Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Katherine J on August 11, 2008, 02:49:27 PM
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Hello all,
I would like to show you the place where we spent the last two weeks of July, and which I can recommend for all mountains and alpines lovers.
The Ortler group, with the 3905 m Ortler (Ortles) mountain lays in northern Italy, where the Swiss, Austrian and Italian borders meet. There are many peeks over 3000 m, and a lot of huge glaciers. The rocks are mostly granite, phyllite and other metamorphic rocks, no lime at all.
Our "home" was an apartment in Sulden (Solda), a village at about 1800 m, beneath the north-eastern wall of the Ortler. This is a valley surrounded by snow-headed peaks all around. It's beauty is unbelievable, and there are VERY nice people there.
Many flowers were already over, but also many were in full bloom. We would like to go back next June to see the springflowers too. :D
As I don't like to speak much, here are the pics:
Reschensee in Vinschgau (Val Venosta), in the background the Ortler group
View from our bed(!) at 6 in the morning
Sulden in the morning
Sulden morning
And again
Little rock garden
Unknown something
The first Papaver alpinum
View
A little tired? ;D
More to come...
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[quote As I don't like to speak much, here are the pics:[/quote]
Your beautiful pictures say it all Kathrine... :)
Many thanks for posting.
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Silene nutans maybe
Sempervivum montanum
Gentiana nivalis
View from Düsseldorfer Hütte (27?? m)
The Königspitze
Pyrola
Rose Myosotis
A little cold up there at Tabaretta Hütte ;D
View
Phyteuma haemisphericum
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Silene acaulis show...
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Gentiana brachyphylla (?) show...
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Wonderful pictures Katherine ! :o
I spent a holliday in Sulden 25 odd years ago ! You're bringing back excellent memories of a gorgeous valley ! I remember climbing to the Düsseldorfer and the Tabaretta Hütte at the cost of a lot of sweat... ;D ... but the great views and numerous plants rewarded us tremendously... I definitely should get back there sometime... ::)
I hope you have many more pictures to show us ! ;)
And thanks for taking us on your hikes !
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Field of flowers
Another morning
Achillea atrata
Linaria alpina
Natives of the Alps ;D ;D ;D
View
Arabis pumila?
Campanula barbata
Will be back soon... :)
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Ranunculus glacialis show...
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Kata, your photos are so beautiful !
Magnificent mountains, charming flowers.... I could expect this, I suppose, though I do not know this area..... BUT...... YAK?????? This was indeed a BIG surprise :o :o 8)
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re: YAKS...... mind you, on reflection, there are reindeer in the Cairngorm mountains, so.......... :-\
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Maggi,
there were also lamas (is this English?) :o
Luc,
There are 3 mountain lifts now in Sulden, you don't have to walk too much if you don't want to... :)
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Sheeps NOT eating the Gentians
Saxifraga stellata ssp. alpigena (isn't it?)
Our way with many flowers
Lilium martagon
Aster alpinus
Many Saxifraga aizoides
Waterfall
The Rosim glacier
The whole Rosim glacier
Minuartia
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Larix decidua and Pinus cembra
On the road ;D
Marmot
View
The Payer Hütte
View
Some are enjoying themselves like this...
And some like this...
Suldenbach
Holes in the glacier
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Maggi,
there were also lamas (is this English?) :o
Llamas! Really!! :o :o Though we have some of these in Scotland, too , now ;D
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Androsace alpina show...
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Kathrine,
What an extraordinarily beautiful place - and so well captured in your photographs. An excellent posting; delighted to look through your photographs and hope you have a few more to come.
Paddy
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Kathrine, Thankyou for sharing your holiday with us, there are some super photos and some lovely plants ...and I love glaciers too! 8)
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Lovely pictures Kata.
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These are superb pics, Kathrine. Thank You. I am pleased that you enjoyed your trip to this amazing area.
Is Solden in the next valley to the Gurglertall and Obergurgle? We went there for several years, very high and superb scenery etc. We also saw the 'holes' in just one of the glaciers, all the others had more conventional crevases, and found them to be very frightening -they form a round tube all the way through the glacier and if you fell in you would become jammed in the tube with no way of moving.
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Kathrine,
Super photos of wonderful plants. Arabis pumila is a synonym of A. bellidifolia subsp. stellulata. Saxifraga stellata ssp. alpigena = S. stellaris.
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The Ortleralpen are indeed marvellous - but your pics also!
Thank you Kathrine!
Gerd
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There are 3 mountain lifts now in Sulden, you don't have to walk too much if you don't want to... :)
That sounds like a place for me too Kathrine. ;D :D
Thanks for sharing your holiday with us and for your beautiful pictures.
The little something in the first posting "007 unknown".....looks like a Lycopodium. ? (Bärlapp)
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Am really enjoying your lovely pictures Kathrine the Ortler looks to be well worth a visit
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Another wonderful trip to Europe's mountains for those of us stuck at the bottom of the earth. Many, many thanks Kata. The plants are amazing and the animals so attractive. Wish my legs were sufficiently young and beautiful to warrant waving in the air. ;D
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Thank you all for your kind comments.
Franz, thanks for your help. In fact I meant stellaris, it was a misspell ;D
David, yes, th Sulden valley is close to Obergurgle.
Here are some more:
Bird - I don't know his english name :'(
Half paitned goat ;D
Achillea
Cerastium latifolium show...
Leucanthemopsis alpina
Pulsatilla
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Arabis pumila (A. bellidifolia ssp. stellulata :))
Campanula
Doronicum clusii
Geum reptans 3x
Lichens
Myosotis alpestris
Saxifraga aizoides
Primula glutinosa
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Saxifraga oppositifolia show...
Saxifraga bryoides show...
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Papaver alpinum...
Parnassia palustris
Phyteuma haemisphericum
Pritzelago? - it was all in all approx. 5 mm
Nigritella
Saxifraga caesia
Senecio incanus maybe
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And just a little more ;D
Saxifraga caesia
Senecio incanus
Stone wall with flowers
Valeriana supina 2x
?? What is this beauty? It was in Switzerland, in front of a house, lonely in a stone trough...
It is the end of the story now. :) Thank you for your interest. :-*
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Looks like a very well grown Helichrysum milfordiae, Kathrine ...
Magnificent post ... some of those should be entered into the SRGC photographic competition.
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Kathrine, wonderful pics, thank you!
I hope I will have the same sunny weather the next 2 weeks!
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Kata, your photos are just a delight, thank you! :-*
Hans, hope you do have such weather for a happy holiday!
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Great, great, great show Kathrina.
Paddy
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Thank you Paddy, and Cliff, and everybody! We (me and my husband) are happy you liked it, because we also liked it very much. :)
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Thanks again for this wonderful show Kata. Beautiful plants and places and I especially like both halves of the goat. :)
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But which half would you prefer to eat, Lesley?
Goat is no longer commonly eaten here in Ireland but, as a child, we looked forward to kid in season each year.
Then again, draining the blood from the autumn killed pig and watching my mother make black pudding, a type of blood sausage, was another of these now past pleasures. Pig's feet, pig's head and salted pig's ear were also enjoyed.
Times change!
Paddy
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Who said anything about eating the goat? I admire his coat, that's all. Kid yes, mature goat, no thanks. There's no Farmers' Market near you Paddy? Pork trotters, cheeks, belly, brawn etc. All jolly good fare if well prepared. Haven't tried salted ears though. Will suggest them, on Saturday, to my pork vendor.
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"We" (when I was a child ;D) usually killed the pig between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and that meals I also recall with pleasure. ;D
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Lesley,
Irish people have drifted away from most of these traditional foods, what might generally be categorised as 'offal' and one needs to order them from the butcher if needed.
Salted pig's ears were a winter chew for children in my family. The nearest shop was about five miles away and, to be honest, spare cash wasn't available and so we would cut a slice off the salted pig's ear which hung in the pantry or above the fire in the kitchen.
There is no good farmer's market near me. There are two excellent markets but they are about a two hour drive away.
Paddy
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Thanks a lot for posting these fantastic pics. I have enjoyed them very much :)
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Kata, I think we must ask you to pass our thanks to your husband for allowing us to accompany you on your holiday.... after all, he does not know us and so many strangers with you must have been quite a surprise, eh? ::) ;) ;)
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Maggi,
he knows you very well. ;D He does not speak (and read) English only very bad, but I translate many things for him from this beautiful Forum, and he also looks to the pics posted when he has time, and he already knows many of you. ;)
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Kata, this is good news! :-*
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re: YAKS...... mind you, on reflection, there are reindeer in the Cairngorm mountains, so.......... :-\
Maggi
Did you see them last night on BBC2 - not for meat, but more a Scottish Longleat(!)
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Missed that programme, Art.
An Icelander, Uitsi, brought a herd of reindeer to the Cairngorms many years ago and they are still a visitor attraction, as well as being very busy in the Christmas period, making appearances all over the country to assist Santa in town and shopping centres .
It is possible to be walking in the hills and come upon a group of these attractive and mostly very calm and friendly creatures. We had trouble once trying to get away from a group without a young calf, which had decided that Ian looked a likely surrogate parent and was determined to follow us... thought we were going to end up with her and her mother and assorted relatives in our back yard.... the baby was very persistant. Fun opportunity to really see these animals at very close quarters. They have the most adorable, sofft, furry noses! Very pettable! In fact, reindeer are covered as comprehensively in their thick fur coats as it is possible to be.. feet, noses, long pretty eyelashes... everything is furry !
The real joy about these reindeer is that they are able to roam over huge areas of open land....while there are llamas and even ostriches to be seen around in Aberdeenshire, these are confined in regular farm fields and so lose some of the shock value of seeing them!
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Kathrine
A truly wonderful set of photographs. I particularly liked your idea to have 'shows' of several species - this really enabled us to understajnd where they liked to grow. The Ranunculus glacialis were wonderful, and the Gentian and Saxifrage were not far behind.
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Paddy, for a moment there I had a seriously worrying picture in my mind, of you creeping up on some unsuspecting pig, slicing off a chunk of ear, then going off to salt it before having a good chew. Had to re-read the post a couple of times.
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Very pettable! In fact, reindeer are covered as comprehensively in their thick fur coats as it is possible to be.. feet, noses, long pretty eyelashes... everything is furry !
Most considerate too. Hiking in Sweden and finding a mountain hut full Helen and I had to resort to a nearby dwarf willow thicket for the night. Later we woke to reindeer streaming through but not a single (furry) hoof went astray ;D
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I suppose picking their way through ice and snow makes them very sensitive to where there put their feet. 8)
Hiking in Sweden and finding a mountain hut full Helen and I had to resort to a nearby dwarf willow thicket for the night
My, Ashley, you DO know how to give a girl a good time, don't you ::) ;) ;D
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My, Ashley, you DO know how to give a girl a good time, don't you ::) ;) ;D
As was clearly pointed out to me at the time indeed ::)
However she's a most tolerant and forgiving person because she later married me 8)
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Ashley, you are one very lucky chap :D
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Kathrine
enjoyed your Ortler show :D
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My, Ashley, you DO know how to give a girl a good time, don't you ::) ;) ;D
As was clearly pointed out to me at the time indeed ::)
However she's a most tolerant and forgiving person because she later married me 8)
If you can't beat 'im, join 'im?
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If you can't beat 'im, join 'im?
;D
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Kathrine,
I had been waiting and watching for this post, as I knew you were going somewhere wonderful on vacation....and was anxious to see your report---and then I somehow missed it and did not find it until today.
But my pleasure was no less finding it late. In fact I dropped all the seed cleaning for an hour or more and enjoyed your trip.
Thank you so much for it!!!!!!!
Were you able to find any seed????
Maggi, I have been thinking how nice it would be to have a separate link on the main page called something like "Travels"---where members trips could be posted, and we would have them in one place to refer back to (when we are finally ready to make our journeys to those places ourselves).
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Extremely beautiful report! :o :o :o :o thank you very much for sharing these pictures
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Maggi, I have been thinking how nice it would be to have a separate link on the main page called something like "Travels"---where members trips could be posted, and we would have them in one place to refer back to (when we are finally ready to make our journeys to those places ourselves).
Kristl, good idea, I will speak to the Bosses!