August 28th - September 5th: Relaxing in Switzerland
After the last twelve months were quite stressful, we decided to have one week of just relaxing in the Swiss mountains, in Sils Maria (Engadin).
On Friday we made our way to Zurich to visit Eveline and Daniel again ... we had a wonderful dinner including the superb Swiss cheese ...
... unfortunately not a lot of meat was on the menu ;-) ... JOKE !!!
Saturday we drove to Sils Maria, Engadin in Switzerland to our hotel "Waldhaus" ... having our first dinner that night ...
... and the first drinks ... one for the road ... sort of ...
The hotel was great and fortunately the weather also ... so on day 1 we made a five hour walk into the "Fex" valley ...
... which is just breathtaking ... here the little village, where we had a lunch break ... the valley itself is approx. 2.000 metres above sea level
Monday night, we booked in for the "kitchen dinner" ... which started in the wine cellar, here Thomas playing the wine expert ...
... after that, for all seven courses a different wine was selected ... here parts of it ...
... and because nobody else (maximum 10 people) booked it, we had our "private" candle light dinner in the middle of the hotel kitchen!
Next day we took the SL, roof down, and drove to Lake Como in Italy ... down the Maloja pass ... here on the photo our hotel on the little hill ...
Down at lake Como we had 31 degrees, lovely weather and drove all along the lake towards the city of Como ...
... here a view of the lake ...
In Como itself we walked around the city and had a little lunch in the centre ...
... and then drove up the railway to Brunate where we had a great view on the city and the lake ...
Wednesday we took the famous "Bernina Express" train to Italy ... it drives from 1.800 metres up to the Bernina Pass (2.256 metres) and then all the way down to Tirano (400 metres) ...
... here us in the panorama coach ...
the train ride was spectacular, here the train had to go in a circle to gain more height ...
here the train going back ... with the panorama coaches ...
Last day, we had another long walk to Maloja ... here one of the lakes in the morning ...
... having a rest on a bench ...
... and then - unfortunately - our last dinner, where we enjoyed one of the best wines in the world - a Penfolds Grange from 1997 ... and we have to say: this wine experience is beyond all bottles of wine we ever had!
Saturday, we drove back home and we were farewelled with that view from our room ...It was a great week to relax and we wished it could have been two weeks!