Once you are in Europe getting from place to place is as easy as crossing state lines. We booked a quick flight (just under 2 hours) from the island of Mallorca to Zurich, Switzerland. We love Switzerland so much and have made it a priority to be here so often over the last couple of years that I know loving refer to it as a second home. I cannot afford for it to be my first, second, third or any home so this is said strictly in jest. We can only stomach/afford to be in the country for a few days at a time.
"Let's go!"
It always feels good to the be "home" in Switzerland
We landed in the evening, grabbed a rental car from our regular spot and got on the road. Flying was not great for my head cold so we had to stop along the way for tissues and Ricola cough drops. As you can imagine, Ricolas are quite easy to procure around these parts.
The drive from Zurich took about two hours. I knew we were doing some mountain driving but it was dark out so I didn't have the chance to lose my nerve. Yes, Davos is across the country from Zurich, but Switzerland is not large. Fun fact: Switzerland is nearly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined, but not quite that large even.
We wanted to come to Davos to stay at one of Intercontinental Hotel Groups' premiere properties, but since we were arriving late we booked a less expensive hotel for the first night. It turned out to be really nice, too, and right in town. We pretty much just slept there, but we woke up to a pretty view of the village.
Good morning, Davos!
We had a bit of time before we could check into our new hotel for the evening to so we went down the lake to sit and read for a bit. This is a lie. I went to sit and read a book. Jackson doesn't sit still much so he wandered around. We initially tried to get into our hotel only to be thrown out by security as they were ending a Swiss banking convention and these are more highly guarded than Area 51/ Fort Knox/ The White House. We now believe that Swiss bankers are the root of all evil. I'm kidding. Kind of.
Not a bad spot for a read!
The road into town is covered so snow doesn't stop traffic. SMART!
An aerial view of the hotel
(not our photo, of course)
The hotel's exterior from the parking lot
We eventually were able to check in and the hotel was pretty much empty. Since they'd had the ultra-secret banking convention book the entire hotel for the days before we were there only about seven other rooms occupied in the entire hotel. I thought that was kind of awesome. It also meant they gave us a nicer room with an amazing view.
The view from our balcony
That is not fake!
We settled in for a bit then went into town. The cool thing about visiting a ski town during the summer months is that even in Switzerland things are on sale. We got a pass good for transit up any mountain train, tram, elevator, you name it while we were there just for staying at a local hotel. This saved us a ton of cash and built-in things for us to do. Naturally it was me who had to face her debilitating fear of heights and go to top of each mountain. I did it. As I always do.
Sitting on top of the world!
Somehow the wind never messes with Jackson's hair?!
Views for days!
This does not justice for how steep this was
I need a better camera to show downward slope.
Our hotel is that little gold blob on the left
After all that excitement we hit the pools and steam rooms at the hotel (our own personal place, really) and then retired early.
We learned the next morning at breakfast (Jackson had finagled both club room access and free breakfast due to his status with IHG hotels) that BMW uses a local road as their winter test track for new vehicles. Obviously this meant we needed to test out our rental car (categorically not a BMW) on the same road.
They don't test BMWs in an ugly environment
The locals are a little fierce
We pulled off to hike around a little
You guys. This is just a random road in Switzerland. I cannot.
Jackson, naturally, climbed on top of a large rock
How cute is this little chapel?
Once we'd finished milling around the windy test track road we headed back into the village to ride more terror machines trams to the top of the mountains.
Looking back at the village
JAKOBSHORN!
The area at the top of this mountain was stunning
THE WINDOW OF THE TRAM WAS WIDE OPEN
JUST WAITING FOR ONE OF US TO FALL THROUGH IT
The safety standards in other countries are amazing to me. We were seriously 56 miles from the ground and they had the windows of our tram wide open. Have we no sense, dear Swiss folk? We made it back. Somehow.
We heard that a local spot had killer cordon bleu so we made a reservation and went there for dinner.
A little piece of Grant County in Davos!
We love this stuff!
I can hardly contain my excitement!
Luckily the food was delicious because for the two of us it was well over $100. Yep. YEP. Welcome to Switzerland where everyday is like fat camp because you cannot afford to eat. HA.
An interesting thing we noticed about the other visitors to Davos was that we were pretty much the only non-Haredi Jews in town. Since their families are generally large and the summers in Israel are quite hot the idea that Davos is "on sale" in the summer with favorable weather means that large populations of these folks come to town. The city really caters to them with increased kosher offerings and it seems to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Interestingly, most marriages are still arranged and the women have to wear hair coverings but they do this via wearing wigs instead of scarves as done by many Muslim women. We did not know about the wig rule at first and once we learned it (thanks, Google) I found it FASCINATING. Honestly the people watching around town was incredible and we learned some new things about people with whom we'd not previously interacted.
Haredi Jews have a large presence
The next morning we again had a private breakfast in our now even more empty hotel. It was amazing to us that they still put together an entire breakfast buffet when we only saw two other guests dining. What a waste! I actually do not love most of what they eat for breakfast (think deli meats and runny eggs) so I ate the Asian-style food they made. Now that was a real treat!
Top of the morning to 'ya!
Trying a little Asian food for breakfast
We filled up since we wouldn't be able to afford food again until dinner (I'm not kidding this time) and then got on the road to France. It would take about four hour to get from Davos over to Strasbourg, France where we'd be staying for the evening.
Also, I am adding a video that I just found because I liked it:
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