Hiking near Chants

There are three passes over the alps in my region into the next valley (the Engadine), they are the Fluela, Albula and the Julierpass. I've crossed over Fluela several times but none of the others. This time we drove the RAV partway up the Albula pass to go for a hike. We went to a small village called Chants and I can't believe public transit actually goes into this valley! It must be a tiny post-bus because the road was gravel at times and very narrow.

The day was beautiful when we started up, our goal was to reach the hut and hike back, it is good that we are so close to midsummer because we started quite late. The top of the hike wasn't very high but there were still large patches of snow and the hut was closed (you could sleep there but there was no kitchen services - a bit like Canadian huts but much more luxurious, for example there were still working flush toilets). I sat on the bridge and Mic took some pictures and we enjoyed the sunshine.

On the way back we spotted several marmots who were actually quite close - the advantage of being so early in the season that there weren't tons of hikers on the trail!

Hiking in Schlappin

The past weekend had lovely weather and we went for a hike near Klosters Dorf.

On the train were some young cows and one was very curious. I'm not sure about the nose piece, if it meant the cow was more agressive. Checking between the legs - it looked to be female...

There is still a avalanche debris which is slowly melting. It took down a lot of wood and dirt and would have cross the road (the road is closed in winter).

However, where the snow was just melting you could still find spring flowers.

We finally got to the lake and the small village. In the winter you can downhill ski into this valley and in the summer you need to get a day pass to drive up the hill.

We stopped by the lake for some pictures and a break.

And then continued up a bit more to sit in a meadow about the town and listen to an audiobook.

Of random note

This strange thing on top of the wardrobe is a pig leg. You can see it's little hoof sticking out from under the cover. Apparently it is a Spanish thing. You buy a cured pig leg and spend the next few months cutting off slices for a snack.

We also went for a walk through the natural history museum in Geneva. I guess, now that I am living on the German speaking side I should call it Genf. Anyway, the museum was quite large and free although some of their exhibits were very dated. For example they still drew Hallucigenia still upside down. They had tons of stuffed birds and other animals, and lots of diorama's. They also had some really outdated dinosaur models like this example of a T-Rex.

Bernina Express

Also on the previous weekend I took the Bernina express for the first time. It was a long slow train ride that went to an elevation of over 2000m and is the highest train ride over the alps in Switzerland (the rest go through very long tunnels).

The day started with a walk to the small village train station and as we were walking down the road a farmer was driving his sheep up it!

Then it was on the train. We didn't pay for the viewing cars, we just rode in the regular car which turned out to be a good idea since the other cars were full of people and we could always go up to any window in our nearly empty train car! The trip went over the alps and down a long valley into Italy. The weather got better too, since weather in all of Europe this spring has been terrible! When we were almost to Italy there is a famous section of the train where it makes an entire circle in the valley as it drops altitude.

Once in Italy we were over dressed (although it still was chilly in Italy for May). We walked around the town and ate our fantastic homemade sandwiches (yes we packed a lunch). The village had large sections that appeared abandoned, but  the roads were narrow and twisting.

Then we stopped in the piazza and had a cool glass of white wine while enjoying the weather.

Then we caught the train back to Switzerland and did the entire 4 hour journey in reverse. As we crossed over the pass we had some views of glaciers off in the distance.

And at the top of the pass there was still a fair amount of snow. Probably in a normal year this would be clear by now, but apparently this is the worst spring in 30 years.

And after hours of train travel (in the sun) we were home. That was probably the only nice day in a weeks. Now it is snowing! The mountains still have lots of snow on them and it is June! I am wearing a winter coat still, my one concession to summer weather is that I don't wear my big winter boots!