The Dolomites

The morning we were going to leave, we were up early and found we had a short window of no rain. I was feeling better, so we decided to do an easy hike around the Braies Lake, about an hour drive into the mountains. We hoped we could see the Tre Cime de Lavaredo mountain peeks, three stunning peeks.

We didn't get to see the three peaks, but had beautiful views, just as the sun was smiling on us.

Here is the lake and it really was this green. If you notice the light colored dirt, these are rock slides and water run off paths.

I was so glad to be on the trail again and the fresh air was healing for me. We thought this was a fairly flat walk, but nope, the side behind Keith in this picture was all up and down trails and stairs along the side of the cliff. But it was good to get our heart rates up again. The trip around is a little more than 1.5 miles and took us 2+ hours.

We came across two fields of cairns, hundreds of them, and they were so cool. So KF added one. It took him several tries, but he got it. I was impressed and loved the single orange rock to set it apart from the others. He has such talents 🥰.

This turned out to be a great morning. There were only a few people on the trail, the weather wsa cool but comfortable, and no rain…. until… we got back to the starting point, there were people everywhere, cars were lined up the road trying to find a parking spot (and there were several large parking lots) … and… it began to rain. We were so blessed to enjoy this peaceful and beautiful place.

One thing that stuck out to me was the monestary's in the mountains. You can look up from about anywhere and see a lone building set high in the mountains. I wasn't able to get a picture of one because they were so far away. But this caused my heart to remember, it was in these mountains, and in those buildings where the Jews were trekking to escape the Nazis. It was overwhelming to stop, remember, and try to understand their fear, their pain, their hope.