Update: now 8:30am on the 8th sep (friday) & 2nd last day here in 5star luxury

on wed 6th dad, mum & i went for a ride up in a chairlift up to a place called Seceda (said Sech-eda apparently). the series of two lifts take you from about 1200m to 2500m. the last one is a big box where everyone stands (like a cattle truck really, the way they pack everone in). flying towards a cliff face then at what seems like the last minute you get lifted clear and up, up and away is really cool - but mum squeezed herself in the back corner with the driver so i guess she doesnt agree.
[left] Chairlift/chairbox coming down (slope up in the background). These are licensed to carry about 60 people and are prob about 7m by 4m in size??). [right] packed in the box.















When we got to the top, mum and i sat on the sun lounges at the restaurant (yes there are little restaurants all over the place, particularly where the chairlifts are positioned) while dad went for a bit of a walk up to a great looking-out position (under a cross with a sculptured, wooden jesus on it). now before you think im lazy, i have been up to that spot a couple of days before, and anyway, i like hanging out with my mum :-)

after that we all went for a swim and then luckily mum & i got a tour from one of the pool attendants of the majority of sauns & special rooms. mind-boggling! salt grotto - sauna where steam comes through salt from the dead sea; oriental sauna; turkish-style sauna; ladies-only sauna - with rose petal essential oils; a sauna at 57 degrees (nude only); spa pool (cool), spa pool (hot); ice pool (outside the 57 deg sauna); sauna at 90 degrees - scary! with a crushed ice machine outside so you can rub t over yourself; couple treatment rooms - with massage tables, spas & a bed (!).... anyway, its all like nothing ive ever seen before.

thurs 7th: this was going to be a nice relaxing day (i thought). after breakfast we said bye to juliette & anthony who were embarking on the drive to Nebian (near Montpellier) where all 4 of them have another house booked for few weeks. dad went on a big walk - 8 to 5pm, very steep, segments holdidng onto wires bolted into the rocks - generally full-on... i went to the gym then met up with mum at the pool. anyway, we discovered that the train tickets reception were trying to check availability for with trenitalia to get to montpellier - trenitaia promotes its tickets as easily-purchased eg. online/over phone - could not be booked online, or over the phone, and there were no accredited travel agents anywhere near here (i wonder if there are any in italy?) - bloody trenitalia.

so mum and i had to catch a bus for an hour (4.5€ pp) back down the valley to bolzano to buy the tickets. get to tick office - 'that will be 670€ for 3 tickets'. we nearly had heart-attacks - particularly as over the phone theyd said 140€- asked at information office and received a blaze, palms-upward 'eh, it was a mistake'... after fiddling around for a bit, we found a journey that was 350€ for 3 of us. and there wasnt much help to find anything cheaper so we were resigned that that would have to do - not as much sleep-time on that one but tough luck.

ok, so bus back up the valley - this time 8.55€ for two. how can the same journey (sure, on diff days & diff directions) cost 8.80€ for mum/juliette, 9.00€ for us down, and 8.55€ back up??? must be an in-built random number generator...

finallly train tickets organised - it was the only journey leg i wasnt booked for and i would def recommend to book early to get good prices and avoid the stress we had. i had/have all the flights booked like: lond-ath, ath-kythera, ath-venice, montpellier-lond, plus the ones kim, amy & i are doing eg. lond-dublin, lond-spain (after contiki), spain-edinburgh. ill def be over airports after this trip i reckon!

anyway, after that little trip, we were off to the hot spa!! GREAT!!! then i had an ABHYANGA massage booked for 7pm (we have 150€ worth of tretments for free as it was a promotion for this week). whole body massage (yes incl head, feet, hands) with warm oil. absolute bliss i tell you. felt like i was walking on a cloud afterwards. ahhhh arent holidays grand!!!

ciao

Some pics of the pool/spa area:

Mum & Dad looking relaxed in their bathrobes [left] and Mum enjoying the hot spa with Sella Gruppe in the background [right].