Chur to St. Gallen (5/20)


What I didn’t say about Chur is that it is a town surrounded by mountains. Every which way you look, there are mountains on all sides. Chur looks Swiss to a certain extent, but it also looks Eastern European. There are buildings with onion-shaped domes, and there are other architectural details that I don’t have the vocabulary to describe. Even so, Chur looks really different from what I’ve experienced before. The hotel had a great breakfast, and after leaving my suitcases there for safekeeping, I went off to see the art museum. One thing to know about Chur is that it’s where Giacometti grew up. When I went to the art museum, it was pointed out that there are four Giacomettis - and I should realize that! All are from Chur. The Giacometti who is most famous is Alberto, whose father, Giovanni, was a painter. Giovanni’s cousin, Augusto, also was a painter. Alberto had a brother, Diego, who was also a painter. There were also two other children in the family – Bruno, an architect, and sister, Odette, whose profession I failed to note. Anyway, since Chur is the home of the Giacomettis, it’s important to know there are four in the art world. I went to this particular museum, hoping to see more wonderful sculptures by Alberto. There were a few pieces, but nothing like the collection I saw in Basel. I did see a lot of the work of the other Giaomettis and I really like the use of color by Augusto and Diego. This was a charming regional museum with a high-quality collection. It helps if there are high-quality artists in your Canton.
 From there, I went to see the two main churches in Chur. One is Anglican and the other is a cathedral. Both are stunning in very different ways. The two churches are in the old part of town, which is where I was staying. I went to collect my suitcase, and saw a sign on the door that there was warm kuchen. So, I had warm chocolate cake (think single layer, no frosting) with an amazing presentation of fruit, drizzled chocolate, and whipped cream, and a cup of coffee, before I made my way to the train station. The waitress seemed puzzled that I wanted cake at lunchtime, without lunch, and that I wanted coffee with my cake. Oh well… we Americans are different.
From Chur, I took the train to St. Gallen. Soon after departure, we passed giant mall of outlet stores. The brands were all American, and there was a Subway fast food place to top it off. The mall was open today - and today is Sunday. Nothing else is open on Sundays in Switzerland. I expect our commercialism - or globalization - will socialize Switzerland into staying open on Sundays, too. While I was on the train, I was approached by a beggar asking for money. She was a young woman - probably about 18 - who was clearly targeting me. When I ignored her, she made a remark that sounded like an insult, but in a language I didn’t understand. I think she was a gypsy, but I can’t be sure. A woman sitting in a seat across the aisle from me raised her eyebrows and sympathized with me. From my perspective, it was just one more experience.
 
When I got to St. Gallen, I discovered the hotel I had booked was a little over two miles from the train station. Yes, I walked and schlepped my suitcase. Fortunately, the walk was either level or downhill. To be sure, I will take public transportation back to the train station. I am in a very nice hotel - very inexpensive - in what seems like a suburb. Since today is Sunday, which means everything is closed, it was that much more difficult finding a place to have dinner. But in this part of the world, there is one thing you can always count on—gyros! So, I had my old German standby, which I actually haven’t had for a couple of weeks, and I was quite content.

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