St. Moritz and the Engadin Valley: There Is Heaven in Them There Hills

Trying to catch up on these blog posts before I actually leave Switzerland yet again, beginning with my St. Moritz and Engadin Valley experience. First, what a gorgeous place this is:

That is the view from my room at the Hotel Giardino Mountain in Champfer-St. Moritz. It's a lovely hotel just outside of the center of St. Moritz, which I got to by first flying non-stop from Los Angeles to Zurich on SWISS air, then continuing on via train to St. Moritz, using my Swiss Pass, which allows non-Swiss travelers to unlimited travel on trains, buses and trams all over the country, as well as admission to over 400 museums. 

I was with Maja Gartmann, who is one of Swiss Tourism's best, and also happens to be a friend (she is based in L.A.) as well. I was lucky enough to meet her mama, a 78-year-old beauty from Chur, Switzerland, who joined us when our St. Moritz-bound train stopped there. Lucky, too, that she had booked us all seats in the old-world dining car on the train for lunch; note that if you are ever traveling for a number of hours on the crack Swiss train system, you should definitely make a reservation in the dining car. You'll feel as if you just stepped back in time – and into an Alfred Hitchcock or a James Bond movie.

Maja and her mama talk to each other every day via Skype, but hadn't see each other in months. It was easy to see how much they love each other!

And, like most of the older inhabitants of Switzerland that I encountered along the way, Mama was totally self-sufficient, as she visited with Maja in St. Moritz for a few hours, then hopped back on the train and went back home to Chur. As my trip continued, I saw plenty of 70- or 80-something people hiking in the Alps, riding bicycles through the picturesque towns or simply walking their dogs down a city street. Everyone keeps moving here (unlike in the United States); they know they have to for their health, and because this is the main diet up here in the Alps (and all over the country, too):


Cheese!

With meat and bread!

And some other yummy things, too.

Exercise is built into the culture here, be it summer or winter. Right now, in the summer, everyone is out hiking in the Alps, kite surfing or paddle boarding across one of the beautiful lakes that dot the Engadin (and all of Switzerland), riding on electric bikes or even partaking in the Schwingfest, a wrestling event that has to be seen to be believed. More on that in my next post from Europe.