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.

Where? 

St Helena is situated in the South Atlantic Ocean, 5° 43' west and 15° 56' south, 1,200 miles from the south-west coast of Africa, and 1,800 miles from the coast of South America.  The nearest land is Ascension Island, which lies 703 miles (1,125km) to the north-west.  Cape Town lies some 1700 miles to the south east.  In other words, it’s pretty remote!

St Helena Island land is only some 47 square miles or 122 square km, ten and a half miles or 17km long and six and a half miles or 10km wide.  St Helena Island has two other British Overseas Territories: Ascension Island which lies 703 miles to the north west and Tristan da Cunha, which lies 1500 miles to the south west.  

It was uninhabited when it was first discovered by the Portuguese explorer, Juan Da Nova on 21 May 1502. The name St Helena is derived from the fact that the day Juan Da Niva discovered St Helena, it was a festival day, of St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, so he named the island in her honour. The Portuguese kept quiet about St Helena’s existence and used it as a convenient stop off place for ships returning home from the east to stock up on fresh water and fruit. For a little over 80 years only the Portuguese visited St Helena until in 1588 Captain Thomas Cavendish, captain of the H.M.S. Desire, called at the island on his voyage round the world and stayed 12 days there. After this time, English and Dutch merchant ships began to stop off for provisions and repairs.

As might be expected from this period in history, disputes soon arose between the Dutch and the English over sovereignty of St Helena.  In 1659 the British East India Company placed a garrison on the island and started the first permanent settlement. In retaliation, the Dutch invaded in 1673 forcing the English out.  The island was recaptured by the English and held by the British East India Company until 1834 until it was brought under the direct government of the British Crown.

In the Eighteenth century over a thousand ships called annually.  Following the opening of the Suez Canal and the advent of steam the island slipped into oblivion and remained as sort of time warp with its elegance period buildings , relaxed atmosphere and virtually crime free community.

Perhaps many people recognise the name St Helena in connection with Napoleon.  Napoleon was confined to St Helena in 18l5 after his defeat at Waterloo.  Residents of St Helena call themselves “Saints.” Things to do on St Helena include visiting the Plantation House, the residence of the Governor where one can photograph the giant tortoise reputed to be more than 150 years old, Longwood House where Napoleon was kept until his death in 1821 and is maintained by France as a museum.

Ascension Island has a military airstrip that can be used by civilians, but there is currently no civilian airport, so the only way to get there is by boat.  The UK Royal Mail Ship, the RMS St Helena, built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1990  provides cargo and passenger services.  It has a passenger capacity of 128 people.

The British Royal Mail ship sets off from Cardiff in the UK, calling at Tenerife and Ascension Island, and Cape Town. There are usually 4 voyages from the UK, 15 voyages from Ascension and 10 from Cape Town each year. Once a year the RMS calls at Tristan da Cunha – a Dependency of St Helena.  Most people travel via Ascension Island or Cape Town. The travel time for the RMS St Helena is 2 days from Ascension, 5 days from Cape Town and 14 days if travel is direct from Cardiff, UK.  If you are interested in taking the boat, take a look at: www.aws.co.uk or e-mail reservations@aws.co.uk or  enquiries@solomons.co.sh

According to Mac, who has looked into freighters, most freighters won’t take passengers over 75 years of age, as they have no doctors aboard, and he a little over this. He has culled some information from reading an account of freighter travel to St Helena.