Lago Como

It was transfer week.  20 missionaries coming and and a large group going home. The arriving missionary group was large enough that we held their welcome dinner at the restaurant.  But the departing missionaries we hosted at our apartment and served them dinner on our large patio.  Peggy made lasagna and the weather was wonderful.  There were no mosquitoes and it was not too hot.  We were fortunate that the Keeffers had arrived and we put them to work helping and serving the dinner.  It turned out wonderful.

Friday we decided to show the Keffers Lake Como  We parked the car and road the slow ferry boat up the lake.  Lake Como shoreline is full of Large old villas.  The boat ride was relaxing and stopped at many of the towns along the way.

The villa where Anikan Skywalker married Padme

We got off the ferry boat in Tremezzo and had lunch at my favorite restaurant  Of course I had the smoked salmon and arugula penne.  It was fabulous.  We then wandered around for a while and caught the next ferry to go across the lake to Bellagio.

In Bellagio I saw this watering dish for tourist dogs.

After wandering around Bellagio for an hour or so we went back to the boat dock.  The next boat out was a fast boat that cost an extra several euros.  We took it and were back in Como in 30 minutes. We then drove to Lecco at the south east end of the lake.

The Lecco Bell Tower

One of the shops had these purses that were decorated as rotary phones.

Lecco Bell tower and Centro Lecco

Classic photo of Lecco and the shoreline and mountain backdrop.

Seven Swans a Swimming

Brixen

After driving down, we followed this valley north, and then west and finally into the town of Brixen.  While it is in Italy, there are several sets of missionaries here from the German Alpine mission.

The Brixen town piazza

We visited the cathedral.  And then went to the cloister that had fabulous paintings on the ceilings .(No pictures allowed).

The Cathedral doors.  

We knew we had a long drive ahead of us to get home. So we decided to find a place to eat.  We were in the Tyrol and were looking for some Brautwurst.  We walked by a restaurant that was busy and the sign said it was a wursthaus.  So we went in and found that they only have wurst on Tuesdays.  I had a pizza and Peg had pasta.

After eating we walked along this street that had statues of people looking in the store windows.

We drove back through the backroads home.  Through miles and miles of apple orchards.  Even though we were not hungry, we passed a food truck that advertised wurst.  I stopped and we got some.  They were just foot long hot dogs.  The drive home was long. - 5 to 6 hours over 3 moutain passes and finally through Sondrio and Morbegno and Lecco and home.  It was a fabulous Birthday weekend.

Dolomiti

The next morning we got up, had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel and headed for the dolimiti.  We headed south for about 6 miles and came upon thousands of mountain bikes - they were going in every direction, coming and going. going up to the top of a mountain pass and coming down. We understand that they were part of "Giro di Dolimiti".  Strange thing was they were all on paved roads.

After turning east and going up and over a mountain pass, we dropped down into a lovely valley.

Diving north along this valley were great towns, green hill sides, a bike trail along the stream for 30 - 40 miles and gorgeous mountains

A beautiful church in the valley

And the mountains up above.

The towns were beautiful.  I could easily spend a week here and love every minute.

The further we drove, the bigger the mountains

It was great!

There were mountains, chair lifts, and gondolas in every direction

We began to climb and get closer to this mountain.

Then on the other side we saw this one.

Then over another pass to see these

And finally these as we were heading down the mountain.

Ortisei

We left Bolzano and decided to drive about 45 minutes up to Ortisei, an alpine village up in the mountains before you get the magnificent Dolimiti

It had just stopped raining as we came out of the steep canyon and the valley began to spread out.

Interesting tree / bush that I have never seen before.

This sculpture was next to the church.  It appears that this was once a mining town.

A very nice fountain next to the church.

Here is the church

Inside the church the organist was practicing.  It sounded great!

interesting knocker

The mountains around the village were very nice.

a wonderful covered bridge

We then began to walk down through town

This town is known for its wood carvings.  Here is wood carving of a wood carver.

in front of this hotel were two giant happy mice to welcome the guests

This sculpture in the middle of the street has a princess, prince and dragon.

Around the corner was this wonderful miniature clock tower 

They had a festival of some type going on.  We got some wienersnitzle and potato salad that was great.  But the hit was these two old guys playing and singing Tyrolean folk songs. On several of the songs everyone would join in the singing.  I had no idea what the words were.  They were speaking mostly German here.

Nice waterfalls

After dinner we dove up the road some more to get a better look at the mountains.  The clouds were low and it was difficult to see them.  We then drove back to Bolzano to our Hotel for the night

Bolzano

Next we drove north to Bolzano

We stayed off the autostrade so we could better see the scenery.  Here is a fabulous castle right on the mountain side.

The mountains got bigger and more beautiful

The side road we were on went up the side of the valley a ways and we came to this beautiful little village

It has a castle

And lovely quaint little streets

We drove into Bolzano and found a parking garage.  When we came up the stairs from the parking garage we were right in the middle of the town piazza.  We found a restaurant and had a great late lunch.  I had smoked salmon pasta - my favorite.  Next door was this toy store with a animated bear that was blowing bubbles.  The kids loved it!

Here is a very nice door

But take a closer look as see how the door is fit against the stone pillar. Very nice custom work.

Bolzano had a Neptune statue also!

Bolzano is the home of "The Ice Man"  An ancient man that was frozen on the top of a mountain pass in a glacier.  About 20 years ago they found him perfectly preserved.  We saw the actual Ice Man  through a window as he was lying down in a freezer.  This is an actual sized replica of what he looked like when we died in a storm and was trapped for thousands of years.

We came back to the centro piazza.  Very nice.

From the town piazza you can see the Duomo across the street.

Here is a very interesting building

In the town piazza was a Tyrolean guy playing the zither.  He even had bells on his toes.