The St Moritz sun was blazing on the mountain
side as the crowd waited for the start of the Men’s Downhill Ski World
Championships yesterday. There was an endless stream of ski fans walking up
from the mountain railway to the race village area in the form of another snake
but this time much more colourful than the pale form of the Maloja Snake and definitely
predominantly red with white crosses on all the hats, faces and flags since
Switzerland were at the top of the medal table clearly.
There were almost as many
helpers to check tickets and give information as there were fans at first but
that changed gradually as the whole mountain side filled up with enthusiasts
waiting to see the race; which we would be able to see from most of the village
area and included huge screens with all the information and start order displayed.
There were bars, cafes and restaurants, to make sure that the party atmosphere
was facilitated and a variety of food that could be held by hand as people milled
about.
Some groups seemed to
concentrate of the drinking side of things and we noticed that larger groups
from clubs were operating a relay of who went to get the next tray or crate of
beer. There were wine bottles and glasses on mini bars and some folk had there
own supply of something stronger in flasks and as I mentioned yesterday, Caffée
Latte was free for all. Another free gift that was on offer at entry points was
a little box to use as an ash tray, how very green.
The highlight of the pre championship
waiting time was a breathtaking air display featuring a Swiss Air passenger
plane and the Swiss Military equivalent of our own Red Arrows display team who
made numerous passes over the ever growing mass of spectators in a dozen different
formations including spectacular flares and daring close formation feats. The
air display must have gone on for over half and hour keeping the crowd fully entertained.
The Maloja Snake, seemed to
get curious as to what all the excitement was higher up on the mountain way
above the valley where is quietly slithered. To the race organisers dismay, the
famous snake employed mother nature to intervene and change the wind direction
to enable the snake to change course and make it way up the mountain and right
across the upper section to the Championships course to cause mayhem to the
skiers who had to wait as the referee delayed the start to allow the snake to
pass. The race was delayed by thirty minutes at a time until the 12 noon start
had been moved and moved and moved again and finally the event was postponed
until Sunday because it was too dangerous for the race to go ahead on so steep
a course without good visibility.
Of course it was
disappointing to so many people and that caused another problem that I felt was
slightly worrying in that everybody started to leave together. There was well
planned shuttle bus service but I think there were many more people that were
planned for and there was an serious crush to get on the buses. There were and
endless stream of buses and only that was reassuring. We had started to move
over to the shuttle stop before the announcement was made since the cloud was
looking more determined every moment. Whilst we were in the throng waiting and as
I said we were close to the front it still took twelve buses before we got in
one of them.
When we got back to the town
the party had moved on and everybody had had enough wine or beer to still be
happy. There were lots of bars in the street in the centre of the town and the
band still playing and moving around as they did so. With so many people
partying we did not see our new friends Tamara and Katrin again but that was
hardly surprising. Steve and I went into one of our favourite restaurants and
had a meal since we had hours to spare before the train that were booked on.
We were seated at one end of a table for eight
people, the table was quickly filled starting with a mother and daughter who
were shown to the two seats opposite us and they sat and chatted quietly with
each other as they ordered and ate their meal. The other end of the table was
then taken but a small family group of three. It was quite worrying and is
certainly a sign of the times that they were hardly aware of each other since
they were all glued to their phones neither of the parents engaged with the
little girl of about eight years old and she was not concerned with them either
in fact the father had two phones that never left his ear. We have a ‘phones
off for meal times’ rule and think that is a good idea if you want to keep any
sort of relationship with your loved ones.
After our meal we soaked up
a little more of the fantastic atmosphere in the town and followed the band
about for a while again until we started to wander down to the station again
taking a last look at the magically beautiful resort.
The train was jam packed on
the way back to Chur and some were still drinking on the train. We walked from
the station in Chur much slower than we had marched to the station that
morning.
We took a last stroll
through the most interestingly quaint old town that was hardly off our route
back to the hotel we had booked. To get to the hotel we passed, in the same
street, The Pin-Up Club, the Volcano Club, the Octopussey Club and a couple of
contact bars. My feed back to Bookings.com will not be quite as good as usual,
but hey, we had a marvellous day out. When we got back to the hotel we still
did not see a soul in the way of staff or guests and still nobody there when we
departed this morning.
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