The Cavaglia Glacier Garden, embedded in the alpine vegetation of Valposchiavo, is the result of thousands of years of glaciation. The glacier mills, true marvels of nature, are impressive witnesses of the earth's history. We arrive on the Rhaetian Railway (our favourite train!), walk across a glacial water meadow to the Glacier Garden.
Once you are standing in (or actually above) the glacial mills, you almost feel like you are travelling back in time. The concentric shapes, polished over thousands of years, fascinate and captivate. The origin of these natural phenomena lies in the last Quaternary cold period, the Würme Ice Age, which reached its peak around 25,000 years ago and ended around 11,000 years ago. So that was a while ago.
The path through the Cavaglia Gorge (a bit steep at the beginning, but worthwhile!) offers impressive views of erosion forms and glacial mills. Filigree stairs and bridges have been built here so that you can see well into the "mills".
A little later, the path descends steeply again into the gorge. Here there is supposed to be the sad face of an old woman, I really tried hard, I didn't see it on the walls of the gorge. Here is the story: "A family was very hungry and wanted to get to the village as quickly as possible to find something to eat. The old mother, a frail woman, was exhausted and tired of life and did not want to go any further. That would have delayed their arrival in Cavaglia, so the angry children pushed their old mother down the slope. Before the impact, on the edge of the precipice, she cursed her family. Then the rocks above broke loose and swept the entire family down into the ravine. The face of the old woman in the rock face is said to have inspired the legend."
I don't know what this story is trying to tell us. I just remembered that you should never be hungry with a mum, wife, girlfriend or anyone else. Because: Hungry Heike = grumpy Heike. Some of my fellow travellers can tell you a thing or two about that.
The Glacier Garden is free of charge, by the way, but a donation is requested. And, if I saw it correctly, you can also drive to Cavaglia by car. But honestly: the train ride is unique!
"This railway no longer runs, it climbs, through rocks and rifts, over viaducts and tunnels, making loops and curves of incredible radius..."
Hans Schmid, 1923
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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