On the Road to Corvara

Amy and I got up at 6:30 and had a nice leisurely breakfast at the hotel; I got caught up on my blogging a bit. We (very rudely) woke the kids at 7:30 and then everyone got breakfasted, packed and organized.  We did the big baggage schlepp to get everything carried over to the train station; thankfully, our train was already in the correct berth, so we were able to pick good seats and get our luggage squared away.

German trains can be awesome when everything lines up correctly, and this was certainly the case with out ride. Speedy, quiet, great views, comfy seats... and we left and arrived right on time.

We got off the train in Garmisch and walked over to the Eurocar rental office, where we cornered the single harried/busy (and also extremely polite) clerk, and filled out the paperwork for our rental. Car was a Ford Focus wagon (memories of our year in Cambridge!), roomy enough for the four of us and all our various bags.

We decided to eat lunch in Garmisch, so we drove over to a restaurant at the base of the old Olypmpic ski jump and had a bite to eat there. Competition for parking was intense, but we lucked out when a guy in a Porsche pulled out of a spot right ahead of where we were (he even hopped out and gave us his parking ticket/receipt, which still had an hour on it). The ski jump looks as though it has been refurbished/modernized, but the stands at the base of the jump looked like there were the originals from 1936 (or whenever it was).

Left the restaurant around 12:30; the drive was nice for most of the way -- sunny skies, gently curving mountain roads, spectacular scenery.  It was a solid 3.5 hour drive to Corvara; the roads were good up until the last 50 km or so, when they turned smaller and windier. The last 10-15 kilometers were really crazy, since they were packed with bike riders taking rides in preparation for the big bike race the next day (had to drive really carefully).

Random castle-like thing along the drive:

The race ("Maraton des Dolomiti") starts in a neighboring town, goes through Corvara, then makes a loop and comes back to finish in Corvara. The town was very crowded indeed -- tons of people everywhere. We did manage to meet up with the Colletts people and get keys to our apartment, which was nice -- it is in the central part of town but not right on the main drag.

Here is the view to the north from the steps leading up to the apartment:

The apt:

We made a trip to the grocery store to buy provisions, then at 6pm we went over to the chalet with the main Colletts office and met up with some of the folks there to get organized. We signed up for a "moderate" day hike, picked up a trail map, and chatted for a while with the guides/leads.