Zernez | Here Comes The Planet

I’d like to say we slept well but for no good reason that I can think of, the church in Zernez rings the bells on the hour 24 hours a day. I definitely heard the 11pm, midnight, 2am and 4am bells. Also the pillows were terrible, which we are coming to expect. Complain complain! I know, but travel isn’t all fun and I think the bad bits are often more memorable or notable.

Anyhow, breakfast was not newsworthy at all (basic Scandinavian breakfast of cold meats, cheeses, yogurt etc), apart from seeing Jane and Rutherford in the breakfast room and learning that they too are Wordle players.

Goodbye Zernez, with your excellent pool and your terrible church.

The church bells rang for 9am just as we cycled out of Zernez.

The morning’s ride began with gravel, some steep ups and downs that were made much easier with the e-bikes. Rutherford had pointed out that all the gravel would be much easier going if we’d had better tyres and I couldn’t help thinking about this as I juddered along. It was nowhere near as bad as the previous day though.

We saw our first covered bridges, which were difficult to photograph in the bright sunlight.

Initially our ride was fairly low in the valley and close to the river.

We rode through very picturesque little villages and along quiet roads. Usually I have to angle my camera to get shots without people, but that hasn’t been a problem since we left Zürich – the Engardin valley seems almost deserted. There’s the Swiss version of the Tour de France next weekend – for those who find the original too easy perhaps? So it will no doubt get busier soon. We’re very lucky to have the paths and tracks almost to ourselves.

Halfway through the morning we were very much not on the valley floor but halfway up the side. In most places there were no rails or fences and having to ride on the right side and close to the edge made me quite anxious. It’s very strange to be somewhere so beautiful and dramatic but not be able to look at it without stopping.

Of course we did stop quite frequently to take photos, and only having to travel 30km meant we didn’t have far to go. I was glad of the early start though as my hayfever wasn’t great and my eyes were watering quite a bit.

The third last village we went through, Ardez, was so beautiful! The houses were very traditional and had some amazing art painted on them that seemed very Gaelic to me.

The whole town was lovely, if completely silent. Switzerland has frequently reminded me of Japan and the quietness is another of those attributes. The others are the proliferation of natural springs, wood-based architecture and high prices. Both also suffer from frequent and devastating natural disasters (earthquakes and avalanches) as well as warmongering neighbours. Also both are places where you’ll regularly see everyday people in traditional costume. The more I think about it, the more similarities there are!

The church was perhaps the most plain building in the place.

The best part of the day was between the third and second last villages. It was a pristine stretch of asphalt that didn’t allow motorised vehicles. Only bikes and hikers! It also had a barrier between us and the vertical drop down the side most of the time so I could relax a little.

We stopped at a cafe at the second last village and had a drink, trying to delay our arrival at the hotel until a reasonable hour.

Cafe in Ftan and no, I do not know how to pronounce it.

The last stretch was great quality road but steep hairpin bends and more traffic, including a number of trucks. I sat on my brakes the whole way down – sitting on the right again meant being on the edge of a drop. I didn’t love it (I hated it) but the hotel wasn’t far from the end of the descent.

The hotel was lovely, the staff were friendly, the immediate surrounds smelled like a mound of freshly-produced cow manure. Not a small amount of manure either, like a herd of a thousand cows had all gathered here to poop for a month. Still, the place did have an indoor pool.

But first, our room. It was magnificent.

If you’ve been to my house or followed our renovations, you’ll know how much I love wood panelling.

The quilts (you always get one each) were in a heart shape! Aww!

We even had a little lounge area. The views from the windows were excellent too.

It was delightful. Also we had places to plug in all our devices, which we hadn’t in the last hotel. We did some hand washing of undies then headed to the hotel’s pool.

We had it to ourselves for most of the time and it was 27 degrees, very nice!

I wasn’t keen to go outside in the late afternoon and reignite my hayfever (also… manure smell) so Luke went for a walk while I had a rest. He discovered that everything was downhill from the hotel, which made walking back a bit exhausting.

We had dinner booked in the hotel at 7. I had carbonara but Luke had schnitzel, which he’d been looking forward to since we got to Switzerland. And it was only $70 AUD (ouch) but cheaper than Zürich prices and a very generous serve.

Not pictured: a bowl of chips. Which I ate half of because I like to help Luke out when I can. Yes, I’m a Samaritan, guilty as charged!

I splashed out on TWO glasses (100ml each, wtf) of wine that at $12 each were almost at Melbourne prices.

Now we’re lying in bed watching YouTube videos and sending thoughts and prayers to our washing so it dries by morning.

A few more photos of the day to finish.

Beautiful buildings with charming detail.

I’m hoping tomorrow will be less hectic than the last few days… it’s a 51km day so fingers crossed for us and our sore hindquarters!

Goodnight!

Today is a 36km ride along the Inn Way, a mostly flat route that goes along a valley north from St Moritz.

Goodbye St Moritz, I hope Zernez, despite being smaller, is a bit more lively. It’s like everyone in St Moritz is competing to be the quietest. I’ve never been in a hotel breakfast room that was so hushed.

We had the Nutella-filled crepes this morning and Luke had the scrambled eggs as well. He liked them but they were a bit mushy looking for my taste.

And before we leave the hotel, here’s the shower, with more nozzles and dials than I’ve ever had in a shower before. Full disclosure: I couldn’t get anything but the top one working. I am useless with working out how foreign plumbing works. Luke seems to have more success.

Although I am generally not a fan of baths, with all the hiking and cycling on this trip it has been nice to have some long soaks when a bathtub is available.

I prepared myself for today with two kinds of hay fever tablet and three nasal sprays. Hopefully that will hold it at bay until at least lunchtime!

We set off around 10:30am, once again walking our bikes down to the lake, somewhat fearful after yesterday’s brush with the local constabulary.

Goodbye St Moritz, you were pretty, weird, and expensive.

The first part of the ride was quite a steep bit of uphill then downhill through the forest.

We stopped at a pond to take some photos.

I was trying to capture some reflections of the trees but it didn’t really work.

There’s lot of picnic spots with pre-chopped wood, bins with rolls of dog poo bags hanging beside them and a variety of designs of fireplaces. The bins are never filled to the top or overflowing.

The bugs were out in full force and I had my hair band as a mask today. I am surprised that no one else wears anything over their mouth, I definitely heard at least one person go into a coughing fit after swallowing a bug. The thought of getting one in my eye or mouth on a steep or busy stretch makes me nervous.

We passed a large group of riders and horses. Some of the horses were massive. Maybe it was because it was a Sunday, but there seemed to be a huge number of people out riding.

Finally found a good spot to capture some mountain reflections.

For about three quarters of the way the route was concrete or tarmac and the hills weren’t too bad and our choice of e-bikes really paid off.

There were super cute villages and plenty of springs where water bottles could be filled.

This bit, which was straight, downhill and smooth was one of our favourite bits.

But then disaster struck in the form of a closure of the route. We had to take a very rough gravel track, which was both steep and alongside a deep ravine.

We followed it for a while and, after many stops to check the map and double back, we decided to turn around and head to the nearest train station, not too far behind us. The road we were on looked to be heading towards the highway, where we would have to ride on the side of the busy road. We turned our bikes around just as two people rounded the corner on eurobikes identical to ours and, like two guardian angels sent straight from New Zealand, we met Jane and Rutherford!

They were more confident than us and assured us that we would be fine to keep going. We hadn’t realised that Google maps doesn’t show all the bike paths, so we wouldn’t have to ride along the highway after all. They offered to ride with us and were so kind and encouraging that we decided to keep going.

Rutherford was obviously the most experienced rider of the four of us so he went ahead. Jane was definitely leagues ahead of us but they stopped with us to take photos and we had a lovely chat.

At one point I said I’d go ahead and Luke followed behind while Jane and Rutherford had a break. The track from that point to the bottom of the valley was the most terrifying I’d ever done. The surface was extremely rough, steep, winding and covered in fist-sized rocks. I sat on my brakes for much of it and went very slowly, juddering and bumping all the way. By the end our wrists and shoulders were aching from bracing against the handlebars, we were exhausted!

Fortunately after that the path flattened out and we could enjoy the scenery again.

We saw a lot of vintage tractors as got close to town, there must have been at least 20.

Our destination wasn’t too far along and we were extremely relieved to reach our hotel for the night.

After putting our bikes and bags away, I realised the hotel did not have the pool I was anticipating… darn it! However the local pool was just a few steps down the road so I cajoled Luke into an excursion.

Well, it was $18 to get in and closed in an hour, but the outdoor pool was amazing! It had a whirlpool end that pushed you around in a circle, a row of lounging racks over jets and a wall of intense jets at different heights so you could move along and have different areas massaged. So good!

The guy at the front desk was really nice too and they had a popcorn making machine by the entrance. What more could you want? I mean, apart from a reasonable price and longer opening hours?

Unpopped kernels at the top of the machine.

When we walked back to the hotel, Jane and Rutherford were having dinner and it looked really good so we told ourselves we deserved a nice meal after our harrowing afternoon so we got changed and then went out to the restaurant.