Visits to Davos

Visitors in Davos, first we were in Zurich.

The window at the church in Chur was pretty neat, made of stones. After such nice weather in Zurich the rain and wind were cold in Chur.

We had a cold and wet lunch in Chur, hiding in an alley eating our cheese.

 Davos isn't the only town with the naked man with a tree symbol, I found one in stone in Chur. I was told it was a very old symbol of the protector of the region.

Chur had some lovely old buildings and a fantastic old part of town. Apparently Chur is one of the oldest towns in Switzerland.

In Landquart I found the most ridiculous Swiss Army Knife. I guess you buy it when you to show off how much money and how little sense you have...

One classic thing in Switzerland is to hang your duvet out of the window on a Sunday (since you can't shop or mow your lawn or do laundry it's pretty much the only chore left - except going to church or the bar). Anyway, on the way to Chur I spotted a duvet hanging out for some air, despite the rain.

Then the rain ended, and down came the snow in Davos! After Vancouver and Lausanne it is time to buy some winter boots!

It took a few days but eventually the snow went away in Davos. Apparently while it is not unusual to have snow in September, it was unusual to have this much snow. There were trees falling down all over town.

The snow had cleared away enough that we went for a carriage ride.

The horses were clearly not friends, but the ride was lovely.

Return to Jorisee

This weekend was another hike to make the most of the end of the summer. I took my new boots back up to the Joriseen and had a lovely lunch on the shore of the lake.

The sky had a few clouds which make some interesting patterns on the water.

And there were some interesting parts of the trail that hung on the cliffs.

I tried out the new tilt-pan filter on the camera which makes it look like you are taking a picture of a miniature scene.

And since I had some time I played with more features on my camera while I spent time at the top of the pass waiting for the bus to come.

While I was waiting for the post-bus I saw a cow who was making lots of noise decide to finally give it a try and go on the road. I don't know how she got out of the pen but she just walked down the highway (which was very busy). She wasn't scared of the cars at all, she just walked down the street and they all got out of her way.

Strela Pass

Behind my apartment (well, in Davos behind almost everyone's apartment) is a range of mountains with many many walking trails. The advantage is to get there you don't even need to take the bus, just go out of the house and start walking up. So that's what I did this weekend. Twice, to try out my new hiking boots. Time to say goodbye to the original pair, they are so soft and floppy, nice and comfy but 10 years old and all they have to do is see some rain and my feet are soaking.

Anyway, I digress, the hike was up to Sterlapass and I started early because it was supposed to rain. I was ok if it had started to rain (it didn't) because I could test out my coat and new boots.

I had a nice view back to the long valley's that lead out of the other side of Davos.

But the hike itself wasn't that impressive. I spent most of the time going up under ski lifts and dodging mountain bikers. From the pass I went behind the mountain range through some impressive rock formations.

And then I caught the train down rather than hike it. The train was on a steep track.

And inside the train it was like a set of giant stairs so you could stand on flat ground.