Grosse Dolomiten strasse


 Today we will spend the whole day driving through the famous Italian Dolomite Mountains.

The name 'Dolomites' comes from a French mineralogist who was the first to describe the dolomite – a carbonated rock, which is responsible for the characteristic shapes and colours of this mountains. What I think is amazing is the green meadows and suddenly those rocks stand straight up.

On our way we crossed some mountain passes and saw a lot of those real amazing mountains.

It started right when we left Bozen and drove through a large gorge with amazing rocks.



 Karrer See

Was our first stop – a nice greenish lake, where we enjoyed the sunshine walking around, we got a few glimpses on the skyline of the rocks – but soon they vanished again in the clouds.


 Gondola ride

I mean when you drive right by the Gondola – for sure we had to stop and go up… most went up in hiking shoes and walking sticks… we were a little less prepared, but then for us it was only a quick stop with a short walk up in the hills and having some fantastic views into the valley, before heading further south.

The scenic route went over 3 passes: Karrerpass 2500 m – the pass at the Pordoijoch with 2239 m – here we passed the next gondola ride… but then the south called. And going over the last pass it went up high and got cold and all was more threatening looking…


 Cortina

From there we went down to Cortina d'Ampezzo, where we had to have another break. And most amazing even Paul had to admit, that the Canadian Rockies are not nicer!!!

Cortina was important to stop, since we had to check out the Olympic ski jumping area… here were the 1956 Winter Olympic Games.

And then we slowly left the mountains behind us and it got hotter because now we are coming to Venice.