After the Bakers left, we spent the next weekend (which was Labor Day weekend in the US) just recovering. Darren technically had Labor Day off, but he went to work anyways. The weekend after that, Darren had a Swiss half-holiday on Monday. This was the last Swiss holiday until Christmas (though, this year Christmas is on a Sunday, so they don't get the holiday, yeah it sucks). Anyways, Darren wanted to make sure we used his last (half) day off for a while. So we did a bunch of fun things that weekend, starting with a day trip on Saturday.
That Saturday, we rented a car and drove up to a mountain town called Arosa, which is a popular hiking and skiing area. On the way up, we hit stopped traffic where police told us we would be waiting only for a little while. We didn't know why we had to stop, though we thought maybe it was an accident, but I was happy to get off the windy road for a bit because I was a little carsick.
The line of cars stopped on the road
More cars waiting farther down the road
The view from the road, not a bad place to stop!
A fantastic Ferrari only a few cars ahead of us
We only had to wait fifteen minutes before we were off again to go up more windy roads to Arosa. We finally figured out that there were car races taking place on the road to Arosa. We realized that we arrived in the area right before they took an afternoon break of racing and opened the road again, what luck! Darren bravely drove up windy roads in traffic with a stick shift for the next twenty minutes. I think he's ready to be in a car race himself. We finally arrived in Arosa and parked our car in free(!) parking. Yes, that's what I said, something was free in Switzerland! We walked through town to get to a gondola while taking pictures of the cars lining up for the next race.
Some classic cars lined up to race
Some more modern cars in the race, too, including my love
We bought an all-day pass for the town of Arosa for only 13 Francs! So cheap! Arosa is a good place to go if you are on a budget. We took two gondolas to get to the top of the Weisshorn, which is at an elevation of 8,700 ft. The view was pretty, but the area around Arosa is much drier than other parts of Switzerland, so there weren't lush, green mountains, as in the Berner Oberland. We walked down a bit from the top and stopped to have our picnic lunch. A picnic lunch on top of a beautiful mountain is my favorite thing in the world.
Darren on the Weisshorn
Our picnic spot, man my legs are white
Hiking down from the Weisshorn
We then hiked down from the Weisshorn and ran into a lot of cows, which I was thrilled about. Darren tried to get me to pet one, but I was a little nervous and they kept walking away from me whenever I would come near. We did come upon a farmer gathering up the cows to be milked and Darren took a video of it. Just in case you didn't know, all of our videos are shot in HD, so where it says 360p on the bottom of the video menu, you can click that and select 720p instead to see a sharper video. I know you are like me and want to view the cows in the best available resolution. ;)
A cute Swiss cow
We only hiked down to the lower gondola and then took that down to the town. Since we had an all-day pass, we decided to go over to the small lake in the middle of town and rent a paddle boat.
Passed a beautiful Lamborghini on the way to the lake
The small lake in Arosa
In the paddle boat, enjoying the sun, and not helping paddle at all
After we were done paddling, we had to wait another 30 minutes for the races to end for the day and the road to open up again. I got a sausage and we shared some ice cream while we watched the cars come down the finish line. It was really funny because on the road was a permanent radar sign telling cars to slow down as they entered the small town. Watch the video below to see how it reacted to these race cars speeding by. ;)
The races were just timed, since it would be dangerous to pass someone on the windy road
A view of the beautiful drive home
We left Arosa and had a beautiful drive home and arrived back Saturday night. Next time, I will talk about what we did Sunday and Monday.
What an interesting day - cows and race cars. It seems wherever you go in Switzerland is beautiful. Yes, I did watch the cows go by in HD, but they still look like cows.
ReplyDeleteThe video of the race car going by the radar speed sign made me laugh out loud. I've been watching a lot of a car show, called Top Gear, and they show these races throughout Europe where just about anyone can enter in any kind of sports car, whether it's old or new. Fun idea.
ReplyDeleteLoved the cows, of course.
You have done such a great job of exploring the country you live in! So many people would try to get to as many countries without exploring the beauty of Switzerland. I love the silly cow video.
ReplyDeleteI just want want to know which car won the race and when the next race is going to be
ReplyDelete