Day 10 – Gasthof Waldruhe

Jan 21, 2020

Today’s Blog Entry

For our Tuesday adventure Cindy and I took the bus eastward from Dobbiaco to the town of Innichen. We walked across town where we found our trailhead at the edge of the forest and at the base of a fairly steep climb. That north-facing trail was very icy so we put on our crampons and scratched our way up the first major hill. From there we followed a rolling trail along one side of the Puster Valley. Our destination was a small top-rated restaurant located high above the village of Sesto called the Gasthof Waldruhe (https://www.gasthof-waldruhe.com/).

We arrived at the Gasthof Waldruhe around 12:30 after a descent that brought us to the edge of the forest. The restaurant sits on a steep slope with a great view of both the Dolomites and the valley below. It is owned by Chef Stefan Senfter, an enthusiastic young man with a flair for traditional Tyrolean dishes.

We chose to sit inside in the classic pine-filled dining room even though there was a beautiful view from the sun terrace. It had been very cold with temperatures in the mid-teens when we set out this morning and in spite of the sunshine it was still below freezing at lunchtime – we were ready to get warm.

When Chef Stefan found out that he had some Americans in the dining room he immediately came out to greet us. He told us that he has been to the US no fewer than ten times and is a big fan of the American West, which probably explains the Jeep CJ with a Wyoming decal that we saw parked out front! The entire staff shook our hands and thanked us warmly when we left. Overall it was a wonderful experience and highly recommended!

After lunch Cindy and I walked a series of steep switchbacks down to the village of Sesto where we caught the next bus back to Dobbiaco. This brought the day’s total to around 7 miles of hiking with 1,500 feet of vertical.

Cindy has planned another great adventure for tomorrow. It will be our next to last day in Dobbiaco, so stay tuned to see what kind of trouble we can get into!