Swiss holiday - Part 2 - Maienfeld and Mountains

Swiss dream house.

Helvitica on the 2 Franc coin.

Continuing on my Swiss holiday, but I need to mention a few thoughts on this lovely little country. First thing is, if you haven't noticed already is that I have changed the font to 'Helvetica,' in honour of my time here. If you thought that was just a font, you're sadly wrong! Helvetica is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially The Swiss Confederation - she is The Goddess Helvetia or Helvetica, and appears on the national currency. She is shown on the coins wearing flowing robes, holding a large spear and shield emblazoned with the Swiss cross, and her hair in a wreath. The name comes from the Gaulish tribe that lived in the area before the Roman conquest. I also have to add that no Swiss person I asked could tell me who she was... Enough of the history lesson - here are a few things that took me just days to realise about this country:

The mountains of Switzerland.

1. Church bells are always ringing. Somewhere. If it's not a church, it's a cowbell.
2. The inside of churches are deadly silent - Church is not a place for kids or talking. Ssh!
3. The only noise you'll hear in a church is the organist playing. There is often one playing, but by a real person who is sitting up there playing for anybody and nobody.
4. Everyone puts their names on their letterboxes and doorbells. Normally the only name you get on your doorbell in Australia is 'Friedland' (a brand of doorbell).
5. Mountains are everywhere - you can play the game of closing your eyes, opening them at anytime and if you don't see a mountain, you win. Good luck!
6. People work a lot here - maybe because it's so expensive. You walk around a town or city during the day and it's mainly people going to and from work - Spain on the other hand, people never seem to be working, just sitting around eating and drinking all day.
7. The beds are the warmest and most comfortable in the World, including backpackers beds. The showers are also set to the perfect temperature and run at this temp within 2 seconds and stay that way. Pure bliss!
8. There is always a clock nearby - you always know the time in Switzerland. They do love their timepieces here!

Mountains Gandalf, mountains!

I'm ready!

Ah! Watch your step!

It had only been 2 days so far in this small but amazingly beautiful country, and I was in love. I have always had a thing for small European countries (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg) and this one was growing on me too. 2 days and I hadn't climbed a mountain yet either - I felt so bad about that, so much so that on day 3 we headed for the mountains to rectify it immediately! This country is full of mountains, look out the window and they are everywhere, so picking on to climb wasn't hard. We decided on the Pizol mountains, not far from where we were staying. We parked the car and walked up to the start of the lift that would take us to the top where we would hike around. Everyone I met in Switzerland was extremely open and friendly - people even mistook me for Swiss sometimes and spoke German to me - and the woman at the ticket office was no different. She felt terrible that she had to charge me so much to get to the top and tried her best to give me the best price, which still turned out to be steep - 42f (nearly $60). 3 lifts later and we were at the top, 2200m - the first lift was a comfortable one, enclosed with cushioned seats, but the next two were the normal chairlift variety, made for when you've got your skis on and are going from slope to slope - great for a view of the mountains and general area, but cold. Although not really enough snow to ski properly, there was a probably a little too much to hike properly! Sometimes we struggled a little, falling hip-deep in the snow, but we continued on to the top and were rewarded with a view of a frozen lake, so decided to enjoy the scenery and stop for a quick snack.

Chairlift to the top of Pizol.

Where do you want to go?

Our lunch time view.

With lunch over, we walked around for a bit, trying to get that 360 degree view of mountains. When it got too windy and cold, we started the descent, heading for the bar to chill in the sun before getting the lift back down. Apart from the high prices that haunts all ski slope bars and restaurants, the smell of the food and just the thought of a beer or mulled wine is nearly irresistible - there is nothing like sitting in the sun, all wrapped up against the cold but feeling warm after a hike or ski, enjoying a good meal, completely surrounded by a wonderful mountain view and also in good company. This is Switzerland. Something else about Switzerland is the friendliness of the people - on the chair lift down, there was a young family with 2 kids, one girl about 6 years old and a little 3 year old boy. The girl was sulking a little, complaining that she was cold (Alicia translated), so being a teacher, I decided to talk to the child - I told her I was cold too. She gave me a look of confusion and shock, then asked her parents what funny language I was speaking! I started talking to the father, whose English was very good, and the little girl (now smiling and happy) started talking to Alicia and both kids in the end were showing off how much English they knew and didn't want us to leave - in fact the little girl invited us back to her house, as she lived in town! Most kids would stay angry and not want to speak in a foreign language to complete strangers, but these kids were amazing! That made me smile and kept me smiling for the rest of the day.

Going down?

Looking up in awe.

St Christopher on the church in Zillis.

Before heading home for the day, there was a very special place to see. I'd never heard of this place before, but when it was described to me I knew I had to see it for myself. The sleepy village of Zillis, with a population of just over 400 (I saw nobody though), isn't anything special on it's own - yes, it's a pretty Swiss town with churches, but it has one very special church. Saint Martin's Church (or San. Martegn) is a Romanesque stone church, which from the outside looks like the rest, but as you get closer you see a huge, 10m high painted Saint Christopher. This is covered by a small roof to preserve the artwork, which if like what was inside, dates from the 12th Century. Inside is the true wonder - the whole ceiling is covered with wood panels; 153 square wooden panels of around 90 cm each placed in 17 rows of 9 panels to be exact! Each have a hand-painted scene on them, from mythical stories and beasts to biblical events as well as the life of Saint Martin of Tours, the patron saint of the church and village. The panels around the outside are all strange, mythical creatures, symbolising evil while the four in the the corners are angels who represent the 4 wind directions, warning the church goers of the Apocalypse and Last Judgement. 

The 153 wooden panels on the ceiling of St Martin's Church in Zillis.

View from Heidihaus.

Maienfeld and Heidi's mountains.

Some else of note, which I only discovered afterwards, is that there a visual divide between the domain of evil and good with these paintings - a large Christian cross is formed by these patterns with the devil trying to tempt Christ with all the riches in the world at the crossing. The museum and the church were technically close, as we arrived at around 5pm, but being Switzerland, nothing was locked, so we went in for free. Even though nobody else was in the church, we were completely silent and in awe of what we were seeing. Incredibly preserved and nearly 900 years old, the panels have been restored but not painted over. It's hard to be staring up, bending your neck that far to see the ceiling, so mirrors are kindly provided. After a little while of just enjoying the art (via a mirror), we got back in the car and headed home - being winter and also surrounded by mountains, the sun here sets very early and it's completely dark by 6:30pm. So, early dinner, some wine and a movie and it was bedtime - ready for the next day! Today we were back in the car for a short drive to visit a place called Maienfeld in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.

A wonderful spot for just sitting and looking at the mountains.

The real Heidi!

Church in Maienfeld.

The town of Maienfeld, again, is nothing special itself - churches, stone houses, mountain backdrop, your run of the mill Swiss town, beautiful but not unique. The thing that makes this place special is the fact that it's famous for being the home of Heidi. The little girl of the Apls, Heidi is a novel written by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, and tells the story of a young orphan who was taken from the town and given into the care of her grandfather who lived up in the mountains. The story is so Swiss and everyone knows of it, but it was made famous by the Japanese-drawn cartoon from the 80s, and although the little girl had black hair in the original story, her hair was changed to blond for the TV - make her look more "Swiss" I guess. Again, the museum and general area was closed, being the wrong season, but we went anyway - following the signs that pointed the way to HeidiHaus, written in German, English, Italian and Japanese. Strange that you would get a sign in the middle of Europe in Japanese, instead of maybe French or Spanish, but Heidi is very famous in that part of the World and tourist come here just to see the village from the series.Because it was closed, there wasn't much to see apart from a few buildings, but the area was lovely - I wouldn't mind moving here myself!

Beautiful Switzerland - Hopp Schwiiz!