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| The Grosshaus, 1473 |
We slept well and made ourselves breakfast, went down to have a chat with the Meulis to find Erika had laid out a lovely Swiss breakfast of cheese, charcuterie, different breads, and more besides. There was no way we were allowed to get away without partaking so we duly filled ourselves to bursting! Erika’s parents-in-law, who live on the lower level of the Grosshaus insisted on showing us through their rooms – all incredibly ancient and ornamented with huge old cowbells, old clocks, huge flagstones on the floor, huge wood burner to heat the house (four living levels plus cowbarn at the bottom) and an elderly uncle-in-law. All very friendly, ending in a family photo outside. Despite the two breakfasts and house tour, we were away early further down the valley to two more emigrant towns. The scenery is stupendous. Huge peaks above, patches of forest dotted among the meadow, little hay-houses everywhere, cows cow-belling when you can find the odd small group of them and small compact Swiss towns. It really is a postcard paradise.
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| The Meulis |
Alastair and I had some urgent emails to send so we found a café with free wireless in Thusis. By the time we had paid for coffees, we might have been better to have bought shares in the wifi company. And they were pretty awful. The first town to visit was Tschappina, a little way up a winding road. Again, stunning scenery, culminating in a wonderfully crooked church at the top of the town. There are no fences in Switzerland, so the roads just meander through meadows, with grass right up to the seal. It gives a feel which is very different to NZ. Because the cows/goats are managed by shepherds or electric fences, the pasture seems just like an endless rolling carpet of grass and meadow flowers.
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| Tschappina |
From Tschappina we dropped back into the Hinterrhein Valley, along a little further and up into the neighbouring valley of Safien. This time it was a 20+km road, initially reasonably wide, but getting more and more narrow and steep and winding as we went further up. A lot of major road works including a huge bridge, tunnels, and a rock arch. Way more work, much better done than NZ would do for such a tiny road with only a few small villages at the end of it. At the head of the valley, amazingly, there was a dam and power station beside the village of Safien-Platz, our target. We were trying to trace the house of the first Swiss emigrant to NZ, and asked at the local café/bar/store, to be passed onto someone who spoke English, after a number of older residents had been phoned for information. She in turn took us to an elderly woman called Mili, a relation of the emigrant, Felix Hunger. Not that that meant much, as every second person in this town is a Hunger! Visiting Mili meant being invited into her house and sat down to see all kinds of stuff, while she rang her niece. My German was doing OK, it is coming back quite well, but with some serious gaps from time to time, and Alastair is picking it up fast as it is close to the Swedish he has been learning. On extricating ourselves from Mili, we were not allowed to leave empty-handed, oh no, we were given a big bag of a biscotti-like bread pieces, and a delicious nuss-torte (walnut and fruit filled tart from the Engadine area). Mili was just lovely.
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| Hinterrhein Valley |
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| It is definitely Spring |
Back in the heart of the village, our translator picked us up and took us up a steep road above the village to Christian Hunger who desperately wanted to show us some papers relating to his ancestor. All up, we must have spent four hours in Safien-Platz. People have been so helpful. We didn’t manage to escape until late afternoon before heading away from the high valleys back down to Zug, where we arrived around 8pm after trying and failing to find accommodation in some of the attractive villages along the way. We think there is a bike tour on, perhaps filling the hotels.
Thankfully in Zug one hotel was able to book us into another part-empty hotel at a “special rate”. It sure was special – more than we have ever paid for any hotel before. We really have been shocked by the Swiss prices. Things cost pretty much double what we were paying elsewhere, and we are scared to buy things to eat. Thankfully we were over-supplied with good Italian groceries and have been able to sort our own food out most of the time in Switzerland.
