Hot Days in Heidelberg

Unfortunately the California cousins were visiting during a heat wave with record breaking temperatures up to 37˝ C.
They still checked out the castle

Fortunately the hotel lobby was cool and offered free drinks

One evening after a day at the pool we tried to find an restaurant with AC but only found a fast food place after walking in the hot city

The California Cousins in Town

Yilei, Rex, Ben and Ella who used to live in the Washington DC area but now have moved to California stopped by in Heidelberg on the last stop of their European summer vacation that also took them to London, Edinburgh and Switzerland.
For Mia it was great to see her cousin Ella again- their last visit had been three years ago

 The first evening we had a nice dinner at home and then walked to the Neckar

Leaving South Tyrol

On our last day in Kastelruth it was raining almost all day - perfect for Mia to finishing her book report that was due after the break. She had picked a book about a two young detectives that solve a mystery at a pet store - covering her favorite genres: Detective stories  and animal stories

In the evening the sun came out again

The next morning Mia had to say good bye to the three kitties that had been become her friends

Then we started for the long drive back home

Seiser Alm

The Seiser Alm is a huge plateau on 2000 m altitude that is surrounded by mountain peaks and famous for hiking and skiing in winter. It was easy to reach with a a gondola ride with specteaculat views.

We dccided to just do a short 1 h hike - also because the weather looked like it might rain later

Just when we reached a restaurant it turned really dark

When we started to rain and all of a sudden turned much cooler we went inside for some warm Kaiserschmarren to each

We made it back to the gondola station after a big rain shower and when we went down the sun started to shine again pretty soon

A hike in the neighborhood

After all the excitement in Bozen we stayed in town the next day and went for a little walk in the neighborhood. With a train passing by at the farm where we were staying it was really easy.
The farm a bit higher up on the mountain had a pony Mia could pet

Luckily part of the way was in the woods wee it was cooler.

Back in Kastelruth there was a statue that honors the Kastelruther Saptzen (Kastelruth sparrows) a famous local band

Then Mia could cool of her feet after the long long hike

Since the scenery was so beautiful we went for another short wall in the evening when Mia was playing with the farmer's boy

At night there was a thunderstorm with lots of lightning that scared Mia a bit

Bozen

Bozen, the main city in Südtirol, was only a hone hour bus ride away and so we used out free ticket for public transport that came with the apartment for a day trip. Mia got a bit carsick on the bus ride down the mountains with the many turns but she made it.

The street market in the old town is a tourist attraction

It was hotter than in the Kasteruth that is on a altitude of 1000 m - good that there was some ice cream

The old narrow streets and walkways were  also nice and cool

The museum build for the 5000 year old man out of the ise - Ötz- who was found in a glacier at
the Italian and Austrian border 30 years ago was really interesting. Mia tried out his coat - well it was a replic

Ötzi is in a cooler with a window and can't be photographed.

 

It turned out that he was murdered by an arrow shot in his back. The sory was even covered in the New York Times

After all the culture and history it was time to relax on a playground

It was beautifully located by a river

Then we made good use of our pass for free public transport and used the gondola to go to upper Bozen. The view from the gondola was breathtaking

On top we took the free tram to a village and enjoyed the views

The bus ride back went better for Mia and we were back n Kastelruth at 9 pm. The kitchen in the regular restaurants was closed but we got a gret pizza