Italy 2023, part 2: Bressanone

August 27, 2023October 9, 2023 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

June 30th and July 1, 2023 – We took the Eurocity Express train from Innsbruck to Bressanone, a two hour journey. Our train car was crowded with both passengers and luggage, and I could only catch small glimpses of the scenery in Brenner Pass, which is supposed to be spectacular. Once in Bressanone, we checked in to our hotel, then wandered around the town that evening and again the next day.

Our hotel, just across the Eisack River Bridge from the center of Bressanone

Downstream view from the bridge

Upstream view toward Bressanone

Entering town along the Via Ponte Aquila

Roof detail

Walking on beautifully geometric cobblestone streets

The Piazza Duomo in the center of town is surrounded by historic buildings:

Entering the Piazza Duomo

The Town Hall

The town symbol is a lamb, here interpreted in flowers

The Cathedral, originally built in the 10th century, with Baroque modifications in the 1700’s.

Cathedral

Cathedral

Piazza

I love the curved roof tiles and colored window panes…

We passed the Millenium Column on our way to the Hofgarten:

Millenium Column (1909) with Lamb mascot

Hofgarten Entrance

Hofgarten

Lilies and rudbeckia

View across the Hofgarten

Another Hofgarten view

Decorative gates near the Hofgarten

After a stop for gelato in the Piazza, we visited the Apothecary/Pharmacy Museum.

Inside the Apothecary Museum…

Old medicine jars

Very old books with illustrations of plants used for medicines

We crossed back over the river to our hotel, looking eastward toward the Dolomite Mountains, our destination for the next ten days…

Looking east toward the mountains…

That evening, we met our tour group at the hotel and set our agenda for the first few days of our tour.

Location Map for our hikes in the Dolomite Mountains. Blue suitcases circled in pink are hotel locations; Green flags circled in red are hike locations.

We would be heading east to the Sesto Dolomites, and staying in Dobbiaco for the next three nights.

The rest of July 2023 in Portland

August 10, 2023 / margaretquilts / 2 Comments

We arrived back in Portland (from our Italian Dolomites hiking trip), on July 13th after about 23 hours of travel. The next few days were a mush of early bedtimes and wee hours wakefulness.

Our front garden bed was bursting with blooming zinnias and snap dragons when we returned.

On July 16th, we visited with family in Eugene, and had an al fresco lunch in one of my favorite gardens:

One of my sisters returned with us for a long delayed visit. We enjoyed walks in my neighborhood and other neighborhoods in Portland, as well as a visit to Powells City of Books.

dahlias

roses

lavender

lilies

nicotiana

Wishes

Cosmos

painted garage

rudbeckia

sidewalk quilt pattern

handmade flowers

sunflower

hydrangea

floral bouquet

Hikes

We hiked to two areas east of Mt Hood with blooming wildflower meadows:

Location of trails hiked in July east of Mt Hood

Cook Meadows, July 18th – We wanted to take my sister for an easy, beautiful wildflower/forest hike, so we tried to go to Lookout Mountain, just east of Mt Hood. Unfortunately, it was closed due to recent fire activity, but some Forest Service workers pointed us to the nearby Cook Meadows Trail. While we didn’t reach a high point, we walked along the shoulder of the ridge, through both shady forest and sunny wildflower meadows, with views to Mt Hood. The meadows were red, with more scarlet gilia in bloom than I have ever seen before. I also saw catchfly and horkelia, two new-to-me flowers, though I have known they were out there for the spotting.

Scarlet gilia and Mount Hood

Red meadows of scarlet gilia

Scarlet gilia

Dusky horkelia

Oregon catchfly

The trail passed through patches of meadow and forest, with so many wildflowers!

Heading into the forest

Buckwheat and butterfly

Arrowleaf groundsel, butterfly

Emerging sugar stick

Columbine and mountain bluebells

penstemon

asters and Sitka valerian

Scarlet gilia and horkelia

Scarlet gilia, penstemon, buckwheat

Zoomed in views of Mt Hood:

Close up of the giant boulder on Cooper Spur, and the Eliot Glacier beyond

Elk Meadows, July 25th – Later in the month we returned to Elk Meadows on the east side of Mt Hood, a few weeks earlier than last summer, so saw an earlier suite of wildflowers.

Approaching the trailhead – though cloudy from the Portland side, the mountain was out to the east!

The switchback hanging gardens were mostly past bloom, with sparse sections of flowers, including these lovely Cascade lilies.

Columbine, groundsel and bugbane on the switchbacks

The famous crosshatch tree

Once in the meadows, there were plenty of flowers, especially compared to last year.

7/25/2023 Bog orchids and Gray’s lovage, Elk Meadows

8/30/2022 Purple gentians in the mostly dry meadows

Some of the flowers we saw this year:

Bog orchid

Swales of bog orchids, also some yellow orchids

Lovage and lupine

Rosy spiraea

Comparison photos from last year, looking toward Mt Hood from near the Elk Meadows Shelter

7/25/2023 Lots of lovage

8/30/2022 Goldenrod

Looking back toward the shelter and burned Bluegrass Ridge:

7/25/23

8/30/2022

Today’s close up of Mt Hood, and the Cooper Spur boulder, also seen on our Cook Meadow hike:

The cloud stayed near the top of the mountain most of the day,

but we could see Cooper Spur and the boulder…

Returning down the trail…the Newton Creek crossing can be difficult, but this year, two logs over the deepest part made the crossing easy.

Looking back upstream at Mt Hood after crossing Newton Creek

Downsteam view of Newton Creek

Crafting – I did not get much knitting done on our travels, but continued working on my ongoing knitting and quilting projects at home.

The Meadowlands blanket

The first set of blocks for the Modern Quilt Studio Summer Camp Mystery Quilt

On to August, and to more posts about our hiking trip to the Dolomite Mountains of Italy.

Austria and Italy, 2023, part 1

August 9, 2023 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

June 23 to July 14th….We went on a covid-postponed hiking tour of the Dolomite Mountains of Italy, preceded by a few acclimatization days in Innsbruck, Austria. The destination was a goal trip for my husband. This was my first trip to continental Europe. I was trepidatious about the amount of hiking (would my knees hold out?), language barriers, transport, covid, all of it. But it all turned out fairly well. We saw amazing scenery and wildflowers, ate delicious food, made some new friends, and despite a few transit delays and confusion, returned safely. Now I am home in the Pacific Northwest that I love, and recovered from the jet lag that I find so disorienting. I am thinking about our adventures, and adding my experiences of a new place into my world view. As I have found before, I wish I had more international experience at a younger age – it would be easier on the body. But I am glad we went, and I will enjoy many memories from this trip for a long time.

Part 1: Austria-

We flew from Portland, Oregon, to Newark, New Jersey, to Frankfort, Germany. There were unexplained delays in Newark, so we missed our connecting flight flight to Innsbruck. After sleepwalking back and forth for two miles on the concourses between airport terminals, we eventually were rescheduled onto a flight for the next day, and given room and meal vouchers for an airport hotel. The next day (June 25th), we flew into Innsbruck, admiring the mountains on either side of the city as the plane descended into the valley.

Descending into Innsbruck.

We were staying on the 12th floor of a hotel on the south end of town, with excellent views.

View of Innsbruck, and the mountains to the north, from our room.

Closer view

Window inspiration for a modern quilt?

View to the south, including the mountain we would ride a gondola up, then hike up, later in the week.

We spent the next few days walking around Innsbruck, and hiking in the adjacent mountains.

Tuesday, June 26th – We rode the Hungerburg Funicular to its upper station, on the slopes of the Karwendel Mountains. We could have continued up higher into the mountains on the Nordkette Gondola, but the weather was not amenable that day. Instead, we took a short hike to the Arzler Alm, a farm with a restaurant, then made our way back down to the funicular station before riding back to town. I was still fairly jet lagged, but enjoyed seeing the landscape and stretching my hiking legs a bit.

Looking up toward Hungerburg

Lower Hungerburg station

Hungerburg Funicular at the top station

View back toward Innsbruck from the upper Hungerburg station

Looking up into the mountains along the Nordkette Gondola route

Hiking path above Hungerburg

Arzler Alm

Arzler Alm cows

Riding the funicular back to Innsbruck

Wednesday, June 27th – Another partly rainy day. We wandered some of the streets in the old town and visited the Golden Roof Museum.

The Triumphal Arch from the south

Triumphal Arch from the north

Open streets/pedestrian zone in the old town

Building detail in the old town

Golden Roof Museum

Close up of the golden roof and building ornamentation

The Golden Roof Museum was built in 1494, and was a residence of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I. The museum highlights the life and accomplishments of Maximillian.

Looking out onto the town from the balcony under the Golden Roof

Tile detail

A 400+ year old painting of Innsbruck

Virtual image of us looking out onto Innsbruck

We also walked along the Inn River, and at some point, I walked past a yarn shop and bought some souvenir yarn.

The Inn River

Thursday, June 28th – A beautiful sunny day! We rode the gondola up the Patscherkofel, then hiked about 2 miles/1000 feet, to its top. Although it is capped with communication towers, there are stunning views back toward Innsbruck and the Alps to the north. And we got a taste of the abundant wildflower displays we would see during the rest of our trip.