Climbing up in a watchtower

Friday morning the mountains where hidden behind fog, but there were signs of blue sky breaking through and so we had extensive breakfast anticipating a hiking tour as planned by Flo. When Jakob has finished his morning sleep and once we have bought some food and drinks for the tour we got ready and at 1100 we set off. Sandra and Flo carrying “normal” backpacks, Kerstin with a normal sized but heavily loaded backpack (someone had to carry Jakob’s food) and Markus with Jakob + some more stuff for the three of us in a Jack Wolfskin Watchtower Pro child carrier, borrowed from Lissi & Geri.

Ready for the nature

Jakob loved his rising seat which not only provided him with a decent overview but also gave him some thrill as he was shaken like on a rocking horse. As Flo has selected the direct and very steep route towards the Santa Croce, several hundred meters above our hotel Markus was very glad that Jakob did motivate him with some funny sounds. Maybe it was not motivation but rather complaints about the slow pace, but we wont find out. After an hour of ascent we almost reached the cable car’s middle station from where our goal was not too far away, and where we planned to provide our sunshine with his lunch, but Jakob demanded food at 1200.no matter where we were and so we stopped and had lunch/picnic in the woods.

Nothing is better than a good sleep after a hard day's work

Once the lunch was eaten Jakob wanted to explore the area, but the snowmelt made the rather steep place not very child friendly and as a consequence he was rather upset and annoyed. Thus we decided to let Sandra & Flo continue the hiking tour on their own and the three of us started the descent via a longer but flatter route. Shortly after separating from Sandra & Flo Jakob got very quiet and ultimately fell asleep in his high-seat. The fresh air at 1800m did its work and made our sunshine very tired even though he did not have to climb any rock.

The spa area in our hands

While we enjoyed coffee and Aperol Sprizz in the hotel bar Sandra & Flo returned from their tour and we soon headed to the Wellness area of the hotel which has been opened especially for us (a deal Flo struck with the owner when booking). Hence we had the Jacuzzi, sauna and steambath as well as the relaxing area completely to ourselves and we used that to the limit for almost 2 hours. Jakob enjoyed the Jacuzzi as well as the relaxing area and we al had some good sauna sessions which is one of the best things after a day of skiing or hiking. Given the exhausting day we decided to have dinner again at the local pizza place and fell dead into bed at 2200. Another tough day is ahead of us.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus