Wine Fest 2006

N & J went to the jousting tournament, whilst M lay dying of the flu on the lounge. N's favourite knight from last year was no where to be seen, so she picked a new favourite...the knight in the green.

It is the local wine festival celebrating the first wines from this years crop and dates back to medieval times. It has stalls selling young wine, sweets and crafts. They reinact events and competitions, so not only jousts but sword fights, dances, music and medieval tortures.

Colorado Take 2

Had dinner tonight at Dahab with Paul (Colleague and friend of Michelle's from Colorado). Service was a bit slow because they were filming in the restaurant. They had a band playing(Egyptian sounding)...which was very loud...but atmospheric.

Little Micheluzzi - Grade 14 (300m)

MP & RA arrived at the base of the cliff at 9:30am after fighting off ill-tempered marmots guarding the base of the cliff. By the time we had our gear on & ready to start another guide turned up with a punter & was off lot a shot ! Good for us as we could follow, right ? Well following Italian guides had it's scary bits. On the 3rd pitch we saw the guide waltz up the arete & disappear around the corner with not much gear in place. Oh well, looks easier enough and it was except MP was pretty nervous going around the corner 100+ metres above the ground with a psycho thread for projection. We survived & settled our nerves by RA romping up the 4th pitch with no gear in place. 5th pitch was a nice traverse across into a single piton belay - oh joy. Then pitch 6 was the crux with good exposure stepping out of cave with 200m of air below - great stuff I (MP) must say. The pitch curved in a reverse 'C' to end up above the original cave - again, single piton. 6th pitch was the best in MPs mind. 7th pitch was another 40+ metres of grade 13/14 to final solid belay piton. We then scrambled up the grassy slope the meet the descent track. Took another 2 hours to descend to the car - narrow exposed track, via Ferrata in some places, couple of abseils & march down the scree slope. Not fun ! Back at the car at 3:30pm ! (we thought it was about 1:30pm - lol - fat slow old bastards). The evening consisted of re-hydrating & re-fuelling (two pizzas & 1 pasta for MP).

Dolomites - The Rest

Well, it's been left to the master ! M of course !

The evening of Sunday, 27th we attended Colletts speech on 'via Ferratas'. Nothing special except listening to two old codgers from England mumbling away that this trip was the first time they've seen camming devices & that these whipper snappers haven't heard of hemp ropes before. We all laughed as we'll be like this one day !

Monday we were all pumped up to do our first via Ferrata (Piz Da Cir V, 2a) with kids in tow. Over to Passo Gardena above Corvara. We all managed to make it to the base of where the cable started, then we stopped - big mistake. This allowed the kids to watch others & get cold. They all started to whinge & get scared. So MP&RA&MD reversed back with the kids whilst J continued on with the rest of the Colletts group. MP&RA helped MD take the kids back down to the walking track then hoofed it back to the starting point again. Jumped on the wire & romped up to the top, going over the top of anyone in the way - Italian style !


Getting geared up for the Ferrata.


Left - route.
Right - descent.



Tuesday morning the whole tribe took the Arabba cable car (8 EUR each) to the top to do a walk called 'Viel Del Pan'. Saw lots animals (marmots, goats etc) along the way but the highlight was a eagle called a 'Lammergeier (maybe)'.



































Lammergeier ?






Wednesday M&J&R decided to go climbing. We jumped in the car, 40 minutes of extreme winding roads into the snow zone ! Oh my god, freezing - zero degrees when we got out of the car with about another minus 5 wind chill factor. No way in hell were we climbing today. So we walked up to the areas we thought we might climb another day. After a few hours we spotted Little Micheluzzi (see next post) & decided this was for us. We wandered up to the route and found poeple climbing - was out of wind and getting good sun.

R & J watching people on the climb.







Thursday RA & MD kindly looked after N so M&J could go and do another via Ferrata called

Tridentina (grade 3, serious, B)
Ascent 750m, including 400m of cable.
Descent 750m, took almost 2 hours to come back down.
The start was 10 minutes walk from the car park & the descent gully finished at the same car park which really makes this a popular route. M&J really enjoyed the outing & kept good speed all the way, only to be over taken by a lone fit older Italian gentleman.
Overall, it took us 6 hours - 3.5 for the climb, 0.5 at Rifugio, 2 to get down.



M on Tridentina




















Friday MP & RA went to climb Little Micaheluzzi - see next post. J was a little tired & didn't want to go.

Saturday we all headed to Lagazuoi WW I tunnels. Up the big scary cable car, then down through the tunnels back to the original car park. About 3 hours with the kids.























Machine gun position.






On Sunday, we packed up, jumped in the car & drove straight to Marco Polo airport in about 2. 5 hours. Home in Prague for dinner.

Dolomites - Day #1

Midday Sunday, August 27th we arrived at Arraba.

Grabbed the keys from Colletts (the agency that organised accommodation & seem to have a monopoly on the town) and mosied on down to 'El Tabia' - our mountain house for the week.

We had the middle floor & the Adams family the top including the attic in the pitch of the roof for the kids.


750 pounds for the 3 of us for 7 days. Pretty expensive but who cares - right in the middle of the Dolomites.

South-West view from our balcony.













Northern aspect

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom to the Dolomites via Belluno

Peugeot 407 SW - lovely to drive & very comfortable.

467 EUR for 7 days including full insurance & zero excess. We drove everyday & only needed 50 EUR to fill the tank.

Grabbed it from Marco Polo airport & drove to Belluno (about 1 hour away from Venice towards Dolomites).

We pottered around Belluno town centre for a few hours & headed for hotel Mirella. The hotel was small, quaint & off the beaten track. Ruggero was the owner & was very welcoming. We opened a bottle of Italian white wine & settled into the hammocks in the adjourning park area. Ruggero had closed the restaurant to the public & only served guests which was fantastic. He made up the menu on the spot, whipped out the back & cooked up a feast including fresh pasta.

On leaving the hotel the next morning, Rugerro mentioned he'd had enough of Italy, the immigrants & beaucracy. He's decided to leave Italy for good - he thought somewhere in Asia would be a nice fresh start. We wished him well and headed off.

Venice - Day #3

The main goal for Day 3 was the Doges Palace...and prison...attached by the Bridge of Sighs (the bridge that prisoners would travel over to be interrogated in the Doges court). Casanova was a famous inmate and escapee of the prison.

Our Restaurant in Venice

Our favourite restaurant was 'al Ponte del Megio' on Santa Croce - very close to our hotel. Traditional Venetian cuisine, without any surprise extra charges. N was even given a red rose by a passing rose seller...and we were serenaded by musicians.

Venice - Day #2

Off to see the Basilica of San Marco, patron saint of Venice. Second only to Theodore - what historical twat - lol.

We rocked up about 10am after a long breakfast (still no bags) to find the lines into the Basilica quite short. Only one bag of corn later & purchasing the 'ciao bella' modesty t-shirt to cover N's shoulders & we're in!


Just inside the Basilica you ascend into the museum where you can look down to the nave of the church(so much gold it glistens). You could sit at this viewing platform all day and not take in every mosaic scene, with their intricate details. There are subtle colour changes on each face using tiny tiles to depict shadows or contours on faces. From the museum you can walk outside onto the Basilica balcony for a fantastic view of the piazza.


This was a major tourist attraction, large one litre beers, to pull in the customers. We all sat there watching the Nigerian hawkers selling Gucci handbags and their secret signals to pack up quick and beat the local fuzz (or was it the Italian mafia?)

Refreshed by liquid sustenance we trekked on to Tintoretto's home and the Madonna dell'Orto nearby which houses his tomb and many of his art works.

Venice - Day #1

Casual midday trip to Venice, all was going well til we hit Venice baggage & J's big backpack with all J & N's clothes doesn't turn up. Bugger ! Oh well, give them the hotel details & off we chooff to find our hotel - that will be easy ;-)

Dead wrong, 2 minutes walking into Venice streets & we're lost. All the bloody names are the same with a few letters that are different. Three or four mobile calls later we arrive at the quaint hotel of http://www.albergomarin.it/. 100 EUR per night with breakfast. Dump the remaining bag, give the lost baggage details to the front desk & we're off exploring the murky depths of the seedy canals of Venice.


We were only 2 minutes walk from one of the main canals & water bus stops - Ferrovia. Since we had 3 days in Venice we bought 3-day pass for all of us at 25 EUR each. Then did a big loop around to San Marco Square.

San Marco - smaller than you think, maybe because of the cafes and their rows of tables & full of pigeons (which were introduced to Venice by the Hapsburgs). For 1 EUR you can buy a bag of corn that the pigeons love - they jump all over you trying to eat it !


We dawdled through the winding alley ways past the Ferrari shop (N wanted a shirt with the famous wild stallion - no luck, fast cars & fast women - bad vibes) until we reached one of the many venetian mask shops.

N took 3 days to decide which one she wanted with frills on the bottom.

Took 30 minutes to wander back to the hotel. Still no bag for J & N ! Maybe tomorrow.

We're back .......... more too come !