Hot Stuff
(Friday 26th June)
Today we fancied stretching our legs a bit, and so set off exploring.
We headed for Bad Ass via Lancre,
Ahem.
We headed for Bad Ragaz, via Landquart - which are pronounced very much like the Discworld towns! There is also a gorge with an old bridge and ancient castle like buildings perched on cliff edges......
Switzerland is very good at way marking hike and bike trails, and so we set off from the station with confidence towards the gorge and thermal springs of Bad Pfafers. Other knots of people marched past us on a mission to reach the goal, or were carried forth on busses along the road that looked too narrow for such traffic. We however dawdled along in wonder at the cliffs of the gorge and in some fear at the large lumps of rock seeming to hang above us only because noone had told them about gravity.
We were amused at the sign near a wider area (complete with barbecue and wood to burn on it) warning us not to clamber around the river bed as it was prone to flash flooding at any time - but especially on sunny days! That'll be a snow fed river then.
The ancient health spa was eventually reached, with the comparatively modern buildings wedged into the end of the "wide" part of the gorge. The road is an even later addition, with earlier visitors seeking the healing waters by clambering down into the gorge from above - and the earliest being lowered in on ropes, often with a blind fold so they couldn't see the depth, or the rickety platform they were heading for!
A scary bridge and a coin-op turnstile granted us access to the footpath cut into the side of the gorge proper - narrow and winding potholes that you would normally need caving gear to experience. Eventually this was closed off as too dangerous, and we were diverted into the man made tunnels that are cut into the mountain and avoid all the messy twiddly bits. They also carry the holy water away and down pipes to baths at Bad Ragaz, avoiding any need to travel to the source at all and ending centuries of healing baths at the spring itself.
We were able to go back out to (strongly roofed) fresh air at the point where the steaming spring splashes into the icy waters of the gorge, though this is now just as an overflow from the pipe. Following the oldest of the tunnels we felt a noticeable rise in the temperature, and there was a rapid steaming up of glasses. We emerged at a window to a small natural cave where the spring wells up from its long journey, and where pilgrims are granted the opportunity to touch the healing water, diverted from the pipe to a water fountain.
Returning to Chur, we decided that an evening trip up the mountain railway to Arosa would round off the day nicely, a trip which has the added novelty of starting its journey from the outside of the main station and running through the town on tram lines. They also seem to run a lot of the trips with mixed trains - varying goods wagons being tacked onto the passenger service trains.
Today we fancied stretching our legs a bit, and so set off exploring.
We headed for Bad Ass via Lancre,
Ahem.
We headed for Bad Ragaz, via Landquart - which are pronounced very much like the Discworld towns! There is also a gorge with an old bridge and ancient castle like buildings perched on cliff edges......
Switzerland is very good at way marking hike and bike trails, and so we set off from the station with confidence towards the gorge and thermal springs of Bad Pfafers. Other knots of people marched past us on a mission to reach the goal, or were carried forth on busses along the road that looked too narrow for such traffic. We however dawdled along in wonder at the cliffs of the gorge and in some fear at the large lumps of rock seeming to hang above us only because noone had told them about gravity.
We were amused at the sign near a wider area (complete with barbecue and wood to burn on it) warning us not to clamber around the river bed as it was prone to flash flooding at any time - but especially on sunny days! That'll be a snow fed river then.
The ancient health spa was eventually reached, with the comparatively modern buildings wedged into the end of the "wide" part of the gorge. The road is an even later addition, with earlier visitors seeking the healing waters by clambering down into the gorge from above - and the earliest being lowered in on ropes, often with a blind fold so they couldn't see the depth, or the rickety platform they were heading for!
A scary bridge and a coin-op turnstile granted us access to the footpath cut into the side of the gorge proper - narrow and winding potholes that you would normally need caving gear to experience. Eventually this was closed off as too dangerous, and we were diverted into the man made tunnels that are cut into the mountain and avoid all the messy twiddly bits. They also carry the holy water away and down pipes to baths at Bad Ragaz, avoiding any need to travel to the source at all and ending centuries of healing baths at the spring itself.
We were able to go back out to (strongly roofed) fresh air at the point where the steaming spring splashes into the icy waters of the gorge, though this is now just as an overflow from the pipe. Following the oldest of the tunnels we felt a noticeable rise in the temperature, and there was a rapid steaming up of glasses. We emerged at a window to a small natural cave where the spring wells up from its long journey, and where pilgrims are granted the opportunity to touch the healing water, diverted from the pipe to a water fountain.
Returning to Chur, we decided that an evening trip up the mountain railway to Arosa would round off the day nicely, a trip which has the added novelty of starting its journey from the outside of the main station and running through the town on tram lines. They also seem to run a lot of the trips with mixed trains - varying goods wagons being tacked onto the passenger service trains.