Malcesine and Limone

Yesterday and today have been really amazing!  We are making the most of the beautiful sunshine and have spent both days seeing some of the wonders of Garda.

Yesterday we cycled the short way to the jetty at Torbole to catch the 10.25 ferry to Malcesine on the east side of the lake, via Limone, which is on the west.  At Malcesine, we climbed the hill straight to the Cable Car station, where we met up with the family.  (They had come by car.)  It took around 7 minutes, in two stages, to reach the Monte Baldo range.  The second cable car rotates as it rises, so everyone can see the view in all directions during the journey!  The children were delighted to reach the snow, but this sunny weather is melting it away very quickly.  Such a wonderful place to be - on top of the world and up with the highest snow-topped peaks.  We'd been warned that it could be very chilly up there even on a sunny day, but we discovered we were extremely over-dressed and were soon down to our T shirts and slapping on more sun cream.  We walked north along a well-used path with superb views down to the lake one side and grassy valleys on the other, had our picnic, watched a couple of hang gliders swooping past sheer rock faces and across to the other side of the lake and took a selfie of us all when we reached the viewpoint looking towards the north end of the lake.  On the way back, there's a very well-positioned chalet serving hot and cold drinks etc. that it's almost impossible to pass by!

After a long rest, we left the family still soaking up the sun, and came back down to the town for a bit of an explore.  This included seeing the Scaligero Castle, although we didn't go in it, but we went to a set of steps up to the entrance with the intention of finding a geocache.  As we approached, we saw a chap and a young girl acting in a very geocaching manner, so we held back to see if they found what they were looking for, but they carried on doing the usual feeling around rocks and looking in bushes.  So we decided to go for it and own up to being fellow searchers - this proved extremely easy as they turned out to be Scottish!  We were soon the best of pals but decided we must be in the wrong place for this cache.  We left them after a while, but later when we were sitting drinking our flask of tea by the little harbour, they and the rest of their family eagerly came over to us to say that they had found the cache after spotting another set of steps.  Oh well, we can't win them all.  We all got on the ferry together, but our family had planned to get down to the jetty to wave us off and they weren't there .... then a text saying we are at the water's edge a bit further round - and there they were waving so vigourously that everyone on the boat waved back! 

A perfect end to the day was a barbecue back at our campsite and the children had fun climbing the trees while the rest of us did the washing up!

Monte Baldo - Walking towards the viewpoint

View of Riva & Torbole at N end of Lake Garda

Mountain-top selfie!

From our picnic spot

!!

Malcesine

The castle from the lake

 Today started a bit overcast, but by the time the family arrived and we all walked to the ferry at Torbole, the sun was coming through, and by the time we reached Limone, it was as hot as ever.  We had seen how stunning Limone is from the boat yesterday, so a wander through the little town admiring some beautiful buildings, the shops (many of them selling lemon-related goods or, of course, handbags), gelato cafes and restaurants was a must before settling down to eat at one of the latter by the lake.  Then, needing exercise, we climbed steep cobbled lanes of Via Milanesa and then a path following the Valle del Singol.  The river was tumbling over the rocks and rushing down the valley - quite a sight.  Although the walk book didn't mention it, we found that there was a (very new-looking) concrete path beside the river from the top of the cobbled road, so we were able to take that coming down and it led us to the beach to the south of the town.  Some of us had a (very quick -it was freezing!) paddle, did a bit of shopping - after a few days of looking, I found a lovely bag, my birthday present from Peter, Hannah & children and Natalie & David - ate our almost daily gelato and caught the ferry back home.

We are all taking a bit of a rest tomorrow!

Ancient lemon 'houses'

Limone

Valle del Singol

Looking across to Monte Baldo

The new path down

Fun at the water's edge