28-Dec-22
We spent a LONG day travelling from Rome up to Merano. It started out with our taxi not showing up and us having to scramble/pile into the car to get to the train station.
We got there with 20 minutes to spare while Dan went to park the car somewhere.
Dan made it on the train with 5 minutes to spare.
It was a very long travel day, but the girls actually did very well.
We changed trains twice.
One of the trains was stiflingly warm. I don't know how the other passengers could stay in their heavy winter coats and not melt.
Our Airbnb hosts went above and beyond. They picked us up from the train station and ordered us pizza for dinner since it was so late.
29-Dec-22
Happy Birthday KC!!!
Today is KC's 4th birthday!
The view from our apartment balcony.
We're starting the day by exploring the town a little bit.
Meran/Merano is in SudTirol or Trentino-Alto Adige. It's a combined German/Italian area.
It was cold, but beautiful!
We had hoped for more snow, but we'll take what we can get.
KC was posing like the wibbly sculpture.
It's Dan!
We had a good time exploring this riverside area of downtown.
For lunch, we headed back to the Airbnb to celebrate KC's birthday.
Grandma was prepared and brought "K" and "C" balloons with her from Iowa.
We weren't prepared cake-wise and got some coffeecake like things from a local grocery store. This one was chocolate, but we also got one that was raspberry...maybe? They were pretty dry.
Dan went off to get us bus passes so we could go on an afternoon adventure.
Disorienting panorama!
Mosaic crest of Meran/Merano.
There is a ski resort thing here. Dan and I took KC up the cable car. We were the only ones on it. It went pretty far up the mountain.
There were some farms on ridiculous landscape on the way up. I even saw a mountain goat or something like it, but wasn't fast enough to get a photo.
Mmm, yes. Very mountainy.
That orange thing int the middle is a guy we say go running and then paragliding off the mountain.
It turns out it was significantly colder on top of the mountain.
It was a lot of fun, but VERY cold and we weren't really dressed for it.
You ride a track down and then a conveyor belt hauls you and the cart back up to the top.
It was apparently a little too cold for KC. She got very very sad.
We took her to a ski hut to get a hot chocolate or hot cider. I asked her what was the coldest, thinking she'd say her hands or face or feet or whatever. She looked at me and said "The outside." 😆
Technically correct.
It took us awhile to get back down. Apparently everyone was leaving at the same time.
I think KC had a good day, despite being very cold at one point. We took the cable car down and then the bus back to town and our Airbnb.
