I went to St Moritz for a week in February – on a course in a place
called Randolins in Survetta, a little way outside the town – not
skiing. Randolins is a not for profit organisation that
caters mainly for groups, such as children on ski camps or adult
learning. It's a very nice place, simple, but comfortable
– definitely not your 5 star kind of place. It has shared
rooms and you have to take part in the chores, so things like going
and getting the food for each meal and wheeling it down to your
building on a trolley, washing up, laying tables etc. If you
are looking for a group venue, it's not a bad place.
St Moritz is in the Upper Engadine. Can't comment on
skiing, but can say a few things about the town. It's
quite small, easily walkable, very posh with a very high fur coat
count and is pretty expensive! There are two parts to St
Moritz: there's the dorf which means village and this is above
the lake. This is where the posh hotels, restaurants, shops
etc are. St Moritz-Bad is about 2km away southwest down on
the lakeshore and is not such a pretty place, lots of concrete
flats and other buildings.
The name of St Moritz
has an interesting story attached to it: the story told to me was
that Maurice (later turned into Moritz) was a Christian and came
from Egypt. He served in the Roman army under Julius Caesar
and led a Theban legion for the Roman empire and fought in the
Alps. He refused to obey the order of the Emperor Maximian
and sacrifice some Christians to the Roman gods because he was
himself a Christian. On hearing this, Maximian ordered
Maurice's regiment to be decimated – i.e. every tenth person
killed, and this went on until no-one was left. And so
commanding officer Maurice became a saint. Legend has it that
the rock used by Maurice to lay his head on so that he could be
beheaded is at St Moritz. Like England's St George,
St. Maurice is a patron of knights and soldiers. From the
12th century, due the similarity between his name and Maurus, he
was depicted as a Moor, so he became the black saint.
Even after Roman times, St. Moritz was known during the Middle Ages
for its mineral springs and healthy climate and it became the first
alpine winter sports and tourism centre in Switzerland. It
also hosted two Olympic Winter Games (1928 and 1948.) It became the
famous ski and alpine sports centre that it is mainly due to the
British, who went over in the 1860s and liked it so much they went
back and stayed an entire season, and the word was spread.
To get to St Moritz is very easy, you can take a train from
Zurich. I flew from London to Zurich on Easyjet (AKA
Sleazyjet) and that was a good price at around £75 including
taxes. Swiss Air and BA all fly there too from the UK but are
more expensive. There is a train station underneath the
airport at Zurich and you can take a train from here to the main
train station in the centre and go to Chor, change there for St
Moritz. The whole train journey from Zurich took about 3 1/2
hours.
There are plenty of taxis outside St Moritz train station and the
drivers seem to speak every language in the world between
them. Swiss Italian and Swiss German seem to be the
predominant languages – and be warned, whilst many Swiss people are
amazing linguists and speak good English throughout, if you were
thinking (like me) to practice your German, think again, Swiss
German is quite different.
Swiss trains are a delight – always on time, clean, and I
especially like the double decker trains. Whilst the airport
is non smoking throughout – a fairly recent change, I think, the
Swiss do allow smoking on trains, so be careful about which
compartment you get into, if you are a non smoker. I got on
an intercity from Lucerne to Zurich and inadvertently sat in a
smoking section, which by the time I realised, was too late to move
as it was packed full.
Buying a Swiss rail pass makes a lot of sense. I paid £105
for a pass that allowed me free travel on three specified
days. The days do not have to be consecutive. The pass
also allows you to receive substantial discounts on other
trips. You can buy rail passes for different lengths of trip.
I also went to Lucerne or Luzern. Beautiful! It's
about 4 hours from St Moritz by train – and only an hour or so by
the fast intercity train from Zurich, which also goes direct to the
airport as well, which is pretty handy. It is situated on a
lake and has lots of history. The river Reuss separates the
old town from the newer, although that seemed pretty old to me
too! Then it flows into the lake. The town is also very
easy to walk around and was my highlight on this trip to
Switzerland. The train station is very close to the edge of
the lake and close to the Art Museum and within easy reach of the
hotels by foot.
I stayed in the Hotel Krone which is a Best Western and is in the
Old Town, it was very nice and has free internet and the people
there were very nice.
There are lots
of bridges across the River Reuss, it reminded me a little of
Ljubljana, especially with some of the dragon symbols, some of my
friends said Stockholm. One of the most famous is the Chapel
bridge built in the 14th century as a part of the city's
fortifications and named after St. Peter's Chapel, which is
located nearby. It has paintings on it including some info on the
city's patron saints, St. Leodegar and our friend St.
Maurice. There's also a very splendid 17th century
baroque Jesuit church. I really liked the water spikes that
act like a lock to regulate water levels like in a canal. and
you can see the remains of water mills.
There are lots of old squares and beautiful buildings with pictures
on the walls, red spires and steeples. The Weinmarkt is one
of these old squares, and is by the Hotel Krone – very pretty.
There's also a great restaurant, and not too expensive (for
Switzerland!) in the cellar of the town hall, or Rat Haus that has
its own micro brewery inside – great beer, and good food,
especially the Braui special which has lots of different types of
pork and sauerkraut. It is also a good place to go and talk
to local people, as everyone seemed really friendly.
On my final day in
Lucerne, I went to the tourist information centre at the train
station and asked where I could go in the mountains. They
suggested a trip to Rigi Kulm, so, using my rail pass, instead of
paying 79 Swiss Francs, it cost me 29 Swiss Francs. It was a
great adventure! I took a boat across Lake Lucerne, and then
a funicular or cog wheel train up the mountain to the top of Rigi
Kulm, about 1,800m, so not too high, and then the cog wheel train
to the half way point and a cable car down to Weggis back down by
the lake, and the boat again back to Lucerne. It was a
wonderful half day trip, where we could see above the clouds, the
mountain tops poking through, then there was the lake and the green
of the alpine pastures leading up to the mountains. There are
a couple of other mountain type trips you can do like this whilst
based in Lucerne.
Then I took the train from Lucerne back to Zurich airport,
the direct trains run at 10 minutes past the hour and it took about
1 hour.
I’d definitely recommend Lucerne as a base for 2/3 days to explore.
The name of St Moritz
has an interesting story attached to it: the story told to me was
that Maurice (later turned into Moritz) was a Christian and came
from Egypt. He served in the Roman army under Julius Caesar
and led a Theban legion for the Roman empire and fought in the
Alps. He refused to obey the order of the Emperor Maximian
and sacrifice some Christians to the Roman gods because he was
himself a Christian. On hearing this, Maximian ordered
Maurice's regiment to be decimated – i.e. every tenth person
killed, and this went on until no-one was left. And so
commanding officer Maurice became a saint. Legend has it that
the rock used by Maurice to lay his head on so that he could be
beheaded is at St Moritz. Like England's St George,
St. Maurice is a patron of knights and soldiers. From the
12th century, due the similarity between his name and Maurus, he
was depicted as a Moor, so he became the black saint.
There are lots
of bridges across the River Reuss, it reminded me a little of
Ljubljana, especially with some of the dragon symbols, some of my
friends said Stockholm. One of the most famous is the Chapel
bridge built in the 14th century as a part of the city's
fortifications and named after St. Peter's Chapel, which is
located nearby. It has paintings on it including some info on the
city's patron saints, St. Leodegar and our friend St.
Maurice. There's also a very splendid 17th century
baroque Jesuit church. I really liked the water spikes that
act like a lock to regulate water levels like in a canal. and
you can see the remains of water mills.
On my final day in
Lucerne, I went to the tourist information centre at the train
station and asked where I could go in the mountains. They
suggested a trip to Rigi Kulm, so, using my rail pass, instead of
paying 79 Swiss Francs, it cost me 29 Swiss Francs. It was a
great adventure! I took a boat across Lake Lucerne, and then
a funicular or cog wheel train up the mountain to the top of Rigi
Kulm, about 1,800m, so not too high, and then the cog wheel train
to the half way point and a cable car down to Weggis back down by
the lake, and the boat again back to Lucerne. It was a
wonderful half day trip, where we could see above the clouds, the
mountain tops poking through, then there was the lake and the green
of the alpine pastures leading up to the mountains. There are
a couple of other mountain type trips you can do like this whilst
based in Lucerne.