4/24– Camuns afternoon and Bonaduz evening

Back into the car we go for a lovely drive through the Alpine scenery.  Little towns, high mountain peaks, a wandering river all pass magically by as we head through the countryside on our way to the teeny hamlet Camuns, where an associate of Sigis’ has invited us to his family’s home.

Turning off the main road, we wind higher and higher into the Swiss mountainsides, until finally cresting a curve, we enter Camuns, a lovely little village with country style farmhouses dotting the hills.  It is gorgeous and serene up here, with nary a bit of noise or sign of residents!  Sigis expertly guides his car up the slope and turns into the driveway of #10 – where we find signposted parking spots waiting for us.  How cute!

Around the corner comes Benno, Sigis’ friend, who greets us with a smile a mile wide and a personality to match.  Benno’s mother-in-law and her sister live here, and they have graciously invited us to visit their farmhouse and have a late lunch with them.  It is a magical place up here in the mountains, and we soak in everything we can as Benno tours us around the farm buildings and explains how the sisters live.  Geta and Barla come out to meet and chat with us (translated of course!).  Each in their 80’s, they live here on their own with Benno and his wife Angelica helping them on the weekends.  Benno comes up and stays during the week occasionally too, and has all sorts of projects he has completed – like renovating some of the barn structures and working with the tractors and farm implements.

The scenery up here is beyond compare – how would you like this view to greet you every morning from your front windows?

We can’t get over how quiet and peaceful it is – and isolated.  We might not be remembering this correctly, but we think that only Geta and Barla and possibly one other neighbor live up here full time. The rest of the homes are used as holiday homes, either by the owners or rentals. The ladies can take a public bus down into town – they have to make an appointment and the bus will come up to get them – which is amazing in and of itself! What social services – the public bus!  We’re terribly envious.

At any rate, we wander around the yard, learning about the chickens (and how they need to be introduced to each other, the egg making process – or not making as the case here happens to be) and snapping beautiful picture after beautiful picture.

The ladies have retired to the inside by now, and we follow them for a quick tour of the rustic farmhouse, complete with old stone wood stoves and wood paneled everything.  We end up in the farmhouse kitchen with a spread of food that makes the mouth water just looking at it.  There is home made bread to die for, home made pickles and corn (the same) and the best fresh baked Birnbrot – a Swiss pear bread that is out of this world.  Accompanying all this goodness are local cured meats and a fabulous hunk of local cheese of which I – the non-cheese head of the family – can’t get enough. 

What a thoroughly enjoyable visit.  It was so refreshing to be up here in the mountains, on the farm, meeting Benno, Geta and Barla, and sharing a part of their day.  As we take our leave, Benno gives both Gaby and me a gift bag with local honey from one of his friend's farm.  We can’t tell you how special this was for us – and we are so appreciative of the hospitality – and for Sigis and Benno to think of it!  We wave goodbye to the ladies as we make for the car, and slowly make our way back out onto the road for the drive back to Bonaduz.  We only have one regret – in looking back through all our pictures we do not have one single solitary picture of Benno, nor do we have any of all of us together in Camuns.  How unfortunate!  (Well I have another word, but we’ll let that one pass for now!)

The scenery on the way back is equally impressive. Between chatting and snapping pictures out the window, the 40 minute drive flies by,

and before we know it we are back to the hotel for our afternoon rest.

Freshened up and raring to go, we head back to Gianni and Iris’ for dinner.  We spend a lovely evening playing with the kids, getting to know Gianni, drinking that fabulous local Swiss wine and snacking on an incredibly good Napolitano style pizza.  We have our bizarre English words lessons (Pepperoni in German is Pepper – so it gets very confusing when I say I don’t want the pizza with the peppers), teach Dominic a few more words before his 3 year old little self crashes into night time oblivion and generally spend a wonderful time amongst the Rageth and Sutter families. 

A few hours later, we return to the hotel for our evening balcony time – and make plans for our rendezvous tomorrow to visit the summer cabin in the mountains.