His Thursday & Friday

His perspective

Tis late, Thursday

Vaduz castle, Liechtenstein

Found the car OK and headed from Luzern to Pontresina, in SE Switzerland. We took a detour via Liechtenstein and a town in Austria, which duplicated something I did in 1964. We then drove over the Julier Pass to Silvaplana, St. Moritz and Pontresina. My memories of Switzerland were not flawed or overblown after all. The memory came true just before going over the Julier Pass. Tall mountains, some with snow, villages perched on mountain sides and deep green valleys. And yes, Marv and Edith there are tunnels. Lotsa very long tunnels.

We got to Pontresina around 5, checked into our hotel and found that Thursday was the Last Market day of the season. Seems the market happens on 2 Thursdays per month, from June to August. The main street is closed off and street vendors set up shop selling food, toys and stuff. There were also a couple of guys from Bavaria who made some pretty good mostly nostalgic music. Some Elton John, Beatles, Stones, “Hotel California”, and the topper for us “Brown Eyed Girl” which we have now heard in both Bavarian and Fijian accents. A couple of bottles of wine, some bratwurst and a baked potato got us through the outdoor “concert”. A nice evening.

Friday? Have no idea what we are going to do yet.



Friday, August 20

After breakfast we headed to the train station to buy tickets for the Bernina Express, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Sunday, the “panorama” train will take us over the Bernina pass to Tirano, Italy.

One lane tunnel to Livigno, Italy

From the bahnhof we headed north to the Swiss National Park. We passed through several small towns, stopping at a bakery in Zernez for some fresh bread, and the adjacent store for some cheese and water. The National Park itself seemed to be the same as that which we had just driven through. Which is a not a derogatory comment. The countryside is rather spectacular. I’m just used to driving into a place like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon and seeing wonders that are unique to that park. At the far end of the  park, we drove through a very long one lane tunnel which dropped us at a dam, and the border of Italy. We paid out toll (I assume for the tunnel), pulled over along Lago di Livigno, a lake I assume created by the dam, and had some lunch. After lunch we proceeded into the town of Livigno, but just for a short while. As we had found when driving into Austria, we had few if any Euros. Back through the one lane tunnel (I can’t find the name of it) and we returned to Pontresina. There were lots of sail planes riding the thermals off the mountains behind us. I hope some of the pictures came out We took a short trip on the chair lift behind the hotel to the top of the mountain and this evening up the street for a so so dinner.