. Then it was decision time again: a 'little' detour (300 up) to get to a hut where we could do a rest. Parts of the group are doing the Munich-Venice geocache and there was a hint up there. So we go - despite the burning sun that had come out. As you may have guessed, I started to hate it before we were halfway up and was exhausted when we arrived. The second part of the day I first 'ran' with the others and then realised that it is stupid to do that in the heat and especially on a short hike. So I took my time and enjoyed the rest of the route. The only two scary parts: right while I was walking through a crowd of cows (I especially don't like ...

Today's hike was described very differently in the 2 books we have. Mine says it is a pity that a lot of people skip this walk and take a bus. The other books says: it is not worth doing it, stupid way down, next to a road or through ski tourism area. We didn't want to skip again and started to walk. The first hour was nice, along a lake and with good weather. Then the decline got really bad and we walked more and more along not so beautiful places filled with ski lifts. When we arrived at a part where you had to pay 3 euros per person, because they made a tourist attraction out of the way and the sun was burning down on us, we decided to stop with this bullshit. Unfortunately we had just missed the bus, the next one comes in 3 hours. So we decided to call a taxi for the 6 of us. Guess what, they are on a lunch break! We used the break as well for a pizza that everyone was craving since entering Italy, but the huts never have. When driving to the next place, Alleghe, we were ha...

As you may remember, we had considered to get up 1 hour before sunrise and go to the top of Piz Boe top see sunrise from the highest peak in the area. Somehow we never talked about this again. After breakfast we left and made it up to the peak in 40 minutes (Wohoo me). And it was stunning. The describe the area around our hut from last night like being on the moon and you could see that again from the top.  Plus everything else. After a tea at the peak hut (where we met everyone again who had made their way up there yesterday evening) and a visit to the WC Alpinistico (a toilet with a view) we made our way down again. As most others we had decided to trade additional 2 hours steep going down to another 20 minutes going back up to the cable car. And guess who we met there? Our Swedish friends! As we had agreed to meet up in a place not too far from where they were they had taken the cable car up to enjoy the view and make a lazy day. Great to see them again. After some socialising ...