Today we took a train ride from Chur to St. Moritz, which takes two hours each way. The Alpine scenery was just as lovely as you would expect - magnificent white peaks, small villages, clear blue mountain streams - and the train was clean and efficient, as always in Switzerland.
We spent two hours wandering around St. Moritz, which has a fantastic location among the mountains and overlooking a large lake (currently frozen over). The town wasn't quite as slick as I'd expected but we had a very nice time looking around. It was especially cool for David to see it again since he had visited during his year in Italy after high school. And it's the setting for a James Bond movie, too.
Shuttle service leaving from the Palace Hotel
One of several small squares
We found a great place for lunch, out on a terrace overlooking mountains, a snowy field, and the village. It was a bit cold at times, but mostly quite lovely sitting in the sun.
Our lunch spot
We both had the St Galler sausage with rosti. It was good.
Our view of the village from the table, with leaning church tower!
There are some more photos of the train ride here and of St. Moritz here.
It is a good thing we are only in Switzerland for two nights, because it is seriously expensive! The Swiss Franc is almost exactly 1:1 with the American dollar and the prices are high. A small bottle of Pepsi on the train was $4.50, for instance.
But Switzerland is great and it was well worth stopping here in Chur. We love the sense of order and the fact that fresh, drinkable mountain water comes out of fountains all around the city. Interestingly, after being in Germany for so long, we could really hear the difference in Swiss German this time around. Many of the words are even entirely different. So that means we understood even less than usual! But we got by just fine with some English from them and some basic "High German" from us.
Tomorrow we leave for Como, which is just south of the Alps in Italy. We'll be there for two nights before we begin the long drive south down the east coast to Puglia!
