6/26 Castle Andrez/ Passo Falzarego/ Cortina/ Passo Tre Croci

I think we are due for a day off. After another wonderful day on the bikes doing a 90mile or so loop out of Corvara, Dad and I are both admittedly tired and ready to take a bit of a break. We will see what tomorrow brings, but we are talking about taking a gondola up one of the mountains and taking a high country hike thru the Dolomites.

Dad mentioned this evening as we were walking around town that, in some respects the trip has been a little bit overwhelming. We have seen a lot of country and have put in many hours in the saddle. The views we have taken in, the endless tight turns we have cornered and the incredible passes we have crested have finally caught up with us. It’s time to let the bikes and our butts take a rest.

When I woke and looked out my window this morning I was surprised to see a mountain bike race taking place on the road below. It did not looked like it would impede our travel plans at all, but it was very cool to see all the bikers coming in large packs up the road. Tomorrow is also the Sellaronda Bike Day here in the Corvara area and according to Dirk some 10,000 road cyclists will be out on the roads, so they close 4 or 5 of the major passes for 6 hours to motorized traffic. Another excuse to take a hike.

We took a right immediately out of the La Fontana which puts you on the Passo Campolongo which I can see the bends of from my hotel room window. This was a very mellow pass which winds up thru high valley fields which are ski runs in the winter. We were stopped near the top for the bike race to pass thru and continued down towards Arraba. It seemed like there were thousands of cyclists on the road and there may in fact have been. In Arraba we were stopped one last time for the race and then left a lot of both the bicycle and motorcycle traffic behind us. Dad thought we were on the “Dolomite Road” (it sounds better in Italian) which is kind of like a Blue Ridge Parkway thru the mountains. As we headed up a forested pass, we could see the remains of a very old castle to our left. Fortunately we found the access road and were able to go right down to it. It was very excited as this was a “smelling of the roses” moment my Mother really wanted us to have.

It was the ruins of the Castle Andrez which was believed to date back to 1000AD. For close to 400 years it was a major defense outpost and area of political significance. What was so fascinating about the structure was that it was literally built on top of and around a natural rock outcropping. This added to the castle’s strength and it was apparently only overtaken once in a long siege after supplies inside had been depleted. It had been rebuilt after a few fires and eventually abandoned in the 1600’s as the area became less important politically. Castle Andrez has been undergoing more recent renovations with the hope of turning it into a museum but unfortunately many of the gates to take you inside the structure were locked. We were able to walk around the grounds and some of the more exposed parts of the infrastructure but were unable to see the inside. It was still very cool.

Just a few miles up we ascended the Passo Falzerego which we had come by the other day. We backtracked that direction about a mile as I wanted to take some pictures of the amazing boulder field at the top of the pass. Imagine if it had rained Hummer sized white boulders on a steep green hillside and you will get some impression of what this area looked like. It was something out of Lord of the Rings. Dad stayed with the bikes and I climbed up just a bit for a better perspective. It was incredibly steep and the scree was very sharp and in all my bike gear I was soon completely out of breath and could not go as far as I had hoped I'd be able to. I was still afforded an incredible view of the boulder field and somewhere behind me I could hear voices in the far distance. I turned around to face the huge vertical rock of the Lagazuio peak and noticed rock climbers a quarter of the way up. As I panned the rock face I realized there were climbers all over the face at different levels. This was a mammoth rock and it was mesmerizing to see them way up, as small as ants climbing ever higher.

We rode on thru the beautiful valley city of Cortina which was once host to an Olympic winter games. Although a large city, it seemed very pleasant and I would like to come back and visit sometime. We had lunch on top of the Passo Tre Croci which had a small lake and some old hotels. There were busses everywhere and lots of tourists, but the sandwich was cheap and bread delicious.

Down the other side of the Tre Croci we found ourselves in a deep canyon and eventually spilled out into the widest valley I had seen since coming off of the Stelvio. There was farmland and a much more urban feeling which brought with it traffic. I think this valley is one of the major access arteries around the Dolomites for people coming and going and it was good to finally leave it behind.

We ascended one final pass, the Passo Furcia which was barely a two lane road but with zero traffic. The down side took us through steep hillside farms where people were hand rakeing giant fields of hay. They still do it the old fashioned way in this part of the world.

Back in Corvara fairly early, we went to get gas and Dad had to put some oil in his bike as it was extremely low. We shopped for a bit in town and rested up before dinner. As the internet café was closed, after dinner I went to the expensive Hotel Posta Zirma and asked if I could access their wireless in the lobby. They couldn’t have been nicer and allowed me to use it for free so I was able to have a fantastic talk with Amanda and post last nights blog.

Once again I am sitting in my lovely little room and the moon has just risen over the top of the Passo Campolongo. My window is wide open and I am listening/watching the USA about to lose to Ghana in the second round of the World Cup. I can hear the cows on the hill above and the church bell in town ring. I look forward to hiking tomorrow and moving on back towards Germany and Heidelberg. I will miss the Dolomites a lot however and make a promise to return, with my wife, in the future. I really want to share this amazing area with her.