Horseshoe Bend on the Olympia Bob Run
Today was our last day in St Moritz, and clearly
time does fly when you are on holiday. We only booked a week this year but we
also had two nights in the Schweizerhaus Hotel in Maloja, and that is also in
the Upper Engadine
Valley. This year but
then we took our time getting to St M. with three more nights on the way, a
holiday on the way to our holiday. It has been a wonderful easing off of the
tensions. The trip home will be a two overnight stop affair, as opposed to the
five nights on the way here.
Today we had an enjoyable
day together sharing some of the things that we like to do as a regular habit
whilst staying in this most delightful of winter sports towns. Having had a
touch of the wide awakes in the middle of the night, when I don’t ever fight it
but simply read until I feel sleepy again, I then did not wake as early as
usual for me and Steve was up and dressed before me, which is not usual at all.
We had coffee and watched
the latest news before setting off to the Olympia Bob Run, where we wanted to
see some of the Swiss Championships that were the special event for today.
First event there was the women and junior skeleton, then the two woman bob
championships and the two men’s event also. The skeleton event is something to
behold isn’t it? Hurtling down the bob run head first? That takes some serious
bottle. The two woman bob is also something quite amazing, because those bobs
are really heavy things and after watching the effort going into just getting
the bob in place at the start, I personally find it a pretty incredible,
challenging thing for women to do because of the strength it obviously requires
and I say that as a big, big fan.
The Cresta Run
Just across the road from
the Olympia Bob Run is the age old institution, the Cresta Run. If you have
ever walked down the footpaths both sides of these courses you might, like me
come to the conclusion that the Olympia
bob run is a far more challenging course. Horseshoe Bend trumps Shuttlecock for sure.
Ice sculptures outside the Kulm Hotel
My own husband Stephen had
the Cresta run on his bucket list yonks years ago, when we were first together
and he did give it a try several times on winter holidays. The Cresta Run is a
terribly British establishment and I do admire it in a lot of ways. Steve has
had great fun doing his runs down that course but beginners are only allowed to
go from the Junction Start Box in front of the main building and not from the
Top Start. Add to that, that first timers must rake all the way down the first
straight with the nasty looking heavy metal rakes fitted to the toe of the
official shoes for the purpose to make sure that they do not start too fast on
their first run.
Watching the big screen above Horse Shoe
Some years ago, I was
waiting for Steve to have his run at one of the watching stations, a little
wooden tower further down, when a frightfully posh English gentleman engaged me
in conversation. When I told him I was waiting for my husband to start his
descent he said “Oh you must be so terribly proud of him”. He was not impressed
when I said I thought it was a big boy’s fun fair ride and that my husband was
just having the time of his life. It was the man’s attitude that got my back up
and the truth is that in fact I do often boast about Steve doing the Cresta
Run. He is always up for a challenge and has no nerves what so ever and in fact
on one of those early runs he actually put his hand up to wave as he passed me
whilst I took his photo. We have a plan of the whole Cresta course in a frame
at home.
The Cresta Run is very
strictly run in a frightfully old fashioned British way. It is in fact the ‘Muirfield
Golf Club’ of St Moritz,
in that it is a men only skeleton run. I cannot imagine how they have kept it
that way for so long in the light of fact that ‘Ladies’ are now competing on
the Olympic Bob Run just the other side of the road and that looks terrifying
in comparison. You go Girls!
Beginners to the Crest run
are expected to slide down in between 65 and 75 seconds. All those years ago on
one of his runs, Steve recorded 54 seconds something or other and he was pretty
pleased about that. One strike off that bucket list.
In the afternoon we drove to
the Morteratsch Hotel that in the first place, many years ago was built right
at the tip of the tongue of the Morteratsch Glacier. If you step inside the
building, there is a large chart showing how terrifyingly far the Glacier has
receded over last century or more. It is now quite a long but beautiful walk to
get any where near the glacier. I believe it drains into the river Inn and the
Danube and on into the Black Sea from what I
have read.
Then it was back to our best
ever apartment with the best ever equipped kitchen looking right on the lake,
to start packing. We had a memorable stay and could not have been more
comfortable and a fabulous position literally over the road from the St
Moritzersee. We always bring our own Nativity with us that packs away into its own
stable building and into a large carrier bag ready to bring out again next
Christmas.
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