In between visits to a lovely spa resort I decided that I should do some sight seeing while Dale was skiing. Flims is in the Swiss Canton (state) of Graubünden and the regional capital is Chur (pronounced something like 'whore'), which was only a 30 minute bus trip from Flims. So that is where I decided to go.
Graubünden is a scarcely populated Canton but is the home of Swiss tourism. In addition to the Flims, Laax and Falera snow fields it is also includes the ritzy St Moritz and Davos ski resorts in the region known as the Engadine. It is also the region in which Romansch is spoken, which is an official Swiss language and is the Romance language that is closest to Latin.
Chur is also one of the oldest cities in Switzerland because it was a Roman settlement, so there were many reasons to visit Chur. It is a pretty small city but is jam packed with history and beautiful buildings.
There is a lot of lovely decoration on the exteriors of grand buildings
Archways in small cobble stoned streets
While I was sightseeing in Chur Dale was having his best day of skiing....
Views back to Flims from the home trail
More views back to Flims at about 2,200m. Flims sits at 1,100m
I had never ridden in a cable car. This one held at least 60 people, and it towered above the chairlifts that crossed beneath it. Cue disaster movie music.
The view from the top. You can just make out Flims in the distance. From this point it was possible to ski all the way down to Flims (would probably have taken about 30 minutes and a new pair of legs).
Selfies are sometimes the only option
Manuela arrived Thursday night and she and Dale headed off to ski in Friday morning but returned crest fallen before too long. They had managed to get one reasonable run in before all the decent runs were closed due to high winds. They were not re-opened. As a result Dale was able to help me out with dinner party preparations for Friday night when Beat and Conny were to join us. And...this also allowed the three of us to head off the spa resort yet again for a relaxing couple of hours before getting the dinner party underway.
On Saturday I decided to head off sight seeing again. At Manuela's suggestion I went back into Chur and took part of the Rhaetian Railway (which is World Heritage listed) to a town called Bergun. A train called the Bernina Express runs along this part of the railway from Chur, through St Moritz and the Endgadine Alps to Tirano in Italy.
The others were planning to ski but when they got up they found that most of the runs had been closed yet again due to high winds. When this happened, Dale took the opportunity to have Manuela drive him down to Chur at break neck speed in order to catch the train with me. This was great for me but unfortunately for Dale they opened quite a few runs up again later in the morning and the others did manage to get a little bit of skiing in.
Anyway, the Rhaetian Railway is magnificent and Bergun is a charming Alpine village
A view of the train heading across a six arched, 65 metre high viaduct and then into a tunnel dug into a cliff face.
Bergun is a popular town location for snow sledding. The streets were also very icy after nearly a week without snow but during which temperatures were cold enough at night to keep refreezing the snow.
Elaborate window grills
More beautiful decorations on building exteriors.
Them chickens ain't silly - stay out of the snow
The Bernina Express heading away from Bergun, wending its way higher up into the Alps.
Manuela and Conny suggested that we visit the Kurhaus in Bergun. Formerly a spa house, it is now a hotel and restaurant. It was built in the 1900's and has some beautiful art nouveau features. They also specifically suggested that we try the Berguner Tapas for lunch. Brilliant suggestion. The piece de resistance was the Alpkase-Creme Brulee, a cheese crème brulee. Here's a picture, with the menu.
More magnificent views from the train on the way home
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