2025 Tour Epilogue

We woke up early at Das Ludwig and packed up. We walked down to the dining area of the hotel and it was closed. We realized then that the hotel didn't offer breakfast by default and we didn't order any. Well, we were already up, so we brushed our teeth and then left the hotel, not being able to figure out the self-checkout kiosk. I would later e-mail the hotel and get back an invoice for paying the city tax.

The train station was just a couple of blocks, past the supermarket (which wasn't open). Once inside the train station, we found a snack store/bakery open. To my surprise, the ticket machine would not take "tap to pay" and only took cash! Fortunately, the bookstore was open and was willing to exchange my large notes for smaller notes that the machine was willing to take.  In Germany, as long as you're traveling within the state of Bavaria, you can buy a single group ticket for up to 5 people that will let you take unlimited regional express trains and double as the local municipal transit tickets as well. Unlike in Switzerland, the tandem counts as only one bike instead of two, making German trains far cheaper than Swiss trains. The ticket is non-transferable, as you have to sign it to make it valid. We bought snacks, ate and then went to the platform to wait for the train.

When the train arrived, we discovered that the bike car was large enough for the single bikes but just a tad too short for the tandem. This was no big deal and the conductor never gave us a hard time about it. The train ride was smooth and easy, though it stopped frequently in the Lindau area and then became a true express as it got closer to Munich, stopping less and less frequently until it got to downtown Munich.

Rather than deal with the main train station, we got off at Donnersburgerbrucke to transfer to the airport S-bahn. The single bikes could transfer using the elevator but the tandem couldn't. Fortunately if you're willing to violate the restrictions against using the escalators it's no big deal. Just roll the tandem onto the escalator and hold both brakes as the escalator ascends (or descends). The S-1 was late and very full by the time we got in, so we had to be in separate compartments. Fortunately, under those circumstances you're also unlikely to have to get your tickets inspected. 

Exiting at the airport, we rolled the bike up the escalator again and walked over to the Hilton. It was too early to checkin, but we had 3 bikes to pack. We got out the bike cases which had been untouched for our entire time on tour, and disassembled the bikes. Outside the hotel as the staff had become picky about us doing disassembly inside. Xiaoqin took both kids to get lunch while I did the disassembly. It took about 3 hours to do all 3 bikes, but I got it finished and then got in line to checkin to the hotel.

By this time it was close enough to official checkin time that they didn't try to make me pay for an early checkin. I put all the rest of the bags into the rooms and we went out to get some more food for me. We then had to buy a replacement strap for the strap that had broken on one of the Trico iron cases. We still had time after that so we went back downtown and visited the official Lindt store. There, we bought almost 10kg of chocolate. Downtown Sendlinger Tor's subway had changed dramtically since I last visited, and now had Indian and Chinese food, all of reasonable quality --- Munich was becoming quite cosmopolitant!

Returning back to the hotel, we went swimming for about 15 minutes because the kids weren't allowed after 6:00pm. Then we bought dinner and breakfast for the next day and ate it. Mark texted me around 9:00pm that he'd landed in Munich from his trip to Ireland but it was late and we figured we'd meet up at some point back in California anyway.

The next morning, we leisurely took our bikes and carryon lugguage to the United checkin counter and checked it in. The flight was very full so we could checkin 2 of our rolling luggage as checked bags so that we could exceed the weight limit given all the chocolate we bought. The flight was uneventful and Steve Wang picked is up at the airport and brought us home. Our adventure was over.

Both kids swore that they wouldn't ride for at least 2 weeks after the tour, but Bowen attended just one day of Math summer camp before declaring that even riding up Grossglockner was less boring, so we took him at his word and made him ride instead of attending summer camp.

Looking back at it, we'd had been unusually lucky with weather, with rain coming in at night frequently and only having to ride a couple of days in the rain. We had only one flat tire which was amazing, and no other mechanicals. Indicating how much we'd ridden by the time we got to Pfunds we'd worn out all the power meter batteries. We'd succcessfully stayed high and avoided the worst of the summer heat. Having Otto Sr drove the luggage was instrumental in us accomplishing so much distance, even though I would have been even happier if he'd just chosen to ride with us on a bike the whole time --- he would have had a better experience! We also made several good decisions: using the train to Mittersil instead of staying in Zell Am See and using the bus to Livigno helped save half a day of riding each. 

Needless to say we're all very proud of Bowen for accomplishing this bike tour on his single. It wasn't an easy tour but he persisted!

July 4: Lustenau to Lindau (Germany)

The day started with cloudy skies but dry roads as we rolled the remaining kilometers down to Hard, a small town right on the Bodensee where the bike path deliberately skirts the edge of the lagoons before allowing you to cross the Bregenzer Ach.

Once across that river, the bike path finally allows you to visit the shore of the Bodensee, which we did. From there, I remembered that the bike path went past a playground with a zipline, but there was a detour which bypassed that and dropped us straight onto the path to Bavaria.

At the crossing, we stopped for a quick photo.  Riding across the bridge onto the island of Lindau, we had to start mixing with traffic. I was grateful that we were early as the traffic was light and what traffic there was had to deal with low speed limits and therefore bike friendly.

Das Ludwig was at the outskirts of the pedestrain-only center of town, and we got lucky by arriving while the cleanup crew was still around. The manager showed up and agreed to let us into our rooms early and told us while there was no indoor parking for bikes we could lock our bikes next to the umbrella posts outside the hotel and assured us that it was safe even overnight. This would be unimagineable in San Francisco or nearly any big city in the USA but in Germany it was OK. The worst that could happen was that it could rain on our bikes overnight, but we weren't going to have much riding at all tomorrow.

Having settled into our room by 10:30, we decided to do the touristy things in Lindau island, walking around the harbor, visiting the lighthouse, visiting the lion, eating ice cream, and buying lunch at the supermarket. After that, I looked to see if there was availabe swimming area, and discovered that Google maps didn't think there were any. I would later discover that the park on the West edge of the island had a swimming entry. 

The obvious place on Google maps was Lindenhofbad, which was a bike ride off the island. Xiaoqin was fighting off a virus, so she took the opportunity to rest while Bowen, Boen and I rode our bikes over to Linderhofbad. The location was actually very nice but when we got there the kids declined to swim, and there was no paddleboard rental to be had. I wasn't going visit the Bodensee and not swim, so I did a swim without the kids anyway. A swan went by me as I swam for 20 minutes in the open water.

We rode back to Lindau and in the supermarket found some snacks, including sweets that were actually labelled as Bon-Bons. We then met up with Xiaoqin and walked around town before having dinner at a fancy restaurant I'd picked out and made a reservation at. I thought we would actually stay out late and enjoy the sunset but a short walk after dinner to the West edge of the island and listening to a concert for one song and eveyrone was tired.

I looked at the train schedules and decided we should go for the 8:15 train, and having folks get up early to catch a train was not a bad idea so we decided to go back to the hotel and turn in for the night.

July 3: Lenzerheide to Lustenau

The forecast was for rain today, but of course the weather in the morning looked fantastic. After a very full breakfast in which we had custom omelets in addition to the buffet specialties, we headed up to Lenzerheide pass which descecnded rapidly through Churwalden before hitting a bunch of construction, which we had encountered last year coming up from Chur. That time, the construction forced a detour through unusually steep alternates, but this time, at least the parts of the road that weren't under construction was super smooth and made for a very fast descent, granting us a max speed of 46mph.

Past the construction, we descended down the main road towards Chur rather than use the bike path. At downhill speeds the bike is at least as fast as a car and there's no reason to subject your brakes to the twisty bike path. In Chur proper, we followed signs to the train station and from there picked up Swiss Mobility route 2.

The route doesn't go directly along the river, but instead detours to Landquart where we had ridden through on the way to Davos in 2022.Here, the bike path actually goes up hill a bit before descending into Landquart where our luck finally ran out and a big storm blew through, forcing us to take shelter at the Migros in town where we had stopped in 2022 to have lunch. It was too early for lunch, but the storm subsided in a bit and we went on as soon as it became a drizzle.

From Landquart the route becomes easy as you get a dirt road next to the Rhine river that turns into an asphalted bike path near Sargans. From here, you're within an hour of Liechtenstein, and indeed we soon ran into a school trip. Boen and I rode ahead of them as soon as we could, since some of the kids were quite squirrely. They gaped at the tandem as we rode by.

We hadn't quite reach the head of the school trip when they took a turn right onto a bridge right across the Rhine. I surmised that this must have been the Liechtenstein border bridge, so we waited until Bowen caught up. We then crossed the border together and tailed the school group for a bit until Bowwen and Boen got hungry. leaving Liechtenstein behind near Haag, we crossed another bridge back into Switzerland to visit the huge COOP at Haag, where we could buy hot food and Boen got his supermarket ice cream. By this time the sun had come out and we could shed our rain jackets.

After lunch we tried riding on the Swiss bike path again, but the problem was that it was next to the very loud freeway, which drove us back across the border again at the next bridge, this time into Austria. I realized that we were making very good time because the storm had changed the characteristic headwind from the Bodensee up towards Chur into a tailwind at times, making this trip much easier than I had experienced in the past.

In Meningen we found the first zipline playground that we had seen today, and the kids took several runs on it while the adults looked for lodging. I looked for lodging in Hard and Bregenz, but they were surprisingly expensive and there was actually not that much availability. Lustenau, however, had plenty of availability, and was fairly cheap, including an apartment that had a washing machine ensuite, the savior of all dads on bicycle tours. Lustenau would also fulfill Boen's request do a metric century, so we booked it.

The rest of the ride was fairly unremarkable, though once again the weather started to rain as we got into Lustenau. We ended right at the apartment we had booked just as a storm came down again. I realized at this point that the SIM cards I had bought Bowen and Boen were no longer connecting to voice, despite the claim of unlimited calling inside Europe for 30 days, so I called using my phone and managed to get us the code to open the apartment and park the bikes into the bike locker. I got out our bottle of wax and rewaxed all the chains before moving up stairs to take inventory.

The house cleaners showed up and setup the kid's beds, and I discovered that the apartment was well equipped enough for coffee and even shampoo and soap, so all we needed to do was buy dinner and breakfast at the local supermarket.

We walked to the supermarket, dodging the raindrops and then came back to take showers, make dinner, do laundry, and eat. The after dinner walk was drizzly but by the time we got back tot he apartment things had cleared up a bit again. At least with the recent rains it wasn't going to be too hot to sleep.

July 2: Bergun to Lenzerheide

Once again, we had another beautiful morning to start our ride down the rest of the Albula pass. The descent was cool enough that we had jackets on, but once in Alvaneu, the road started turning up and down as it went through the small villagers of Surava before a decisive climb up to Tiefencastel. We shed our jackets in Surava, and by the time we started the climb up towards Lantsch it was warm in the full sun. 

Fortunately, while the traffic was briefly bad along highway 3 from the Julier pass, most of the traffic was headed towards Davos, so we were spared most of the traffic once we made the turnoff towards Lenzerheide.

On the way up the road, we saw a landslide come down the mountain. That was remarkable. We made Lenzerheide proper by 11:00am. While waiting for Bowen I sported the Hotel Seehof Valbella which had a good offering on booking. Given that they had a lot of room we were in no hurry, but ate at a SPAR off the main road before riding down past the lake to the Hotel Seehof. We could have kept going to ride down to Chur, but that would have guaranteed a very hot rest of the day. This was our last chance to stay high (Lenzerheide was at 1473m) and enjoy the cool weather before heading towards Lindau.

There, we showed the booking.com offering to the receptionist, who called her manager who immediately said: "Of course. We give them a discount for not using booking.com and showing up in person instead so we don't pay commission!" Our room was actually ready for us by the time we unloaded the bike and parked the bikes. We asked about the half pension but it seemed really expensive so we decided we would order a la carte instead.

Xiaoqin was pretty tired, so she opted to enjoy the beautiful hotel room while the kids and I walked to the Lenzerheide cable car. Lenzerheide is pretty famous for its bike kingdom, where it has a downhill lift assisted mountain bike course. The bike rental was no worse than comparable places in Canada, but Bowen opted not to do it because he didn't want to put on body armor. Instead, we took the cable car up and hiked back down, with a disappointment because the waterfall trail was actually closed. What I saw of the mountain bike park, however, looked impressive. The berms were well groomed and people in general looked like they were having fun.

When we got back to the lake we visited the watersport rental and rented two paddleboards, one for me, and one for the kids, and we made full use of the half hour rentals before returning it and hiking back to the hotel.

One at the hotel, we took showers and did laundry, before heading out to see if there were alternative places to eat. The supermarket didn't seem to have anything that was appealing, so we walked back to the hotel and ate off the (expensive) a la carte menu. The food was good, though perhaps not so good that it justified the high prices.

After dinner, rain came in and together with the shining sun, gave us an amazing lightshow, with rainbows and double rainbows in combination with an evening alpenglow. We congratulated ourselves for having the good luck to stay here. Looking at the forecast, the next few days were supposed to rain but we were also going to be low where the cool temperatures might be welcome.

Boen looked at the elevation profile and decided that tomorrow would be a good day to do a full metric century. He actually spent 15 minutes talking Bowen into it!

June 30th: Zernez to Maudalin

It was cloudy as we had breakfast early on Monday morning. After we packed and started getting the bikes out, the landlady showed up and told us our room wasn't clean enough and I had to give her 30 euros as a cleaning fee to get her off our backs. It started drizzling as we left the apartment, and the weather was coming from Berninapass, so all hope of riding the Bernina pass were crushed.

Riding the road back to the tunnel was straightforward. To my surprise, we didn't find any pacelines to draft off of, so we had to do all the work ourselves. Racing a 8:45am deadline, we slowed several times to let Bowen get back onto our draft, and arrived just in time to find that the bus wasn't there. The bus driver was late! When the bus driver showed up after 15 minutes, he had to hook up the trailer first, and then we had to put the tandem into the van. Since we were the only customers for that shuttle this was not an issue.

Arriving on the other side of the tunnel at 9:21, we started the climb up to Ova Spin, which is an easy climb from the 1600m tunnel. At the top of Ova Spin, we met a British couple who complained that they were sick of climbing mountains, having come up via Grimsel, Furka, Lenzerheide, and Albula. They were eager to get to the Alto Aldige bike path so they could have flat riding to Turkey. Ova Spin is not a real pass, and doesn't even have a pass marker, just a bus stop to commemorate your achievement.

The descent from Ova Spin to Zernez is fast and easy. There was some construction, which put a damper on our top speed. But the rain had stopped completely so while the roads were still wet we didn't get a single drop of rain on our jackets. At the bottom we stopped at the covered bike path bridge where we took off our jackets and leg warmers and prepared for the climb up the Maudalin.

Disappointingly, the bike path quickly dumped us back onto the main road after bypassing downtown Zernez. We had plenty of food from Livigno, so we didn't need food, so that was of no concern. To our surprise, the day started warming up as the sun emerged from behind the clouds. We started getting concerned about our chocolate melting, so we stopped and ate all the chocolate before starting a series of climbs that would take us up the Inn river towards Zuoz.

The road gave us beautiful views of the Engadin valley, including the river at times. I'd never seen the road from this direction before, and when going downhill you don't actually have a lot of time to gawk, especially since last year we were doing it while being chased by a thunderstorm and a postbus.

Arriving in Zuoz, we found the Spar around noon and had a supermarket lunch. During lunch, we looked at lodging options and decided that the Madulain lodge was a good choice. We booked it online and proceeded to buy dinner and breakfast, since the Madulain had a shared kitchen and the village itself was too small to have a supermarket!

Loading up the bike, we rode towards Maudalin. Somehow, Google maps detoured us onto a bike path (I would keep learning that Google maps is bad news on a bike tour) that ended up on dirt. It was pretty and of course we had plenty of time so it wasn't a concern, but it was pretty warm. I was surprised that it was so warm at 1600m, but then I reflected that Livigno was at 1800m and it felt pretty warm there too! Arriving at the Madulain Lodge at 1:00pm, we realized it was too early to checkin and the place was unstaffed. Our solution was to go for a hike!

We locked up the bikes behind the lodge, switched to walking shoes, and Xiaoqin proceeded to find a hiking path for us to use. The Engadin is super steep, so was the corresponding climb. We took our time, knowing that we had until 4:00pm or so before the automated system would grant us access. The path led us to castle ruins overlooking the valley. The views were nothing short of glorious. Hiking on, we found the fork, one direction of which would take us to the Albula pass, and the other would take us back into town.

We would see Albulapass tomorrow, plus the hike back to town would be far longer if we went that direction, so hiked into town, where the route opened up (once the trees are gone you have a clear view), and we had expensive Swiss ice cream at the Hotel Chesa Colani before getting to the Madulain Lodge where we were finally given key codes to unlock. The clear skies had given way to clouds.

Inside, we were given two rooms in one wing. No one else was in the wing, but the kitchen was shared with the other wing. Since we were earliest, we took showers, did laundry in the kitchen sink, and prepared dinner and ate it. As we were in the middle of dinner, other people moved into the other wing and started using the kitchen too.  Soon, it started raining in earnest and we finally had the promised thunderstorm around 6:30pm. By 8:00pm, however, it had eased up a bit and we could take a short after dinner walk without being thoroughly soaked, though we did not dare wander far from the lodge.

June 29: Pontresina Panaromic Hike

We got up early, ate breakfast, and got onto the bus which looked like a small airport shuttle to the top of Bernina pass. The bus was a few minutes late, but in true Swiss fashion, it sync'd perfectly with the bus that would take us to Muttas Muragl, the funicular railway that would take us to the start of the hike. It was already pretty warm despite the early hour, and the bus delivered us just in time to miss the previous train, which runs every half an hour. That gave us plenty of time to buy tickets, and it turned out that they opened up the funicular less than 15 minutes after we bought tickets so we could get in.

The funicular took us to a beautiful location with a zipline, and swings, and a nice playground. It wasn't very crowded, being early, so we took our time and looked around. Far to the south we could see the St Moritzersee and the Silvaplanarsee, beyond which was Maloja Pass which defined the border between Switzerland and Italy.

Starting the hike, we were impressed by the views of the Bernina Glacier as well, and of cousre the many wildflowers along the trail. Whenever there was a river crossing, there was a nice bridge. The entire trail was well maintained and pretty.

To my surprise, there was even a tunnel on the hike. We knew we would likely miss the 12:00pm anyway, so we took our time, stretching out the walk. When we got to the finish, the location where the ski lift would take us back down, Boen used the bathroom while we sat enjoying the cool breeze.

Back down in Pontresina, all the shops were closed, but we could buy ice cream and there was a bakery with some snacks available, though all at Swiss prices. When the bus came, we boarded it and the afternoon bus had no transfers, taking us all the way back to Livigno.

In Livigno, all the stores were open, so we bought supermarket lunch, dinner to cook, and Xiaoqin replenished her supply of contact lens solution. For grins, I asked how much a Fenix was, since apparently Livigno had its own tax regime, so things should be cheaper. I was disappointed as the sale prices weren't any better than what I could get in the USA.

After lunch, I chatted with the land lady and asked for another pod of laundry detergent so we could do laundry, and then I took the kids to the swimming pool where we had several runs with the water slides. It wasn't as much fun as Mayrhofen and it cost a lot more, but it was a hot day and the pool gave us something to do.

We made dinner and then went to bed early. The forecast was for rain, so our plan was to ride to the tunnel, ride to Zernez and then towards Albulapass. La Punt had expensive lodging, but the village just before that was a lot cheaper. It was also a lot less climbing so the kids wouldn't complain.

June 28: Trafoi to Livigno (with bus transfer from Santa Maria Val Mustair)

Late in the evening, Arturo had asked me what alternatives to Bolzano there were for getting back to Munich, as all the trains from there were booked on Sunday! I replied "Landeck", and he grabbed the last bike reservation from Innsbruck to Munich, as the train from Landeck back to Innsbruck didn't need bike reservations.

We got started at breakfast just as it opened. The breakfast was elegant and they even came by to ask us if we had egg orders. After that, we packed, delivered luggage to the RV, and began the climb to Hotel Franzenshohe where we would regroup for ice cream and snacks. The climb was beautiful and not very steep, but we would regret not starting earlier as it warmed up very quickly. We would later learn that this was the start of a big heat wave in Europe that would kill many people in the southern European countries.

Boen wasn't feeling as strong as he did yesterday, and at one point when I misjudged a corner I had to stop as another cyclist came down on the same side of the road we were on, and we had to walk. Bowen caught up to us and teased Boen for having to walk, turning the tables on their usual brotherly dynamic. Of course, Boen wasn't going to take that lying down and quickly poured on the power and distanced his brother.

At the 22nd hairpin we stopped at the Hotel Franzenshohe and had ice cream. I tried to persuade the others that the hiking trails behind the hotel were worth exploring but I got no takers. Both the heat and the remaining amount of climbing had taken their tolls on people's morale. I realized then that if you're going to schedule a hike during a bike ride, it is best to do it on the descent after the day's climbing was over. I would put this theory to the test later on in the trip.

The last 700m up to the summit was fairly straightforward, but not straight. The road zig-zags through 22 hairpins and the air got thin enough that even though we were acclimated slowed us down. But after the last hairpin the road actually becomes gentler and you get to ride that last half km in a euphoria and with lots of people cheering you on.

At the top, we got bad news. The road to Bormio was closed due to a landslide. We had seen no signs about this, and the website we consulted about it yesterday evening was updated at least a month ago. I was distressed because we had non-refundable hotel reservations in Isolaccia. After confirming that there was no way down to Bormio, we resigned ourselves. First, we ate lunch. Then, we would get our luggage from the RV. Before doing that, however, I realized that we were carrying a jersey that was too big for Boen that he never wanted to wear, so I bought a new Stelvio jersey for Boen and then we gave Stephan a bunch of equipment we weren't going to use for the rest of our tour to bring home. Otto Senior had had enough of driving steep, narrow mountain roads with an RV. Arturo had to return to Munich the next day, and Mark wanted to ride back to Zurich. This truly was the breaking of the fellowship. I had no plans other than to make it down to Santa Maria. Otto and Boen both said: "See, this wouldn't have happened if we'd chosen to ride the Silvretta instead!" We would later discover via Mark that Silvretta had a similar closure! Late spring rains really did a number on all the roads in the area.

We rode down the Stelvio to the Umbrail pass intersection, and rode down it. Unlike the last time I descended the road, I didn't have to stop to let the brakes cool, since the tandem only had the two of us on it. We stopped briefly at Hotel Alpenrose where we had stayed in 2022, and then back down to Santa Maria. At Santa Maria, we said goodbye to everyone else. Xiaoqin would observe that Boen looked unhappy, but after he saw everyone being happy and waving his social instincts took over and he calmed down instead of becoming upset.

It was 3:00pm, and Xiaoqin and I debated staying in Santa Maria. "But what's the plan tomorrow?" said Boen. "We climb over Ofenpass!" "No!" I then observed that we were right in front of a bus stop that would take us over Ofenpass to the Livigno tunnel. Livigno had a lot of lodging despite it being a Saturday, and would be higher and cooler than Santa Maria. It would also mean that the bus took us over Ofenpass. The only question was whether the bus would take our bike, including the tandem. I tried calling the postbus info line but it being a Saturday they weren't taking any calls. We had nothing to lose (there was plenty of lodging in Santa Maria), so we could just wait.

To our delight, the bus was towing a huge bike rack behind it, and the Roadini and Ritchey Road logic easily fit on it. The tandem wouldn't fit, but the bus driver calmly just opened up the bottom compartment of the bus and helped me slide the tandem into it. No decoupling. I'd never climbed Ofenpass from this direction before, and it was clear that it was much steeper and harder than from the other direction, indicating that Boen's instincts about not wanting to ride it was well founded. The scenery was nice though!

At the Livigno tunnel, we got off and stood behind some other cyclists for the Livigno tunnel bus, but when the designated time came the bus did not show up! One of the cyclists had stayed in Livigno for the past 2 weeks and we asked him if it was frequently late and he said "No, it'd always been on time." Another pair of cyclists were also caught up in the Bormio closure and were hoping to ride all the way to Bormio that evening.

Fortunately, Swiss bus drivers are a lot more reliable than Italian ones, so at the designated time, the Swiss postbus arrived and we boarded with our bikes. Once on the bus and assured that we could get to Livigno I booked an apartment near the bus stop for 2 nights.  The kids were tired so rather than made them ride all the way to Livigno I paid the absurd bus fare to go all the way downtown, reasoning that we'd get to ride to the tunnel 2 days later if the forecasts were correct.

Once downtown, however, we had to ride uphill to get registered with the apartment management company who then checked us in and released payment to the apartment owner and then we had to ride back to just past the bus stop. The apartment building was freshly built and they were still painting the garage. We were let in and showed the facilities which included a good sized kitchen. We were told that the supermarkets actually closed pretty late (at 8:00pm) and the apartment washing machine was available for us to use. So we walked out to dinner at a nearby restaurant and shopped for breakfast after placing our orders.

The kids were exhausted and it was clearly time for another rest day. I had decided that we should visit Pontresina to do their panaromic walk. Pontresina was so expensive that the money we saved by staying in Livigno would more than pay for the expensive bus + mountain funicular + cable car ride to Pontresina. The town of Livigno also had all shops open on Sunday, unlike Pontresina where no supermarket could be had. That meant we could cook dinner tomorrow night, saving us even more money. This cushioned the blow of losing our non-refundable lodging fee.

The others safely arrived at their respective lodging half way back up the climb to the Reschensee.