Today dawns clear and cool, with a gorgeous cerulean blue sky and clouds clinging to the mountain tops. Of course we can’t resist hanging out on the balcony for a bit with our coffee, looking out at the scenery, and watching the village wake up, before making our way downstairs for breakfast.
Breakfast is a buffet with anything you’d want, including lots of great slightly sweet pastries, breads, cereals and boiled eggs, which arrive to the table hot in this precious carrier.
At the appointed time, we meet Gaby and Sigis in the lobby to begin our day’s adventure. Today we are going by car to the Swiss Grand Canyon, a spectacular gorge (known as the Rhine Gorge) that is particular to Graubunden, the local canton here. After a scenic drive along the mountain roads, we turn off toward the wilderness, traversing up a narrow road to park in a dirt pull off across from some commercial facility (a lumber processing plant maybe?). From here, we begin our hike through the fields and the valleys, snapping photos of the huge granite cliffs and snow-topped mountain peaks off in the distance.
The weather is still pleasantly cool, and as we progress along, chatting and talking, Gaby and I get our daily iconic picture of our boys up ahead of us, as we head deeper into the forest where we start seeing the remnants of the last snowfall here along the trail.
Shortly afterward, the wilderness trail opens up onto a beautiful little hillside dotted with holiday cabins. Talk about iconic Swiss landscape! So peaceful and lush and tranquil. And just the four of us, all alone – which makes it seem almost surreal.
A fork at the end of the hiking trail takes us out and up to the II Spir viewing platform, with a 180 degree view over the canyon. The platform was created by an architect from Chur, in the shape of a swift soaring above the canyon walls. It’s apropos then that the viewing platform perches some 400 meters above the Vorderrhein River, giving a birds-eye view of the canyon, the river and the train tracks below. Incredible! We’re so far above the ground, that when the regional train comes by along the banks of the river, it looks like part of a miniature train set – not a life-size one.
It is hard to tear ourselves away for the views, but we have a time table to keep, so we climb down from the view point and hike back to the car. The walk back is more of the same – incredible landscapes, beautiful scenery and great companionship!
Rejuvenated from the fresh mountain air, we’re ready for a little refreshments and a rest in the village of Flims where we stop at Cappuccino Caffe for, yes, you guessed it, cappuccino!
The day is heating up, but we find enough shade on the patio to enjoy the fresh air while we chat for a bit with the owner of the cafe, who is an acquaintance of Sigis, who has interesting views on the American political landscape, which we won’t delve into on our apolitical blog!
After our enjoyable little respite, we head off to our next destination: Camuns.
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