Firstly, thanks to all of you who have faithfully been checking the blog for updates. My apologies for not contributing sooner, internet connectivity has been spotty at best over the past month and so, this installment covers a lot of territory 🙂
…We were in Arco at the north end of Lake Garda with a few extra days to spare before heading to Switzerland. We decided to tour Venice overnight and then travel across Italy to hike the cliffs of the Cinque Terre.
First, to Venice via train from Verona in the late afternoon; seeing it in the evening is recommended by locals – less tourist traffic, more music and ambiance. From the train station along the Grand Canal we took a large water bus to Piazza San Marco (often known in English as St Mark’s Square) – the main tourist attraction in Venice. Along this main canal we saw history in the architecture, historical sites, end of day canal traffic, gondolas, private boats, cargo boats….
With the name of a small local hotel in hand we began our search. If you have ever walked around Venice you know the network of narrow streets, twists and turns; and, although we asked directions at several different locations, we wandered for an hour or more just missing this hotel by one or two streets several times over. When we found it, they didn’t have a room and we wandered on… We found a hotel room not far away and then dinner. FYI…Prices in Venice are double for tourists as a rule of thumb. If you can speak fluent Italian and act local, go for it, or go with a local, even easier. It had been awhile since we slept anywhere but our caravan, which we love; don’t get me wrong. But it is amazing how luxurious a room with a bath and toilet can be. After dinner, we walked to St. Mark’s plaza where there were musicians, classical and contemporary – it was fun and entertaining to experience the layers of culture, sounds, smells, lights, dancing and more. Tired and satisfied we headed back to our little hotel room which although blocks away was easier to find now that we had walked for hours becoming familiar with the city.
The next day we took the boat bus back to the train and headed to Cinque Terre – a train ride that took us across Italy from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean.
Cinque means 5 and terre means land, so it is 5 ‘lands’ or towns. Traditionally they were not accessible by car, only train, boat, on foot or animal transport. There is a unique charm in knowing you have only train and foot trails readily available to reach most of the towns even today. We took the local train to the farthest town, Monterrosso and it was there I put my feet in the Mediterranean for the first time. Everything they say about the clarity, blue and beauty of the Mediterranean, at least here, is absolutely true. It is breathtaking.
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We spent an hour or so in Monterrossa then started our hike along the cliffs to the next town, Vernazza which took about 1.5 hours of up and down trail the mountain side. We passed vineyard after vineyard, olive groves, orchards, all terraced on the cliffs. The history here is so very old and their traditional day to day life seems much the same as we imagine it has been for many years. We arrive in Vernazza around 6:30 pm, found water immediately and a slice of pizza, then walked through this old, sweet village until we decided to see if we could find a room somewhere for the night. We hike up the trail that leads to the next town and passed a small sign at a restaurant near the edge of town.
They had no rooms, but one no show and so we dined on local cuisine and wine and waited and hour and a half (9:30 pm) for the small apartment on the cliff, overlooking the sea and a castle, for a fraction of the price we paid in Venice. As we sat on the terrace outside the apartment (way more than just a room for the night) and up on the stone wall overlooking the sea we were tired, happy and felt very lucky for this experience.
Next day we headed out early, hiking to Corniglia which took about an hour. We had breakfast, cappuccino and walked through the village. Again, small, quaint, lovely.
We had to take the train from here to the next town because a landslide had taken out the trail, then we hiked from Manarola to Riomassiore which are the more populated, crowded tourist trails. It was a lovely 3 days; like a honeymoon really 🙂
Switzerland, Oh del aye hee hoo…
And so, from Brento, we headed to Lauterbrunnen (LB) on Aug 2, arrived Aug 3. A big storm came over the Sustenpass as we lumbered up in our little RV. She was overheating so we stopped for the night at the top, rode out the storm and woke to blue and beautiful skies in the morning. As we came down the other side towards Interlocken we saw beautiful mountains, streams, waterfalls…the clouds were hugging the mountains and the valley as we drove toward Jungfrau.
We arrived, parked and stopped by the Horner Pub, a local gathering point for BASE jumpers.
We saw ‘V’ and a few others, most everyone is off jumping mid-day…so, we drove the valley to Stechelberg, passed the BASE house, checked to see if anyone was around…everyone is out and about. We checked into the Jungfrau campground and settled in.
As people started to filter in from their morning, mid-day jumps we all gather at the Horner, a beer in some hands, glass of wine, cappuccino, tea or whatever suits the mood and stories are told, laughter, music, good friends, good times…
We stayed in LB about 5 days. Tony made a couple of jumps off High Nose in LB
drove to ‘Candlestick’ for another jump before we headed on to “the Crack” in Walenstadt. While he was at Candlestick I took the train from LB to Kleine Scheidegg where I hiked to the Eiger Glacier (north face). As I hiked through the cows and cowbells, beautiful meadows on narrow goat trails I had an overwhelming urge to yodel or burst in song “The hills are alive with the sound of music” :)…
The next day we left for the Crack in Walenstadt, another beautiful drive to this small, child and dog friendly village on a lake in another Swiss valley about 2.5 hours from LB in a regular car, in our little ‘Saint’ it took about 5. She is still chugging along 🙂 in these higher mountains she still runs a bit hot so we turn the heater and fan on to cool her off and keep chugging away.
We hooked up with Jeff, Cedric, Filippo, Dougs and Simon who flew the crack with Tony everyday. Jenny, another Mary and I hiked up to the top of the crack to watch their flights several times. It is the most awesome flying I have ever seen, seriously! In this picture the red circle indicates the exit point and the red rectangle identifies the area of the crack. 
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To get to the exit it takes 2 regular trains, a bus, two cable cars and a hike along a high narrow goat trail to the exit – one jump a day, cost to exit = 55 euros but well worth it! We stayed a week, between the campground and car park on the lake. We loved it!
By the end of the week we had decided to go back to Italy and meet Filippo, James, Kristina, Roberta, Maury and Noah in the Dolomites.
The Dolomites…
Tony really wanted to go see these huge hikes and jumps he had heard about, and there was a helicopter available for some of them during this week. So, we experienced another amazing drive and awe inspiring views into the Dolomites which are a unique section of mountains in north western Italy.
We stayed in a campground outside Alleghre.
It’s a quiet, family run site that was so friendly, affordable and lovely. For dinner one evening (for maybe 5 euros each) we had hand picked fried zucchini flowers, salad fresh from the family garden and pasta Bolognese. The red wine was local also, light and lovely. 3 plates with food and wine cost less than one salad in Switzerland. Note: In all our summer travels, Switzerland and Norway were the most expensive, although both extraordinarily beautiful, it is most affordable to pack your own food and drink when possible.
BASE jumping begins with a peak, Quarta Pala (about 2700 ft at the exit point) overlooking the campground. Tony and Filippo had a short drive up to the trail head then hiked 6 hours, one hour of that was steep climb, no ropes. They radioed down and everyone watched as they flew the most beautiful lines along the ridges and opened over the campground to land in front of us all. Awesome!! In this picture, the little red circle at the top just left of center is the exit point.
Tony was also able to make one cliff jump from another location where the Turbolenza team was filming. It was a helicopter lift to the exit on this one. The smoke is Maury, Roberta and James just before exit. Great fun
Near the end of the week the guys decided to jump Ciavetta, this highest peak in the Dolomites and a serious hike/climb. We left for Alleghe at about 4:30 pm, took the cable car and chair lifts as far as we could
(thank God for hiking poles!) and hiked 1.5 hours to the mountain hostel where we spent the night in a room of 22 beds (at least 15 full), had a dinner of pasta (carbs for climbing) and started out at 5:30 am for the Via ferrata (A via ferrata (Italian for “road with irons”) is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges). In this picture, it is 5:30 a.m. and we are hiking with head lamps 
then the peak of Monte Ciavetta which is a 2100 meter jump 3212 meters above sea level). I hiked with them for about 40 min as the dawn was breaking – gorgeous – before turning back as the trail climbed steeper approaching the Via ferrata and took my time hiking out taking pics
you can see the hostel where we stayed in this picture:
Tony made most of the climb, including the beginning portion of the Via ferrata before turning back. It took Kristina and Filippo another 4.5 hours from that point to reach the exit. Tony arrived back at the landing area in town about 20 minutes after they landed. Like many of the BASE cliffs, it takes a love for climbing and the whole experience, even if that is hiking out and not jumping. Of all the exits this summer, this one was the most difficult climb of all.
Gransee, Germany
So, it was time to leave Italy, the mountains, and the BASE portion of this trip and head to Gransee, Germany which hosts Tony’s favorite wingsuit competition. On a short side note, we had a flat tire on the camper van in Germany on the autobahn and it was with patience and persistence we got it done. Tony did an amazing job of it!! 🙂
Gransee, Germany – Go Jump DZ
What a great place! We arrived on Thursday in time to get 2 practice jumps in. Friday the competition started with downwind distance (2 jumps). On the first jump I re-injured my knee on exit so was out for the rest of the meet. Tony flew wonderfully and Apaches were in the first 4 places for all the rounds until the last upwind speed event where clouds caused variations with flight headings for competitors, so many zeroed out on that round changing the outcomes. All in all, it is a wonderful event and everyone had a great time! Oliver Furer remained in the lead for the entire event and won it easily – great flying Oliver!! Congrats to all who participated.
This is my first wingsuit competition – I came in 5th (out of 5), whoo hoo!!
the winner this year is Oliver Furer. Great flying!!
all of the competitors
the four Apaches. 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th place in the open catagory.
Saturday was a rain day so Oliver, Corrine, her mom, Tony and I took the train into Berlin for the day. We started off on a double decker tour bus and got off at the DDR museum on the river. We toured the museum which depicts the communist post war era in East Germany. We then hired a bicycle cab to take us around to the Berlin wall. Along the way he gave us a more in-depth history of this area of Berlin.
He is about 54 years old and said the best day of his life was dancing on the wall in 1989 when the last of it came down. He even let Tony drive for a ways.
We had a wonderful dinner near Check Point Charlie, then barely avoided an anti-terrorist demonstration, grabbing a cab back to the train station. Berlin is a very interesting, historical, cultural city that is well worth exploring.
These guys were too funny. We saw them later when it was raining, still drinking and peddling wearing their cheap clear plastic rain covers.
We are now off to England for the last part of our tour – 2 wingsuit events and a wedding. We are driving as I type this and are almost to Dunkirk, then France, ferry to Dover.
On a side note, stopped off in Antwerpen to see my favorite orthopedic surgeon, Eric DeCoster, who had a look at my knee. Not sure if meniscus is compromised, will let the sprain heal for a couple more weeks and decide on surgery then.
Tony Suits 