Walk to Villa and La Sage, Val d’Hérens, Switzerland

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After three and a half weeks of ‘rest’, (well, not doing anything too strenuous), yesterday I decided to test out my heel on a short walk up to Villa, across to La Sage and then back home again. It was a bit sore by the time I got back, but it feels OK today, so it must be more or less on the mend. 😊

In the photos below (pics 2 and 5) you can see people climbing on the via ferrata. It looks pretty dangerous, but they are attached via a harness and short ropes to a cable which runs alongside the various stemples (which look like thick staples), metal plates and a ladder, which are fixed into the rockface.

Along the walk I saw many, many Marbled Whites (I gave up counting after 20), quite a few Damon Blues and Small (Cabbage) Whites, three or four Spotted Fritillaries and a Chalkhill Blue or two. But, since I’ve recently posted pictures of them, I’ve only included the ‘new’ ones.

If anyone knows what the brown butterfly is in pic 21, please let me know. I didn’t find a very good match to any of those in my Swiss book.

A Dozen Butterflies

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Last Thursday I went for one of my usual walks up the road behind our chalet. Almost all of the fields in our valley have been cut now, so the butterflies are having to find their nectar in the flowers which grow by the sides of the road. There’s also a huge trench to the side of our road, which was created to catch any falling rocks. The wild flowers have re-grown and it has proved to be a fabulous place to capture some photographs.

I missed a few, including some sort of Clouded Yellow and a ‘large orange one’, which flew away as I approached, but I was pleased to get sufficient images from above and below (where needed) to identify these 12. As an indication of how many butterflies are still around (and how lucky I am) all of these pictures were taken in just 1 hour and 12 minutes.

Swiss Trip to the South-East (Last Part 3)

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As we drove back from Diavolezza, we came across one of the most amazing, certainly sporting, sights that I have ever seen. There must have been at least 50 or 60 kite-surfers, criss-crossing the Silvaplanasee. After the extremely calm morning, the wind had picked up and the surfers were having a fantastic time – some leaping high into the air and landing gracefully, but occasionally trying some tricks (like removing the board from their feet) and then, more often than not, crashing back into the lake.

We later read that there is a particular feature of the local summer climate, called the Malojawind. This is due to the morning thermals rising above Silvaplana much quicker than the neighbouring St Moritz and Sils and thus creating a strong, warm wind.

Not only were the kite surfers having fun, but everyone watching them seemed to be smiling too. It was certainly mesmerising and entertaining in equal measure.

The unfortunately named Crap da Sass Castle, comes from the Romansh and Italian language (Crap = stone in Romansh and da Sass = from stone in Italian). It was built in 1906 by the German general Graf von der Lippe and is now privately owned, so not open to the public. However it does create a marvellous back-drop to the activities on the lake, which also include wind-surfing.

Below I’ve created my usually picture gallery. This is followed by a sequence of photos, which should be stepped through in gallery mode, to see a sort of moving image. (Just click on, or touch, the first image and click or right arrow forward). Finally, there’s an actual video, which finishes in dramatic style! I hope you enjoy! 😄

Swiss Trip to the South-East (Part 2)

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We awoke to another beautiful day with blue skies and high clouds. We also soon discovered that there was hardly a breath of wind. As we drove along the lakeside road, we just had to stop. I certainly don’t remember ever seeing such a perfect mirror-like reflection on such a large lake as the one we saw on the Silsersee. (See pic 2).

Our plan for the day was to tour around to the Val Bernina and take the cable car up to Diavolezza. Jude had read that this gave the best view of the 4,049m (13,284ft) Piz Bernina and how right the guide book was! As you will know, we have seen many, many glaciers. The views from the Gornergrat (of Monte Rosa amongst other 4,000m peaks) and the Aiguille du Midi (of Mont Blanc) are very impressive, but I think the panorama we encountered from Diavolezza was even better.

From the viewing platform there’s a relatively easy walk to the summit of Munt Pers (@3,206m or 10,518ft). Unfortunately the top was in cloud most of the time and we never did get a view to the east. But it did clear sufficiently to get a glimpse of the Morteratsch valley. (See pic 16).

I was so blown away by the views, I decided to take a video for you as well. 😊 (See end of this post).

P.S. Happy Swiss National (& Yorkshire) Day everyone!

Swiss Trip to the South-East (Part 1)

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For our first full day in the Engadin, we decided to walk from Maloja along the path which runs by the side of Lej da Segl or the Silsersee to the village of Sils Maria. Jude was keen to see what it looked like as Colletts Mountain Holidays have (or at least would have, had it not been for COVID-19) started running holidays there.

Quick aside here: I first met Jude while on a Colletts Mountain Holiday in the Italian Dolomites in 2004. Jude was the chalet host. The rest is history as they say… 💕😊

Anyway, even before we’d left our apartment, we’d noticed some people, running in pairs towards the lake. Only the day before, Jude had read about an event called the ötillö, which required a team of 2 people to run, swim, run, swim, run, swim, etc. for a total of 45km. (39km of this is running and 6km swimming across the 2 lakes in the Engadin). One of the rules is that the 2 competitors should never be more than 10 metres apart, so they are tied together with a piece of rope. (The madness of the human race never ceases to amaze me!) On the plus side, if there is a plus side, they are allowed to use paddles on their hands and floats between and on their legs. (In the second picture below you can see the 2 competitors had them on their shins, but not everyone had them). Of course, these had to be carried during the run sections. All I can say is, it’s not an event you’ll catch me doing!

We stopped at the rather quaint village of Isola on the way for a coffee, where there’s a huge cascading waterfall. Sils Maria itself was quite charming, with restricted motorised transport from what we could see. It’s clearly a great base to explore some of the excellent walking routes and attractions in that area. (But it’ll never beat the Val d’Hérens of course! 😉)

We returned to Maloja via a small ferry boat, which criss-crosses the lake to pick up passengers. Apparently it’s the highest operating ferry in Europe, at an altitude of 1,797m or 5,896ft. Swiss facts – Jude has them all! (It’s no wonder I married her! 😍)

Swiss Alpine, K23 – DNS

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For the past few months I’ve been in ‘secret’ training. After 6 months of inactivity following a chronic calf injury, I started running again when the lockdown started. This was mainly because I was unable to walk high up into the mountains due to the snow. Not wishing to get a recurrence of the injury, I started slowly, like I’d never run before, doing 4km (2.5 miles) here and 5km (3 miles) there, before increasing it gradually to maybe 10km (6 miles).

I then received an email telling me that the Swiss Alpine series of races covering 10, 23, 43 and 68 km was going ahead – though slightly altered due to the virus. Two races would on the Saturday and two on the Sunday and competitors would have to wear masks at the start and (obviously) be aware of social distancing. There would be restricted feed stations and no after-race presentation ceremony.

This coincided with me having just walked 23km and ascended almost exactly the same height as the K23 race. Now any runner will tell you that there is a certain buzz about competing and being involved in any race (even if you are never likely to win or to do a PB/Personal Best). So I entered the K23. The other 3 races were based in Davos, but my race would go from Klosters to Davos. It’s a 5 hour drive across Switzerland from Evolène, so Jude and I decided to make a bit of a holiday out of it, by also extending our stay to the Engandine valley – but more of that in future posts. 😊

Then disaster struck! Exactly 2 weeks before the race, I went out for my last ‘long’ run (well, 1h 30 mins) and after only 20 minutes my heel started to hurt. Rather foolishly, I carried on for another 5 minutes, hoping it would go away, but no joy. So I limped home.

Ever the optimist, I figured it would be fine in 2 weeks and I’d at least be able to jog around the course in the 4 hour 30 min time limit. But that was not to be, as my achilles was still sore, even the day before the race. So I would be a DNS (Did Not Start).

But, we’d made plans to go and off we went. Although through some amazing scenery, there was not much to report about the journey across as it rained off and on all the way. (So no pictures of that I’m afraid).

On the morning of the race, Jude and I decided to take the cable car up from Klosters to Gotschnagrat to walk to the top of the Gruenhorn (@2,500m / 8,200 ft) and from there across to Casanna (@2,557m / 8,390 ft).

In the afternoon we drove over the Fluelapass to the Engadine valley and to our next accommodation in Majola. This took us through St Moritz and we noticed a game of polo was underway (which turned out to be part of an 8 team Summer Tournament). Neither of us had ever having seen this sport being played live before, so we stopped to take in the atmosphere.

Swiss Trip to the North (last part, 5)

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As you may recall we chose to go to Schaffhausen as it’s very close to the Rhine Falls, which is the largest waterfall in Europe. OK, it’s not as high as the Angel Falls, nor as wide as either the Niagara or Victoria Falls, but it’s impressive nonetheless. As with the Tinguely fountain, a static image doesn’t really do it justice, so today you have not one but TWO videos. I spoil you.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, since you are possibly wondering where all the big mountains have gone, I’ve included some photos of our journey home.
From Schaffhausen we headed east to the small town of Arbon, which sits on the shores of Lake Constance, or the Bodensee, just a few miles from the Austrian border. After lunch we headed south, through Glarus and over the Klausen and Furka passes back to our beloved Rhone valley. During our trip, we travelled through 16 of the 26 Swiss cantons.

It also seems someone has found a new and potentially much more useful role for “Mr President”. (See pic 15 in the second gallery).

Swiss Trip to the North (part 4)

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I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s nothing my wife enjoys more than being on a boat. So when she discovered that you could take a boat up the river to one of, if not, THE best preserved medieval towns in Switzerland, it had to be done, even if it did involve wearing a mask en route.

Above the town sits Hohenklingen Castle. We hadn’t planned to visit it, but when we discovered there wasn’t a return boat at 15:30 and the next one was at 5pm, well… It’s only a 200m/650ft climb and there is a café/restaurant at the top so, it just had to be done. It was worth every step of the way though for the views from the top of the tower – and the refreshing beer of course! 🥵+🍺=😋

Swiss Trip to the North (part 3)

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For the second half of our holiday, we drove over to Schaffhausen, primarily to see the Rhine Falls – but more of them later…

On the way we stopped off at a small village called Kaiserstuhl, which sits on the Swiss side of the Rhine and border with Germany. So we took great delight in walking over the bridge into a different country. Indeed, although we had planned to stay wholly in Switzerland during our trip, we were encouraged by not being challenged at gunpoint on the border (in fact we saw nobody), so we decided to take the direct route to Schaffhausen from there. This involved going into or, rather, through Germany not once, but twice. (Such is the weird shape of the border in that area, that there is even a small German enclave completely inside Switzerland, called Büsingen am Hochrhein). Maybe it was because we crossed the borders at lunchtime, but we didn’t get stopped once.

Having checked in to our hotel, we again went for a wander around the town. I can certainly recommend a visit and I hope my pictures do justice to both of the locations we visited.

Interesting footnote: Although Switzerland was not directly involved in the 2nd World War, Schaffhausen and the building in the last photo in particular, was bombed on 1st April 1944. This was apparently due to a navigational error, caused by bad weather conditions. Wiki says that it was mistaken for Ludwigshafen am Rhein, as it sits on the north side of the Rhine. Four million dollars were paid in restitution and, the writing on the front indicates that, the building was rebuilt in 1945.

Swiss Trip to the North (part 2)

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As mentioned in my post yesterday, the main reason for our trip to Basel was to see the Edward Hopper Exhibition at the Beyeler Museum. Due to the COVID virus, we had to book a time slot, but there still seemed to be too many people for our liking in each room. Thankfully, after pausing for a few minutes, the crowds dispersed and indeed, the other exhibits seemed to be almost free of people. In case you are wondering, masks were recommended, but not compulsory.

Sadly, we were not allowed to take photos of some of Hopper’s more famous works, so the images below are my personal favourites from the rest of the exhibits.

Afterwards we took the tram back to the city centre and any trip to Basel would not be complete without a look at, or around, the magnificent Rathaus. As you will see, I was again amused by some of the ‘face’ detailing.

As an added bonus, since any static image of the Tinguely Fountain could never do it justice, I’ve included a video of it at the bottom of the page. The Fountain was created in 1977 by Jean Tinguely where the stage of the old city theatre once stood. The Swiss artist has created 10 mechanical figures which are in constant motion, mimicking the artists, actors and dancers who once performed on the theatre stage. Enjoy!

Tinguely Fountain video:

Tinguely Fountain, Basel