For our second week in Switzerland we rented an apartment from a friend of Manuela's at Flims, which is part of the Laax skiing area. The town of Flims sits at about 1,100m and the vast ski fields rise above it to an altitude of just over 3,000m.
After we had settled in on Sunday, we set off with Manuela to have lunch at beautiful Restaurant Conn. It was about an hours walk through forests below Flims.
Approaching Restaurant Conn
Relaxing with a glass of wine after lunch
Near the restaurant was this very exotic viewing platform, which projected way too far over the edge of the cliff, even if it afforded amazing views
From the platform you could see down to the Rhine River
The walk back uphill was harder so there had to be some high jinx along the way.
Dale went skiing on the Monday morning. Rodney and Stefan also drove up from Einsiedeln, having only flown back from New York the previous day. We had a lovely lunch in our holiday pad after Dale got back from skiing and then we wandered up to the classy Hotel Waldhaus for coffee and hot chocolate. It was great that we could catch up with them as they were heading away again a couple of days later.
Dale skied again on Tuesday and I walked up behind Flims to the top of the Foppa chairlift along a very pretty walking trail and met him for lunch.
Whilst Flims has seen a lot of new accommodation development, it is still a working rural town with cattle and other animals. Farms are dotted amongst the ski lodges.
The animals bring a earthy feel (and smell) to the town.
The walk afforded lots of nice views back to Flims...
...as well as up to the ski fields above.
The Crap Sogn cable car station is right at the top centre of the photo.
After lunch Dale headed back for more skiing. It took him 90 minutes to get from here back to the glacier at 3018m, an indication of just how enormous the ski field is.
I took another way back down to Flims after lunch - more views of Flims.
On the Wednesday Dale took a rest day from Skiing, and we decided to take a long walk from Flims to the town of Falera, passing above Laax along the way. We had lunch in Falera and then caught the bus back to Flims.
Laax is apparently snow boarder heaven. We wondered why every snow boarder we saw was carrying a back pack. Dale dismissively suggested that it was so they could carry their selfie stick. The next day, while skiing, he came across three of them, with the selfie stick out, filming themselves with a Gopro.
At a cross roads. The walk was pretty well marked although Laax seem to get further and further away. Lucky we were happy to walk above it and enjoy the view.
Laax down below
The old old church in Falera
The newer old church in Falera
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