Onwards to Villa Vals!

Saturday 12 January 2019 

Our final day in Zurich before heading out on our next adventure.

Outside Hotel Montana, Zurich. We depart for Villa Vals.

Our next adventure was two weeks skiing in Vals, a lovely little village, in a wonderful apartment called Villa Vals. Vals is a small village in the Swiss Alps with a small(ish) ski resort (by Swiss standards - still waaaay bigger than Hotham) and the best thermal baths in the entire country (according to many). Trevor and I had been to Vals on two previous occasions and knew it was exactly the kind of beautiful, traditional little Swiss village where we loved to stay. Plus the thermal baths. 

Here is a map with an overview of all ours travels around Switzerland before heading out to Vals.

It took almost three hours to get to Vals from Zurich catching the train to Chur and then another train up the Rein Gorge to Ilanz the first town on the Rein river. At Ilanz, when we transferred to the bus, the driver tripped out a bit when he saw us – six people – with lots and lots of luggage. Stacking the bus full of our gear, we were on our way. From there we took the post bus up along the winding, mountain road through narrow gorges and ravines which were both beautiful and a bit scary – not for the feint hearted. 

We had arranged for the caretaker of our apartment to pick us up at the Vals bus stop but due to some miscommunication they were not there. Luckily, Trevor, obsessing about our holiday knew exactly where the apartment was and how to get inside it (not obvious if you don’t know what you’re doing). Fortunately, the apartment was not locked...ah our hobbit home.

 

This would be our hobbit home for the next two weeks! Awesome! 

Once we settled in, we quickly decided on bedroom allocations and then it was time to head off for our first evening’s sojourn at the famous Vals thermal baths. Truly an experience.