RTW 2013 | St. Moritz

St. Moritz is an upscale resort town in the Engadin valley that caters to folks that travel there to ski in the wintertime. Thanks to its location within the valley, St. Moritz has 300+ days a year of sunshine. The town has a wide range of activities, first and foremost being alpine skiing of course, but there are activities throughout the year. The regular british classic car get-together occurs here, along with the Cartier Polo World Cup on snow (played on the frozen Lake St. Moritz). There is even an annual boat match and it seems quite a few people are in town in the summer and fall for mountain biking.

When I got in town, I had a bit of déjà vu.  From the water-side resort feel to the hilly ascent to the hotel, I had the weird feeling I had been here before. At first, I couldn’t quite figure it out. Then, once I reached the lift, I realized it: this is the winter equivalent to Monaco! After depositing the luggage at the hotel, I decided to wander around the town a bit. The shops in town are fairly pricy, and bear a striking resemblance to the shopping in Monaco. The atmosphere is similar too – lots of pretty people driving around in fancy cars. The town buildings retain the characteristic of the stereotypical ski resort, and now that I think about it, it’s possible that a lot of nicer resorts in the states may be modeled after a town like St. Moritz (Vail and Squaw come to mind).

cresta run statue

Since I wasn’t here to do shopping or skiing, I decided to check out the local sights and take a walk around the lake before sunset. I went a few blocks from the hotel to the leaning tower of St. Moritz. Apparently it’s been around since the 12th century and was the tower to a church that has since been demolished. After checking out the tower, I moseyed on down the hill to see what was around.

St. Moritz does a good job of promoting the tourism that flows through town. All the information stations are marked clearly, there are escalators to get you up and down the hill, and there are centralized parking structures that can accommodate thousands of cars.

I ended up going for a stroll around the park. The info booth guy said it takes 1hr max around the lake, so I should have enough daylight to make the loop. I ended up taking pictures every 5min so I ended up pushing the outer bounds of that estimation. Of course, it was fortunate that I did, as a passing old lady pointed out one of the most amazing full moons I’ve ever seen (the picture doesn’t do it justice).

The search for dinner ended up being a bit harder than I thought. This being a resort town, and the fact that it’s in Switzerland, I was looking at roughly 30-50CHF for a meal, assuming that I wanted something other than what I could hobble together at a market with no access to a kitchen or, well, any utensils (also, by the time I got around the lake, the market had closed). I ended up at a restaurant close to where I was staying, and had a pretty good rösti, which is basically swiss hash browns with cheese and any regional additions (in this case, air-dried beef). The upside of Switzerland is that draft beer at any restaurant is either cheaper or the same as water or soda. The downside is that a plate of fancy hash browns will cost you 25CHF.

After dinner, I pretty much went back to the hotel and planned out the next day, which involves the Glacier Express and finding things to do in Zermatt in the late afternoon. On this trip, wifi has been crucial, cuz otherwise I’d be completely screwed in terms of finding things to do. Anyways, stay tuned for the next segment. =)