Graubunden

A few photos from our trip to Graubunden, a region close to Italy with its own distinctive Romanisch, a language imported into the region by the Romans and it is used both in verbal and written form. Buna Saira indeed! It sounded great, full vowel crushes and lilting tones but had to use my minimal German in most situations as English wasn't widely understood.



We left Basel in Autumn and arrived, literally in Winter, as snow began to fall in Andermatt. Here we changed for a small train that ascended for half an hour to around 2000m to the Oberalp Pass, a desolate, whitened landscape. We stayed in a little apartment in Sedrun, went for a comical walk in foot deep snow up a mountain that would have Swiss regulars tutting at our lack of plan and had Rosti for an evening meal, shredded,potato comfort against the cold.

Fall:Not Now Saigon

I loved the Graham Greene line about dusk in Vietnam, how daylight would be doused like a candle and in the brief, febrile twilight that followed, darkness would then ' fall like a stone.' Here, twilight seems to gorge itself on the remaining light, filling up our valley with rays thin yet brilliant. And we have found seasons again and it all seems very efficient with nature shifting smoothly into another gear; weather as a clockwork mechanism sprung with expectation. Timing here is everything. The supermarkets are quickly selling off the last fruits of summer and piling displays high with pumpkins and wild mushrooms.

Another layer is needed now for cycling but the rush of cold air is certainly exhilarating!

Friends in Vietnam have described the deluge of 135mm of rain in one torrential evening, with floods in the old neighbourhood carrying startled rats into sodden living rooms.

The ' Ex-Rat' instalments set to return soon!

Off to Graubunden soon. Photos to follow