Travel Journal: Day #9 (Austria)

walking up to the ice caves

Sunday, July 6, 2014

I considered going for a run this morning but we left the farm at 10am and there was NO way I was getting up that early (not sure when 10am because “early” but whatever…). It’s a good thing I didn’t run though, because we walked for two hours and 45 min today (with only a few short breaks). We drove to the ice caves, which I thought would be similar to the flat Polar Caves in NH, but it was probably one of the more strenuous hikes I’ve ever done. Well, I’m sure the air and elevation affected the difficulty too. Such a victory when we all made it out of the caves and then again when we reached the gift shop. Dad and I liked the caves (I was slightly freezing though because I was unprepared and was wearing shorts). It was just so cold. SO COLD. We ate snacks at the bottoms and then it was the afternoon so we headed out to explore another town. We went to the longest alpine slide in Austria. I think the ice caves were also the largest in Austria, too (maybe…).

We took a 15-20 minute chairlift to the top, waited in line for twenty minutes, and then it look like five minutes to actually slide down the mountain. The man behind Monica was complaining in German about how the Americans would be so slow on the slide (this was me – I was the slowest one FYI) but then Monica made it known that she could speak German too and understood every word he was saying. Anyways, this guy probably hated me because I was so slow on the slide… I would’ve gone at that leisurely pace ALL DAY but if there weren’t people behind me.

We went back to the farm to freshen up before going out to dinner at a hotel in Radstadt. It was the best salad/dinner I’ve had so far! Chicken with pumpkin seeds, balsamic dressing, potatoes, tomatoes – SO GOOD.

After dinner, we sat outside and talked, fed the cats again, and then began to pack for Orvieto (!!!!!!!!!). I can’t even think of returning to Orvieto without crying. I’ve missed that place so much and I can’t believe I’ll fall asleep (hopefully) on the train on Monday night, wake up on Tuesday morning, and we will be in ITALY! There are o many things I want to make sure we do in the two days that we’ll be there...

• Clocktower, duomo, necropolis (maybe), St. Patrick’s well
• Gelato by the duomo, gelato at La Musa
• Cappuccini in the morning!
•  Chocolate at Montanucci’s
• Charlie’s Pizza, Locanca, La Palomba
• Walk/run around Orvieto
• Sunset Park, the palazzo, monastery, turf field, Via del Popolo, Villa Mercede
• Federico’s shop, kitchen stores, olive wood stores, etc