This was an extra day for us in Chur (rhymes with pure) because the Glacier Express was booked out for today's date so we booked it for tomorrow to get us to our next hotel in Brig. We planned a round trip that went up the same line as the Bernina Express on a train with destination St Moritz. But we changed over at 1000 meters above sea level and caught a train to Davos Platz. It was raining for a lot of the day so the mountains were clouded in, but the waterfalls were active and the rivers were surging strongly. We added this statue to our collection of railway sculptures.
As we climbed on board our carriage we puzzled over this sign in the doorway as there are a few statues of brown bears in the mountains.
Any suggestions? The first place of note we came across in Davos was this church of St Paul.
We read the sign alongside which indicated it was a Methodist Church about the same age as Marsden Road. As we walked on we saw several piles of ice that might have passed for overnight snow (now 1300 meters high) but more likely the remains of a hailstorm. We saw TV weather reports of hail in our area when we got back to the hotel.
The type of people who live/visit here was evidenced by the prices (or lack thereof) of items in the shop windows. Watches ranging from SF5000 to SF15000; rings and necklaces same range; leather belts for SF70. We only stayed an hour before catching the next train down the hill to the Rhine river. This time our First Class seats were again right behind the driver. He had just stepped out as we climbed in.
The little levers on the left are the brakes and the ones on the right are the accelerators.
One of the ads in the train offered a seat next to the driver at extra price but this was almost as good.
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Davon traumt jeder Bahnfreund
EVERY TRAIN ENTHUSIAST'S DREAM
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It started to rain again and vision through the fog was limited so the driver was welcome to the job of guiding the narrow gauge train downhill at 50 kmh.
There is an indicator board in each compartment which shows expected arrival times and whether the WC is frei. Beautifully clear screen.
Our next changeover was Landquart and we saw that the Heidi Village was nearby but could not find a map to see whether we could walk there. The ad said "Visitors from all over the world will find themselves transported back to the time of Heidi." Any takers? Next to the Station was Alpenrhein Village, which in fact was a 3 year old street 650 meters long that consisted entirely of brandname shops selling their goods (mostly clothes) at factory prices.
Every teenage girl's dream? Some of the empty shops were taken temporarily to promote the train trips. There was a full wall size photo of the most famous section of the alpine railway - the circle viaduct.
No one who travels around that will ever forget it.
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