Travel Day- January 21, 2020

We are finally on our way to one of our favourite countries- Italy!  We boarded our plane to Montreal and for some reason we were flying very low and very slowly. It was taking us a long time to get to Montreal. Once we were about to land the pilot announced to us that there was a problem with the landing gear and that it wouldn’t retract so we had been flying with it down the whole way. The landing was terrifying! As it turned out we also had no steering. We did land safely but we were on a landing strip far from the terminal. The next step was to be towed by a tractor to the terminal. We were worried about our luggage making our next flight.  We were upgraded to premium economy for our flight to Munich which was a nice treat after our scariest flight ever.

Upon arriving in Munich we had to wait for our ski bag for over an hour and for our rental car for an hour and half. At the same time we found out that the Konig Ludwig Lauf had been cancelled. We were both so disappointed and immediately thought that we should see what other race we could do. Once we were on the road we headed to Carano, Italy which is very close to Cavalese. The last 40 km of the drive was on the beautiful, narrow, twisty roads of the Dolomites, over the Lavaze pass.  

We found arrived at our cozy apartment that we are sharing with Robert Palliser from Belleville, Ontario and Grant MCleod from Medicine Hat, Alberta. We met them at the Engadine Loppet in St. Moritz, Switzerland last year. Robert Palliser has 22 gold masters and Grant has 12 gold masters and 2 silver masters.  They are both in their 70’s and such an inspiration to us! Their expertise and advice is so appreciated and they are teaching us the ropes to become Worldloppet Gold Masters.