Alpine Wanderings

Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.  Kurt Vonnegut
Switzerland and here we are in the Swiss Alps, mountains surround us and we are staying in the heart of the quaint old town of Chur (“coor”). The town is like either a medieval theme park or movie set, it just doesn’t feel real. The hotel we are staying in is a building from the 1300s although it was rebuilt in the 1600s after the town burnt (modern really).

It’s also quite a strange town, we arrived on Saturday night and the town centre was bizarrely almost deserted, restaurants and bars with no one in them. We got up Sunday morning and walked around debating whether the town’s residents had been abducted by aliens or  struck down by plague. 

We are not far from the Italian border but it’s evident that this is not only a different country but also a different culture. Switzerland is not an easy country, of course we don’t speak German and there are few directional signs (in any language). It’s made for an interesting day. 

We did manage to find our way to the cable car that goes to the top of Brambrüesch mountain which, at 2174 metres,  is merely a hill the size of Kosciusko. Arriving at the cable car we got in, but it didn’t move, others got in, several loaded their bikes, then got out …no movement…. they all seemed very relaxed…. then at some unseen (to us) signal all got in and off we went. The mountain is apparently a favourite with mountain bike riders and hikers (complete with walking poles and sturdy shoes) and here we are two Aussies in rubber thongs. There doesn’t seem to be any other international tourists in town so I think we are somewhat of a curiosity. And even those who speak English struggle to understand our accent. 

At the top we channeled our inner Maria and the hills were alive with the sound of music

These flowers are NOT Eidelweiss

This cow is holding either a baguette or a sausage and has an udder pointing in a slightly strange position.

So we conquered one mountain, why not another? We decided to try and find our way to Pradaschier mountain which has the longest toboggan run in Switzerland at a little over 3 KLM’s.  This was a challenge!  There’s a tourist bus that goes around the Alpine towns but there are no signs to the terminal and no obvious place to buy tickets. Not wanting to be beaten we eventually worked it out and were told the chairlift to Pradaschier was the second stop. On the bus there are no announcements of what stop you’re at, no signs on board and several  stops are called Churwalden. We duly got off at the second stop as we had been instructed, wondered briefly why no one else got off, the bus drove off and we realised we were in the middle of nowhere, no chairlift in sight!  We eventually sought help from a woman  tending her garden who, through gestures and sign language, and a brief escort, showed us the way – off we went hiking along the mountain path, in our thongs, in 33 degree heat and eventually arrived noting that the bustop was right next to the chairlift. 


Was it worth it – hell yes – the mountains are stunning and everything is like something out of a storybook, it would not be at all surprising if Heidi came skipping round the corner or yodellers popped out of the bushes.