Sicily – Panoramas
Author: Carsten
Hi, my name is Carsten. As long as I can remember I like nature in all its forms and colours. I like hiking, cycling and travelling all over the world. Furthermore I am interested in photography. Here I want to share my interests and experiences with you.
Sicily – Taormina
After landing in Catania we took the bus from the airport to the train station. At the train station we bought a ticket to Taormina. Taormina is a small town about 40 minutes away from Catania. It is said to be the most beautiful town on Sicily. But when we left the train station we were wondering where the town is.. Besides the train station there were only a few houses... and nothing especially well looking.. so we started walking along the road until a man stopped us. He asked if we want to go to Taormina per pedes. We said yes and he explained to us that we cannot take the road, instead we should go up a small path on a slope. So we followed that path for about 30 minutes and arrived 200 metres above sea level in the city center of Taormina! From there you have a great view to the sea. Taormina has a beautiful historic city center. After walking around for a while and we decided to visit the old theater. It is really worth a visit. You have a great view around! We spent a lot of time lying around and enjoyed the sunshine 😀 After that we were very hungry and went to a nice Italian restaurant. From our table we could see the sea - very nice! Afterwards we visited the public garden - a very nice green spot at the edge of the town. From there we walked back down to the train station and took the train back to Catania.
Sicily – Palermo
We took the bus from Catania to Palermo. That takes about 2:30 hours. I was surprised to see that there is nothing inside the center of the island - only the motorway, some sheep and green hills... You can also find snowy mountains there - but no cities, no towns, no people.
Other than Palermo.. Palermo seems to be a noisy, narrow city. Many allays, but no nice places to sit down and relax. There is also a lot of traffic. After arriving at the train station we went to the sea. We walked through a actually quite nice garden, but unfortunately it was located besides a busy road. At the sea there was much concrete but no place to sit down and no sand... So we decided to have a coffee. We found a coffee bar - but no place to sit down. So we ordered a coffee - and got espresso! We did not know that for the Italian coffee always means espresso... Then we walked around the city a bit, becoming frustrated about the traffic. In front of the theatre we found another coffee bar. Now we ordered a coffee with milk with the hope to get a (at least for us) "real" coffee in a big mug. Nevertheless again it was only an espresso with a milk froth hat... Ok, so now we definitely know that Italians only drink espresso.. After that we decided to go back to the train station and take the bus to the airport... an interesting fact is that all airport buses have free wifi. The bus took about 50 minutes. It felt like we were driving through whole Palermo to pick up more people. But after leaving the city the view outside was really nice. We drove along the coast, saw many cliffs, small houses and the sunset. Arriving at the airport was a bit strange - the building looked really old and it was quite cold inside and even the security person did speak only Italian... But nevertheless our flight left in time and after two hours we were safely back in Stuttgart.
Verpeilhütte – Riffelseehütte – Taschachhaus
From Stuttgart there is one train connection a day that goes to Imst without changing trains. So Imst was our destination for this long weekend. After about 6 or 7 hours we finally arrive at the train station Imst-Pitztal. When you arrive at the train station there seems to be no town close to it. We booked a hotel in Arzl, because on the map it looked quite close to the station. But what we could not see on this map was that we have to go up a hill to reach the village. So it takes us about one hour from the train station to go to the hotel. The hotel (the only one that was still available) is very nice. On the reception we are told that dinner will be "entrecote" today. We had no idea what it is, but we said that it would be ok for us.
The dinner at the hotel was fantastic! It stared with a salad buffet, then soup, then leek and potato pastry. Then the main course entrecote (a medium beef steak) with potato with garlic dip and roasted vegetables. And afterwards a piece of cake. Great! After that we fall into bed immediately.
The next morning we enjoy a great breakfast. After breakfast the bus to Trenkwald is leaving in front of our hotel. I think we are the youngest people on this bus. All the others must be older than 60 or so.. After about one hour the bus arrives in Trenkwald. From there we plan to go up to the Verpeiljoch and then down to the Verpeil Hut. The path is very nice and we enjoy the great view around. We follow a small river for a long time. The way down from Verpeiljoch is very slippery because of many pebbles lying around. After 6 or 7 hours we arrive at the hut which is beautifully situated. Two rivers and high mountains surround the hut. We spent a lot of time lying in the sunshine and then we enjoy dinner. We sleep very well, no one snores.
The next morning after breakfast we want to go to the Kaunergrathütte. It is a beautiful view when the sun comes over the mountain and from one second to another everything is enlighten. The path is really nice, you always look at the Madatschtürme. We even see some people going up there. Then we go along a glacier up to the aperes Madatschjoch. From there there is a short fixed rope route down in the direction of the Kaunergrathütte. We decide to go up the Plangeroßkopf which is something like a little summit at 3053m high. We spent some time in the sunshine on the top and just enjoy being there. After some time we go back down and to the Kaunergrathütte. Actually we wanted to sleep there, but they were full! Therefore they asked us to go to the Riffelseehütte. This is another 3 to 4 hours walk. But before we leave the Kaunergrathütte we have a Apfelstrudel. Yummy!! The so called Cottbuser Höhenweg which connects the Kaunergrathütte with the Riffelseehütte is very beautiful. You always have a great view of the surrounding mountains. One passage contains a few ropes, but it is doable without via ferrata gear. After more than 10 hours we finally arrive at the Riffelseehütte. We have a very nice room with two other people. Dinner is Gulaschsuppe and for me Knödelteller and for Carsten Leberkäse with egg and potatoes. Really good! And I am so full afterwards! After dinner we play cards and then we fall into bed - until 4am in the morning. Then the fire bell is ringing and (almost) everybody gets up - but luckily it was only a false alarm.
After breakfast we decided to go the Offenbacher Höhenweg to the Taschachhaus. This way is very beautiful! In the beginning you walk along a small river, then you cross a place with many big stones lying around until you reach a small glacier. For the glacier we used our crampons and then we went up. That was cool. Then there are two paths up to the summit of the Wurmtaler Kopf - you can either continue to go up the glacier or walk on the ridge. We decided to take the path on the ridge - but that was not so good. Many loose pebbles made the way up very slippery. But on top of the Wurmtaler Kopf - 3228m high - you have a great panorama. Then we start to descend to the Taschachhaus - it is still far away. We pass a lake that looked like the water is green. We took many breaks on the way to the Taschachhaus and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. Now we could also see the glacier around the Wildspitze. The Taschachhaus had a nice room for us and great food. Soup, salad, Wiener Schnitzel with Pommes and Apfelstrudel! What a great evening.
In the morning after breakfast we went back down to the village Mittelberg. From there a bus took us to Imst and from there we took the train back to Stuttgart. This was another great long weekend in a beautiful landscape!
Hiking through the Sella Group
Another summer.. another holiday in the Dolomites 🙂 This year we planned to spend our holiday in the Sella group.
On our way to Italy we stopped in Munich to visit the worlds biggest boulder hall. That was a lot of fun! The next day we took the train to Brixen. From there a bus is going to Wolkenstein. In Wolkenstein we had a really nice accommodation called Garni Chalet Elisabeth.
We spent the afternoon walking through the town. In the evening a huge thunderstorm came over the town. We hurried through the rain to the next pizza restaurant and spent the evening there. The thunderstorm took about 5-6 hours!
The next morning it was cold, but blue sky. We had a really great breakfast at Garni Chalet Elisabeth. During breakfast we heard in the radio that the road to Grödner Joch is closed because of falling stones after the thunderstorm. But still we walked to the bus stop. Actually we wanted to take the bus to Grödner Joch, but as said in the news, the road was still closed and no bus appeared. So we started walking to Grödner Joch. It took about 1,5 hours.
When we arrived at Grödner Joch black clouds already appeared at some parts of the sky, but over us blue sky was still visible. Therefore we decided to take the via ferrata Piscadu to the Piscadu hut. The start of the via ferrata (which is said to be the mostly walked via ferrata in the whole Dolomites) was very nice. But after about an hour more black clouds started to appear over us and we became a bit nervous - a thunderstorm inside a via ferrata is no fun. We were quite quick and then we came up to some really slow people. They seemed to move in slow motion... That was enough and no longer fun. Walking behind a group of slow people and bad weather coming.. therefore we decided after half way to leave the via ferrata and continue on a path up to the Piscadu hut. When we arrived at the hut we had something to drink. In the afternoon the weather was very unsettled - clouds and sunshine. When the sun came out we enjoyed it a few meters away from the hut at a nice place. The dinner was great, we had the first Kaiserschmarrn this year 😀
We shared our room with six other guys from Italy. They were very funny. We slept quite well and woke up with a beautiful blue sky the next morning.
After breakfast we decided to go up the Cima Piscadu. The summit is 2985 meters high. The way up to the summit is really nice, not an ordinary path, but a lot of rock and sometimes you need to climb a little bit. We enjoyed the view from the top - we could see many white clouds above the valley and some dark clouds behind us. After the descend of Cima Piscadu we followed the path in the direction of Rifugio Boe. The landscape there is very different to the parts of the Dolomites we have seen before. We go over a huge plateau.
Then a few meters up and down again and we arrive at the Rifugio Boe. There we take a short break and then decide to go up to the Piz Boe. On the way up we meet many many people which took the cablecar. After about one hour we arrive at the summit of Piz Boe at 3115 meters. Unfortunately it is very cloudy and we cannot see the Marmolada. Actually the idea to visit the Sella group came into our mind when we stood up on the Marmolada summit and looked at the Sella group. From there the Piz Boe looked like a huge pyramid. From the summit we started to descend in the direction of the Rifugio Pordio. On the way down many many people were still coming up from the cablecar. On the Pordoi Hut we had a nice room - and even a hot shower. We walked a bit around in the afternoon and enjoyed a huge dinner 🙂
The next morning we woke up with sunshine and blue sky again. Today we planned to go to Rifugio Kostner. There are many ways leading to this hut. We decided to walk up the Piz Boe again, this time from the other side. It was the most beautiful morning we had during this time in Italy. On our way we had a great view to the Marmolada and only a few people were on the summit when we arrived there.
We took a break and then decided to follow an exposed path in the direction of Rifugio Kostner. Unfortunately very black clouds arrived again 🙁
The Rifugio Kostner is a very nice hut. We left some stuff in our room and decided to walk around a bit in the afternoon. We wanted to go up the normal path to the Boeseekofel. After half an hour we saw that for the normal path also via ferrata gear would be required.. and more black clouds were coming.. therefore we decided to not go up to the top. Instead we walked around some easier paths, took photos and enjoyed the landscape. After some time it started to rain.. and we disappeared inside the hut. There was again a hot shower which was really nice and then we waited for dinner. The dinner was really the best we ever had on a hut I think. It started with a glass of white wine, followed by a salad. Then spinach dumplings. Next schnitzel with fries and afterwards chocolate cream. Really good!! 🙂 Shortly after dinner we disappeared in our bed..
The next morning started really cloudy. We had an amazing breakfast and afterwards started to go back down to the valley. During the descend we could see only 2 meters and were completely wet when we arrived back in the town. But the sun came out and we were dry again after a few minutes. We took the bus back to Wolkenstein and went back to our accommodation. Before we started our trip trough the Sella group we left some stuff there. We now picked it up again and waited in a nice Italian bar until the next bus to Brixen arrived. Then we took the bus to Brixen which had no air conditioning, it was really hot and horrible.
Nevertheless we arrived just in time at the train station to get the next train to Innsbruck. Innsbruck should be our stopover on the way to Switzerland.
