Around the European Alps on Sept.24.- Oct.1. 2012

A group of 17 of us flew early that Monday morning to Milan / Italy to start 8 days tour around the Alps. Our bus then brought us trough a enormous heavy rain to our first stop at a winery in Franciacorta area, famous especially of it's excellent spumanti. After several tasteings of different wines we had a nice lunch before we continued towards Dolomites. Our road went trough beautiful landscapes before arriving to a old castle, Hotel Castello Schloss Labers. In this historic building we had our dinner and first night. Next morning after breakfast we continued to the nearby city of Bolzano. Our main target was to find "Ötzi", the Ice Man , age over 4000 years, found some decades ago at the Austrian and Italian border. For years those two countries were quarreling to whom the body belongs before a satellite picture testified,that it laid half a meter on Italian side. The Ötzi Museum was nicely done explaining in details his life, the man itself was about 160cm tall, and had been killed in a fight at the age of 35-40. Next thing I did, was to enjoy the late Autumn Italian sun with very good wine at the Cathedral square in some trattoria. Soon 4 other persons of our group joined me. In early afternoon restarted to over cross the Dolomites, passing unbelievable breathtaking and fantastic landscapes like Canazei village, Val de Fiemme, Val Gardena, Val di Fassa, crossing Passo Sella at the height of 2244 meters, passing the Marmolada 3342 meters. Late that afternoon we arrived in a tiny medieval city of Hall near Innsbruck in Austria.