19 July 2014

on top of the mountain

We decided to sleep in a little, but not too much.  We are running on fumes right now, so the nap yesterday and sleeping in helps!  We got up and ate breakfast and were out of the room a little after 10am.  The beds were so comfy and we slept with the windows open so it was blissfully cool in the room.  I don’t think Meg even minded it was cool.

looking at the glacier and peak

We walked up to catch the bus and determined we needed bus #6 to get to the mountain we wanted to go up.  It is the highest peak we could get to at 3303 meters….a little over 10,000 feet.  We got on the bus and went through all of St. Moritz and then it turned around and started going back the way we’d come.  So, I asked the bus driver and all I could figure out was that bus #6 was correct for where we were going, but this particular bus #6 wasn’t going there.  He pointed to the other side of the street and told us to wait there.  We wound up taking bus #1 because the #6 took longer and made us nervous.

heading down on the gondola

The beautiful thing about the hotel is the passes that work on all forms of transportation.  Made it super easy to get on and off and up and down.  We wound up at the bottom of the place we wanted to go and caught the gondola up to the middle station.  There, if one was so inclined, one could walk for miles and miles along the Alps.  We were not so inclined.  We wanted to go up to the top of the mountain to walk on a glacier!

me at 3303 meters

Got on the next gondola and up, up, up we went!  We arrived at the top and it was hard to breathe!  It felt like when I was at about 100’ under water.  You can breathe and you know you’re getting air, but it’s really hard to suck down all that oxygen when there really isn’t any available!!

view of the lakes/valley

The views were stunning!!  We could almost see 360* around.  We couldn’t actually walk on the glacier because it was blocked off unless you had the correct equipment.  But, we could see all of them, near and far, and the peaks…the valley…the lakes….just stunning!!

me again :o)

We decided to eat lunch up at the top of the mountain because why not!  We shared a fresh meat and cheese tray and splurged with an Alpine cappuccino, which will forever be known as ALPacinos.  Took over 100 pictures (probably more because Meg let me loose with her nice camera) and just sat there and enjoyed the stunning views.

another view of the peaks

After a good while, we decided to head down to the middle station to see what was going on there and then decided once we got there, to go down.  Found the right bus and then went back into Celerina and to our hotel.  Once at the hotel, Meg called her boyfriend, Joe, and I declared I was going to take a nap!  Meg decided that was a good idea, so we took another blissful 2-hour nap!

Then it was time for dinner so we went up the hill into the middle of town, which was very, very sleepy!  Found a restaurant that had a dish called Raclette on it.  Our friend, Maria, talks non-stop about this dish, so we had to have it even though it was dreadfully overpriced!

gorgeous!!!

For those who don’t know, Raclette is cheese (think cheddar cheese thickness, but a light, creamy taste) that is put under a warmer and then gets all nice and gooey.  You can add little pearl onions, baby corn, olives, and pickles to it (we only did the onions and corn) and then when it’s all gooey, you scoop it onto baby potatoes so you have a deliciously gooey-ooey mess of cheese and potatoes.  Divine!

After dinner, we came back and did a little work (aka me writing my blog since I was a week behind) and then we went to bed.  A gorgeous day, with a lot of fun memories of the Alps!