Over the river and through the woods to St. Moritz we go...

As dinner approached, I went down to the porter and asked her for some recommendations of places to eat.  After we cleared up the confusion about the word "recommendations," she told me that most of the places to eat were in St. Moritz.  All of these restaurants featured "meat and fish."  Many restaurants and hotels are not open because the high season does not start for another couple weeks or so.  She showed me on a map how to walk over to St. Moritz.  She told me about a few places to eat, and I went back to the room to deliberate with the others on where we should go.  While deciding, my parents called to tell me that they arrived in St. Moritz and wanted to buy us dinner...well, the decision was made.  We cleaned up a bit and began the 3 mile walk.   We literally went over the river and then through the woods.  We first crossed over the En river and made our way down a bike path the paralleled the river and main highway.  (See picture to the upper right.)  The bike path opened up at St. Moritz-Bad, and we continued down the path as it followed the bank of the Lej da San Murezzan.  (See picture to the left and right.)  People were out strolling, fishing, bike-riding, and boating.  Many pleasant things stood out to us as we walked.  Construction crews left valuable equipment laying around unsecured and boats were lying in the grass.  People obviously did not worry about people stealing things.  It was nice and disquieting at the same time as the trust the Swiss show highlights the differences in the level of trust between our two cultures.  On a more humorous note, the trip also gave me a few more treasures in terms of great signs.  The one on the left has really captured the spirit of universal language.  I am not sure anyone really needs any explanation.  We thought the use of color was splendid.  It kinds of drives the point home.  This next sign was spray-painted regularly along our path.  This is a close up of only part of the sign.  The bottom portion shows an outline of a bicycle.  The message once again is clear--only non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians are allowed on this path.  But, we got a chuckle because we were wondering if it was a requirement to be from the fifties to walk along this path--or maybe Indiana Jones, but his whip is missing.  This does give a good snap shot of the Swiss who seem to be incredibly polite and respectful.  

The next sign was on the side of a receptacle that supplied people with bags to clean up after their dogs.  We keep laughing at their choices of dogs to display on the different signs.  The first one on the trail earlier today seemed like a glorified wiener dog, the next a shepherd or retriever, and the last a Chihuahua?  I don't think they would survive in this environment.  

Anyways, we met my parents at the restaurant at Hotel Franco, which was a pizzeria.  We all had a pizza and beer.  We exchanged stories and adventures.  It wasn't until Bob said we should get going before I realized what time it was.  It was 9:15, but it was completely light outside.  Earlier in the trip, Bob found out that it stays light well into the night 

(about 10:30ish).  We grabbed our stuff and started the long trip back.  To give you a picture it is about as light as it is at dusk.  The sun goes down at a normal time, but it just does not get any darker for another 4 to 5 hours.  I tried to capture the brightness, but it does not really come through on the camera.  The picture on the right was taken 5 minutes to 10.  It did get dark by the time we approached Celerina, and we were walking through a pretty 

dark Swiss forest.  Once again, I tried to get the dark path recorded on film, but it did not give a really adequate representation.

You will happy to know that we did not encounter any cows on the way.  On to Italy.

Ciao for now.