Hiking (behind Davos) and horse riding

Wow, the weather this past weekend has been amazing. After two rather cold and wet weekends, I thought it would be almost the end of summer. I have so far gotten a total of three tomatoes from my plants and two zucchinis, so production has been very low. There's lots of fruit, it's just all green.

Anyway, this weekend we first started the morning by taking the train to Arosa. This is a village behind the mountain range that is behind Davos.

Arosa is a very pretty town, 200m higher than Davos and sitting next to a lake. The train ride was very slow as we wound our way up the valley. If I ever felt that Davos was an isolated city, Arosa was much more so, there was only one way in, up a long winding valley.

The day was perfect when we started walking, but we didn't go up the valley that we intended, instead, ending on a more popular trail.

We took a less traveled pass over the mountain range, and sat at the top of the pass, looking down on both Arosa and the valley of Davos (we couldn't see the town itself). It was strange to be so close to a town, and yet so far away since to get there by road or train, you had to travel all the way around the range.

At the top close to the pass I found a spring. Usually I haven't been so close to the start. There were different plants living at the spring and the water came seeping and running out from the rocks. I drank this water and it was nice and fresh on a hot day!

My legs were pretty tired after the long descent, although probably this was also because I cycled up the Sertig valley road the day before. I'm not a big fan of cycling, but I really like that valley and the three mountain peaks at the end of it.

The next day was also gorgeous, and I took the train to the Engadine valley, to the village of Scuol and the riding stable just above it. The valley was amazing and beautiful.

The riding stable was really nice, there were about 60 horses and on a normal day about 30 are out being ridden. Hanging over the ranch were high rocky peaks that apparently had many Ibex.

The mountains behind the stable were the same mountains that were across the road when we did our hike in the National Park. Apparently, at San Jon there was a celebrity sighting - bear M13. He has a radio collar and shows up in the news because he occasionally wanders into Switzerland. When he visited San Jon he apparently ate one of the goats.

Another time bear M13 was there with a second bear, one of the riders was out and his horse reared in panic at the sight of the bear, at least, with my beginner German that's what I understand happened.

So that was my sporty weekend, cycling, hiking and riding. I can't remember the exact breed of horse, but they are good for going up mountains and pulling carriages. The canter was very very bumpy.

Violin - Mozart Mass

In Davos I have joined a small chamber orchestra, playing violin. I haven't played classical violin in many many years, and I've never played in a group before. However, years of playing Saxophone in various bands has given me the skills. Although it's been years since I've played Sax in a band, it's all coming back pretty quick. Good thing too since rehearsals are in German. I'm learning High German, but they speak Swiss German and the pronunciations can be very different. However, I can usually figure out what's going on, only because I get key words (fast, quiet, 4 bars before the close), musicians often sing the effect they want, and I had learned all the Italian terms back when I was playing in the concert wind ensembles. Other times I'm just totally lost. However, if everyone around you starts playing quiet it's not time to solo ^_^

This weekend was a Mozart Mass (sparrow mass). The local catholic church was having its 120 year anniversary and we joined with the choir to play. It is so much fun to play, but I really had to practice. The mass itself lasted over 2 hours (all in German). I'm glad to say I chirped exactly with everyone else, this sparrow did not chirp on her own during rests!