13th October 2015
“When the snow falls you’re found in St Moritz, with the others of the
Jet set.
You sip your Napoleon Brandy, but you never get your lips wet…..
Where do you go to my Lovely …….?”
Woke up to a pretty wet and miserable morning at the foothills of the
Alps – But at least it stopped raining while we packed up, and had a dry
breakfast. It wasn’t far to the “border”, and at 9 am, in the mist and the
rain, we came across the old border buildings out of Italy and then in to
Switzerland. Unlike so many of the other
EU borders we have crossed, there were actually people in the border post,
although they waved us straight through and there were no delays. Trucks were being pulled over and inspected
though – Looking for refugees hiding in the back, I presume.
We were already climbing when we crossed the border, and we continued to
climb afterwards as we passed a lake.
Within half an hour we were up at 1900 metres, and it was raining quite
heavily, while the temperature dropped to 6 degrees C. On the plus side, the autumn colours of the
leaves on the trees were suddenly superb – Prior to the Alps we had really seen
very little evidence of a European autumn, and had been a little
disappointed. Now they were turning
every autumn colour you could think of.
We went through a great pass with snow poles along the way, but the
cloud cover was so low we couldn’t see much of the scenery.
We dropped into St Moritz, set out beside a lake – I wonder if it
freezes over so they can skate on it in the winter ? We drove around the town – A lot of concrete
and expensive name-brand boutique shops, and not especially attractive, but I
am sure it is gorgeous when the snow falls.
Lots of big hotels, including the Grand Hotel Kempinski, which has
probably been there for ever. Cable cars
were running up the mountain sides despite there not yet being any snow, and
there was lots of work going on on the roads, as well as on buildings, as if
they knew the snow was coming soon, and they had to get everything finished
beforehand ! Quite exciting,
actually.
Suddenly off to the side we saw a statue of a man with a bob sled, and
then a “Restaurant Cresta Run”. Following the road out of town we saw this
stone wall – And suddenly realized it was part of the Cresta Run, and we were
driving on it in Troopie !! That’s a
first !! Once we realized where we
were, we pulled over and went for a walk along the track – It is very hard to
believe this is the Cresta Run – At the moment it is just a grassy track
and stone walls. It is only the wooden
footbridges over the track that give it away, although I am sure that once they
have the snow and the ice it transforms
After driving all over town in the rain, we then headed out towards
Davos and Klosters – We decided we might as well see all these famous ski
resorts while we were here ! Within 15
minutes of leaving St Moritz we crossed the top of the Julierpasse at 2284
metres – again in low cloud and rain.
Shame really, as the scenery through here is supposed to be stunning……
Instead we stopped near the top of the pass and went in to an Inn for a hot
chocolate and some Apfel Strüdel – Which was delicious, but VERY expensive –
Welcome to Switzerland !!
From there we dropped down into Davos, which is not a very pretty town –
Much new concrete. We found out later
that there was a major fire here some years ago that destroyed much of the old
town, with the result that most of the buildings are new. The impact is increased because on the road
between San Moritz and Davos are some delightful old villages, with buildings
of typical Swiss design – and of course always with the flower boxes on the
verandah of almost every house. And we
drove on some really narrow country lanes for much of the way, which was
interesting, as always – The locals seem to stare at us as we pass through,
wondering what on earth we are doing out here in the countryside !
After driving around in a fairly damp and gloomy Davos for a while, we
stopped beside their lake just outside town and had a sandwich, then we headed
out of town to our last resort – Klosters.
This is where the English Royal Family usually come for their ski
holidays, so we decided we would have a look while we were in the area. Klosters is a much more typical Swiss ski
town with more traditional buildings, and is in a beautiful setting in a valley
– Would love to have seen it with snow !
After Klosters, we headed for Zurich where we were to visit with Michael
and Simone who we had met on the road in South America. We looked for a campsite near where they
live, but the nearest one was closed for the winter. In fact the gates were open and we were going
to camp there, but it was raining and pretty miserable so we decided to see if
we could find Michael and Simone’s apartment and make plans from there. Surprisingly we did find their place, and
Michael said we were more than welcome to stay with them – He couldn’t have
been more welcoming (Simone was at work).
In fact they even moved out of their room to make us more comfortable – We
could not have been made to feel more welcome. Once Simone arrived home, we
enjoyed a delightful dinner with wine and even grappa – And went to bed
exhausted !
The next morning after Simone had gone to work, we headed into Zurich on
the bus / tram. It was cool, but
fortunately the rain of the previous day had stopped and wandering around in
town was enjoyable. We went into the old
part of Zurich, saw the largest clock tower face in Europe on St Peter’s, and
then wandered down into the financial district where companies like UBS and
Zurich Insurance are located, and on to Fraumünster Abbey – Which was founded
in 853 AD and a Benedictine convent.
Inside the Abbey are stain glass windows by Marc Chagall, while outside
is……a mess ! The square outside was being
dug up to put in
an underground car park – But unfortunately (for the car park
people) they found the remains of a chapel from 1300 as well as some burial
sites down there - End of car park plans
!! They are now running tours through
the excavations instead !!
We then wandered down through town until we came to a small alleyway
with a restaurant type place alongside called the Sternen Grill, and LOTS of
people. Turns out it is a well known
Zurich place that sells Bratwürst and bread and beer and is kind of a local
institution. They claim to sell the
“original ”Bratwürst” but I think there might be a few Germans who might
disagree with that ! Whatever, they were
really good – Certainly the best in Zurich !!
From there we wandered down past the Opera House to Lake Zurich, which
we enjoyed in the sunshine before heading to the Confiserie Sprüngli – A
chocolate shop that also sells macarons – They even have a branch in Dubai
airport ! Anyway, Michael bought some
of these for later, we did a quick shop for some things for supper, and then we
caught the bus back to their home.
Once Simone was home from work, we had raclette for supper with the
special cheese melted in a special machine and combined with mushrooms and ham
and onions etc before pouring it over steamed potatoes. I had never done this before, and as I like
my cheese, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening – As did everyone else. But Simone had to work again in the morning,
and we had to hit the road north, so eventually we staggered off to bed after
enjoying at lest a couple of bottles of wine with the meal, before finishing
off with the macarons.
A great couple of days in Zurich with Michael and Simone – our friends
from Ushuaia. It was so good to catch up
with them and spend some time with them again.
I wonder which continent we will meet on next time – Australia ?
Other pics here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0381TiranoToZurich?authkey=Gv1sRgCIekkOCKjLrp-AE
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