Klosters

Tuesday 6 August

Klosters

Today was our 'orientation' day.  Our tour guide, Les, had told us about the guest tax which sounds expensive (€45 for 10 days) but allows free travel on trains, buses and the cable car. So after a late breakfast we set off downhill to check out the town.

After we had purchased our 'guest cards' we went to get the cable car up to Gotschnagrat mountain and found the ticket office with no trouble and swiped our cards and we were in.  

We were one of the first there and the cable car (called Prince Charles) was just making its way down.  The waiting area for foot traffic was filling up nicely, and there were a few mountain bikers  in a separate waiting area also.  When the cable car arrived and set down its passengers there was quite a wait before going back up, obviously sticking to its timetable, so we had time to watch the video displaying the downhill ride that the bikers can choose to kill themselves on.    James watched this in eager anticipation, he had brought his bike with him.    However as the bikers increased in number the variety of gear they wore was amazing it looked like a modern day take on a suit of armour.  Head to toe in reinforced body protection, I am not sure James' number 8 guage wire approach to this downhill run was going to cut it!  

The bikers were allowed on first, the notice said it was for safety reasons, so on they trouped and we were able to watch a re run of the video just in case we couldn't believe it the first time.  So when the clock struck the right time the foot passengers were allowed to squeeze on and fight over the few hanging straps left - for safety reasons!  No seats of course so we made sure the kids had something to hold onto, Hannah, I have to say, had to be restrained from sitting in the drivers seat, however with a bit of training I am sure she could have pressed the buttons just as well.  And we were off, we were tall enough to see out of the windows and indeed inched our way to the front to take some photos.

It was a nice gentle ride except for a bit of swaying going over the pylons holding the cables, and when we reached the top of the first leg we had to change to a smaller cable car to complete the journey to the top.  Fortunately most of the mountain bikers got off so there was more room to enjoy the journey.

Wow, it felt like being on top of the world, 360deg view of mountain tops (David tells me it was 2,280 mtrs above sea level ), we walked up and down a few paths, Penelope was really quite frightened about being so high up "what happens if I fall down the side",

 

but after some encouragement she 'unfroze' enough to pick some pretty mountain flowers and go for a little walk.  We didn't spend too long there and took the cable car back down.

We wandered around this very pretty little town, all up and down hill, beautifully manicured roads, footpaths, gardens, lovely shops selling a variety of wares, the cake shops will become one of our favourites I am sure!   Inviting looking restaurants and cafes I don't think we will be short of things to do and see.  

So we bought a baguette (only for David, Rachel and me - gluten has a lot to answer for), and some tomatoes and headed home for lunch.