We spend the time in the valley, sleep comfortably on Lago Poschiavo, hike along the lake and buffet in the 4-star hotel on the most beautiful garden terrace with lake view. We "roll" to Tirano. Once again past the circular viaduct in Brusio. And we realise: Tirano is just a town! And we don't really fancy towns.
So we turn back and slowly make our way north again due to the rainy weather forecast of all our apps. In Le Prese we sit comfortably together and in a fit of generosity I ask Gerd: "So, do you want to take the Bernina Railway over the pass again?" "Oh yes, that would be great!"
And already he is sitting in the cheerful red train with his camera and rain jacket, while I ride over the pass with Felix for the fourth time. I slowly roll over, take it all in once more and realise once again how beautiful Switzerland is.
Before I collect Gerd again in Pontresina, I quickly fill up with fresh water at the campsite. Pontresina itself is somehow sleepy on this day. Nothing is happening, most of the cafés and restaurants are closed. So later we sit in the same café with a view of the Piz Palü and Piz Bernina icebergs where I had dinner with my girlfriend a few days ago and think about what to do.
We don't want to stroll around, we don't want to visit the many outdoor shops and upmarket boutiques that the well-disposed guest likes to visit in St. Moritz and Pontresina. So we take a little walk through the mountaineering village. The village describes itself as "alpine lifestyle at its best" and means, attention, quote: "Pontresina: guarantor of exceptional leisure and sports facilities, famous for its internationally renowned hotels and gastronomy. In short: Pontresina stands for enjoyment at its best".
However, the charm of the traditional Engadine houses and the elegance of the grand hotels of the Belle Epoque grab us. We can't get enough of the characteristic Engadine houses: Massive stone walls and small, funnel-shaped windows that let a lot of light into the interior despite the small opening. Many wooden houses were subsequently clad in stone. The playful decorations on façades, windows and building corners are also striking.
If you look closely, you can see that the patterns are not painted, but scratched into the plaster. This is called sgraffito (but how do you pronounce it?). The top layer of the plaster is scratched off, revealing the darker layer underneath. The word comes from Italian and means "to scratch".
After our mini-express city stroll, I find a couple of nice pitches at the beginning of the Albula Pass. Meanwhile, the weather forecast predicts sunshine for tomorrow. So up the mountain we go.
We bake apple pies for the evening. Why in the evening? Because it's much cooler on the pass and we certainly don't want to run our oven Omnia for three quarters of an hour in the valley when it's almost 30 degrees outside and raise our little house to what feels like sauna temperature.
Our lesson from the first hot summer in Felix: we bake in the evening or when we spend the night on cold passes or in cool forests.
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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