Today we left St Moritz after a one-night stay. And I have to say I was very surprised by it. I expected the town to be incredibly glitzy with high-end stores everywhere. Instead, it was very quiet and bourgeois. (Maybe the Swiss think its vulgar to flaunt your wealth?) The quietude had to do with the fact that Thursday was Ascension Day, a religious holiday for both Protestants and Catholics. This meant that the Swiss had given themselves a long weekend, and the shops wouldn’t open until Monday. It was quite unlike those little villages of Cima and Porlezza on Lake Lugano near the Parco San Marco resort where we stayed. There you couldn’t get away from high-end shops.
We descended to the town of Chur (pronounced Cour with a hard C). As it lies in the Rhine river valley, it is no surprise that it is the oldest settlement dating back to 3900 BCE. Our tour guide took us on a short walking tour of old town, and then told us to meet her at St. Martin’s Church (in the old town) at 1pm. It was 11:45 when she said this.
As she’d highly recommended the Café Maron near the station, I went there for lunch. I ordered the Business Beef Lunch, which consisted of grilled beef strips that had been flambeed, and were served with a salad (dressed with Balsamic vinegar) and shaved Parmesan cheese. It was delicious and I accompanied it with a glass of Pinot Noir, which had been highly recommended.
Then I made the mistake of ordered for dessert a coffee drink, a Ciocolattino, which was a mix of coffee and chocolate, served with whipped cream. Oh dear, I really shouldn’t have done that. It took ages to arrive. This meant that I couldn’t leave the coffee shop until 12:40. Apparently the machine broke, but they didn’t tell me that. If they had, I would have cancelled the order.
I really wanted to explore Chur, and would have liked to climb up to the Cathedral. But there wasn’t time. I consoled myself with the fact that it was rainy and cold, and so I hadn’t really missed much.
At 1pm we walked to the coach and departed for the resort town of Brunnen on Lake Lucerne. Of all the places I’ve visited in Switzerland so far, I liked the town of Brunnen the best. Unfortunately, the only shops open were those selling tourist tat. (I can’t wait for Monday!)
After that, we took a boat across Lake Lucerne. I stayed inside until the first stop (only an 8-minute ride.) But I got tired of the bright lights. Tired of people staring at their iPhone while they ate crisps. And tired, most of all. of the too-warm fug. So I went outside on deck and tried to meditate. I was so glad I did. Yes, the weather was not good. Yes, there were lowering clouds. But the rain stopped and the lake was like a millpond. After the second stop, the weather turned, with the wind kicking up, making it very difficult to stay outside. So I was obliged to go back inside, which was just as well, as we had to get off at the next stop.
Unfortunately, the coach was missing. But it turned out that Alessandro was nearby, just in the wrong spot. We clambered aboard and headed for our hotel (Hotel Bellevue Terminus) in the ski resort of Engelberg.
