Ortisei 2010

Saturday, February 6, 2010
Rather an early start today, as I am on my way from Ettlingen, Germany to my final destination in Ortisei, Italy. I am going to spend the entire week with only skiing in the beautiful mountains of the Dolomites. Yesterday I travelled from my home town to Ettlingen for a family visit and today I am facing another 550 kilometers of highway.
The trip went rather smoothly and I only had a little loss of time at the Austrian/Italian border, when an overactive custom member wanted to check my papers and my car. There are far too much stamps in my passport and he wanted to study them all. Then followed some questions whether I was the owner of the car and he had a quick look at my bags (did not have to open them), finally he went down on his knees and had a look at the bottom of the car (still wonder why? Can you hide anything there??) Then I was off for the last 80 km to Ortisei.
Checking in at the hotel I learned that the financial crisis has struck over here as well. Not many of my skiing friends have turned up and so we are only with 4 (normally around 8 to 10). And as this is the first week of the high season over here, I noticed that the hotel is not fully booked, which it normally is.

Sunday, February 7, 2010
We met our guide from the ski school at 11:00 so there was no need for an early start. Just some skiing around the village to get warmed up. It is not our usual guide, but he seems to be OK. His name is Romeo (typical Italian). He is going to show us around the slopes for the rest of the week.
Today we are starting off at the Seiser Alm. Weather and snow conditions are really perfect. Today there are some clouds, but between them there is lots of sun and it it freezing a couple of degrees.

Monday, February 8, 2010
Another tour on the Seiser Alm, but now we are really going far till the end of the area. Some new slopes are built over here and there are 2 fine slopes to ski on. The weather is even better then yesterday. No clouds at all and no wind.
And for all who are concerned: My knee is doing still very good, still no pains and the skiing goes well.

I am posting this story using the WIFI-connection from the hotel, but I must say the Italian Government is a little paranoid about internet usage. Imagine: No anonymous internet is possible in Italy. Every user of the net has to be registered! How about Big Brother is Watching You! Italian law forces, by means of anti terrorism, to register everyone to enter the net. So like being at an internet café I have to be registered in my hotel as a user of the net.
Tomorrow we will be facing a new experience. We will have an early leave from the hotel by minibus to Wolkenstein ( a village nearby) where we will start a skiing tour partly around the Selva Massive and all the way up to 3348 mtr to the Marmolada glacier. As the weather forecasts are very good the views from above will be spectacular. We will be out there all day and I get back to you all later with any further reports.