Saturday 28th September : Weather: 1°C to 5°C: 30mm of snow last night: cold and overcast today
Davos circuit Davosersee: 10.0k walk: Easy walk along Hohe Promenade then circuit of Davosersee
Ascent and Descent: Ascent 000m, Descent 000m,
Time: 9am to 11.30am: 2hr 30 min walk
Accommodation: Alpen Chic Promenade 73 Davos
30mm snow last night in Davos
Snow on the Hohe Promenade
Davos a winter wonderland
Cows in the snow paddock
Walking around Davosersee
Tourist train on Wiesener Viaduct
Another spectacular day because it snowed 30mm last night and Davos became a white winter wonderland. The temperature stayed between 1°C and 5°C all day, except when we took a train to Filisur to see the famous Landwasser Viaduct and it was a “warmer” 7°C for the 10 minutes we were at the station before returning to Davos Platz.
We're awake at 6.30am to find a blanket of snow over Davos - 30mm fell last night . Davos is the highest town in all of Europe at 1,560 metres but September is generally a mild month with an average temperature of 9.2 °C. but not this year! It’s freezing cold at 1°C but warm inside our studio, so we have a hot cup of tea to wait for the weather to improve. By 8am it’s 2°C so we have breakfast of meusli and yoghurt for Ian and I have pan fried bread, banana and honey. By 9am it’s 3°C, not much warmer than 1°C, so we make a decision to walk along the Hohe Promenade to test the ice on the tracks.
There’s no one out the streets or paths when we leave to climb the icey steps to the Hohe Promenade, and tread warily along the path watching for slippery sections. It’s a very different view of Davos compared to yesterday. Beautiful, snowy but cold. We get to Davos Dorf then to Davosersee and the cows are still in the paddock - today it’s snow, yesterday it was lush green. The gravel path around the lake has a few dog walkers on it so it must be OK to walk and off we go around the 4k circuit. Our hands are freezing, and there’s a few puppy dogs hopping around madly as they’d never seen snow before.
Back into Davos Dorf, there’s few other hardy walkers out and about. Then up to the Hohe Promenade where the track is a little less icey than an hour ago. At 11.30am we're in the warmth of our studio, stripping off our outer layers and making a hot cup of coffee while pondering our next move. It’s now 5°C. We’ll have lunch here then go for a train trip to Filisur later. Aldi stale bread from 3 days ago fried in the pan with butter and cheese makes a nice hot lunch.
At 2.30pm, it’s 6°C, but a little lighter outside when we decide to take the train to Filisur and back. It’s a cold walk down to Davos Platz Bahnhof, but when we get there, we see the Filasur train on Platform 3, and walk underground and up and jump on the waiting train. We have Davos Guest cards so it’s free. It’s an old train with timber slatted seats and we realised later that this was the original 100 year old historical tourist train:
From May to October, an historical train will run between Davos Platz and Filisur twice a day in each direction - at a normal ticket price or even free with the Filisur guest card. In just under 40 minutes, the journey passes through the wildly romantic Zügen gorge and over the imposing Wiesner viaduct to Filisur. The nostalgic railway cars and open scenic carriages are pulled by the legendary cult locomotive "Bobo 1”.
We pass farms, cows, sheep, barns, waterfalls, pine forests, gorges, then cross over the Wiesener Viaduct with hikers on the adjoining footpath admiring the structure. Soon the famous Landwasser Viaduct comes into view down in the valley. We’ve seen this viaduct before. In fact we’ve been on this viaduct in 2015 when we travelled from Chur to St Morritz when were switching between Sargans, the end of the Alpine Pass route, and going to the start of the Walser Weg in Chiavenna, Italy. The Landwasser Viaduct is a single-track six-arched curved limestone railway viaduct. It spans the Landwasser River between Schmitten and Filisur, in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. Built in 1901, it is 65 metres high and 135 meters long.
The train slows down at every touristy spot and toots its whistle for us to take photos. We arrive in Filisur at 3.55pm and find it’s a pleasant 9°C. We like this place. It’s 500 metres lower than Davos, 5°C warmer and there’s some interesting walks. We jump back on the same train and it leaves at 4.06pm with almost a full load of tourists who had come to Filisur for the day. It must be packed at tye height of summer!
Arriving back in Davos Platz, it’s raining and still 5°C when we scurry over to the COOP and buy two tomatoes. Then back to our warm studio for a wine/beer with cheese and nuts. Dinner tonight is the usual - smoked salmon with salad of Mache, tomato, capsicum, and onion mixed with mayonnaise. Another wine or two later and we’re in bed planning our walk in Filisur tomorrow.