Parents' Visit: St Moritz and Milano (8/11-12/1983)

Thursday, August 11, 1983

I worked half a day today, leaving to catch the 14:23 train to Zürich, sleeping most of the way. The barefoot guy sitting across from me had a silver tooth. Changed in Zürich to the 16:07 train to Chur, which had a lot of people headed to Vienna. Most of them got off at Sargans. In Chur I changed to the 17:38 train to St Moritz, and it was cloudy. The train went in circles and across stone-arched bridges as it climbed, arriving at 19:45. Mom and Dad met me and took me up to the Hotel Steinbock. I put my things in the room that had a balcony and a bath. Very nice!

We went down to the Steinbock Restaurant that had a chamois skin on one wall, and mountain goat (Steinbock?) skulls over the fireplace. Cloth napkins, too! The waitress lit a candle on the table. We ordered tea and Dad had a Coca-Cola. Mom ordered the “diet” dish, a slice of turkey fried in bread crumbs with a salad of red and green lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and shredded cabbage. Dad and I had the house specialty; ravioli alla San Murezzan (Romansch for Sankt Moritz) with spinach inside and a cream sauce with mushrooms and bacon. You could smell that someone had something cooked on the fire. We paid the bill of about 47 CHF/$23 and went to our room to get jackets. We walked up and around the town, modern with exclusive shops. We continued over to the funicular station, then back down to Au Réduit Bar to have ice cream. Dad and I had Coupe Dänemarks (vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and hot chocolate sauce)and Coca-Colas, and Mom had coffee. It cost us 19.40 CHF/$9. There are lots of cars with Italian license plates. Returned to the hotel to get ready for bed.

Friday, August 12, 1983

The alarm woke us at 7:30 and it was very dark. When we opened the blinds we saw that it had rained and was cloudy. But the clouds soon lifted.
We tried to sit by the window for breakfast, but were told it was reserved. Our next choice was by the fireplace, by which there was a grand piano. We had croissants and rolls with butter and jelly, and cheese. Dad had tea, Mom had coffee, and I had hot chocolate. No one was at the desk when we went to check out. A lady with two kids came by, and went behind the desk to ring a buzzer. The chef came out and he got our bill, for 120 CHF/$60.

View from hotel in St Moritz (GJT)

View from the hotel

Cable cars

Hotel Steinbok (GJT)

We walked down to the train station and discovered there was no 9:38 train to Chur, per Dad’s schedule. Hmm…

Class change ticket

We had to regroup, and took the next train out of St Moritz at 9:55 to Pontresina. There were only five passengers and we were all in First Class that had a dozen seats. In Pontresina we went to Information to see if it was possible to go to Tirano, then across Italy, then up to Lugano, over to Locarno and through Centovalli in one day. No. So we decided to head to Milano.
Outside the train station was a starting point for horse and carriage rides.

Horse and carriage ride

We took the 10:58 Bernina Express train, with brand new red cars. We had to go all the way to the back of the train for First Class, and it was pretty filled up. We had to take a pair of individual seats and one across the aisle. After a few stops, we were able to get grouped together.

Anti-tank barriers

It became sunny as we worked our way up to the Alpine tundra near the tree line.

Engadine house

We saw a couple glaciers and came to the lake that is dammed at both ends.

Glaciers and dammed Lago Bianco/White Lake

Glaciers (GJT)

Lago Bianco (GJT)

Motterasch Glacier

Bernina Express train and glacier (GJT)

Train going into an avalanche tunnel

Terracing (GJT)

We saw cows and sheep and hikers. Then we wound our way down through pine forests, literally winding down to Poschiavo.

Valley

Poschiavo

Then it was a fairly straight shot through the valley to Tirano.

Vineyards

Vineyards (GJT)

There it was sunny and hot. We got off the train, walked into the station and through customs, then over to the Italian train station. I bought three tickets to Milano for 6,600 ITL/$4.30 each, and we boarded the 13:34 train.

Tirano to Milano train ticket

We had lunch of leftover bread from breakfast, and iced tea, and peaches. We passed grape vineyards perched on every available square inch of mountainside. It got darker and began to rain, and later there was a thunderstorm with lightning, but it passed. We came alongside Lago Como/Lake Como and followed its shore.

Lago Como/Lake Como

We came out of the mountains and suddenly the land was flat. We arrived in Milano about 16:30. We walked over to Via Torriani and found our Hotel San Carlo. I gave the old man receptionist our voucher, and he had to check in four places to be sure of our reservation. He then took our passports and told us our key was in the door of room 164 on the fifth floor. We found the room and the key, and entered the small room with newly painted ceiling. We settled in, then went back out in the pouring rain to the Central Station. At the kiosk we bought a regional timetable and some postcards. I bought a dozen transit tickets, and we took the Metro Line 2 out to the point of the ‘Y’ at Gobba were it comes above ground. We waited for the Metro going to the Gorgonzola branch of the ‘Y.’ There we went out of the station for Dad to photograph the commuter activity, including at the bus station square. We caught the Metro back to Milano and went to the other end of Line 2, getting off at Cadorna Ferrovia Nord Station. We went to check out the commuter trains, then walked over to Castello Sforzesca/Sforzesca Castle.

Castello Sforzesca (GJT)

Back in the Metro to go to the Duomo/Cathedral, coming up to see the Gothic edifice.

Duomo/Cathedral (GJT)

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (GJT)

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (GJT)

Inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (GJT)

We walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, coming out in Piazza della Scala where the opera theater was boarded up.

Tram in Piazza della Scala

We returned to the Galleria to stop at the Milano Information Center to get a city transit map.  We went to the Burghy Restaurant across from the Duomo to eat. Dad got a King Burghy and a Coca-Cola, Mom got a fishburger and Sprite, and I got the King Burghy (a rare quarter pounder?) with fries and a Sprite. All for 9,300 ITL/$6. We took the Metro back to the hotel, where Dad had to figure out a new plan for the next day.

Centrale Stazione at night (GJT)