Day 12
Day 12
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Chur/Vals, Switzerland
Breakfast at Hotel Eingang was in a second story restaurant room of what was probably the building that was closest to a “chalet” that we were ever in Switzerland. The traditionally constructed and decorated room had had a very modern sleek stainless steel and black slate bar inserted into it. This is probably not something that anyone in America would have done but in the end I think it was far more successful than trying to replicate the craft of an earlier period. We walked around Chur a little bit that morning, which included Cheddar dunking his ‘fro in the fountain outside the hotel. Corey gave us an assignment to go and sketch, while he obtained the key to the roman ruins building, from the tourism office. I sketched the Aracas Platz one of the main squares in the town. We then met to go to the Zumthor designed enclosure of some roman ruins. The design was very clean and lightweight but had some whimsical features such as staircases that cantilevered down almost to the ground and a button that lit up the inside at night so that the ruins could be viewed as if in a display case. I grabbed some focacia bread from the grocery store for lunch and headed back to Aracas Platz to try to finish my sketch from the morning.
We finally picked up our bags from the hotel and took a train up the mountain to Vals. We got of the train in some small town and waited in the train station in the rain for the bus up to Vals. The bus weaved its way up the steep climb with those with window seats gasping at the 200 ft. cliffs as our tires came within inches of the edge of the road. After a couple room changes to get the rooms worked out correctly we all headed down to the thermal baths. The building was gorgeous on the inside with 20+ ft tall stacked stone walls everywhere and slits of light cutting the ceiling into a series of impossibly floating slabs of concrete. The various bathing rooms were interesting in their own right, but overall I didn’t like that they seemed to force a constant pointless progression from one to another without allowing for a comfortable amount of time to be spent in each room, and I also wish they had been several degrees hotter, but overall the experience was excellent. Around 8 o’clock they closed the pool to prepare for night bathing, and we went to eat our excellent 5 course meal. After dinner we headed back to the baths for a few more hours of “silent” bathing which just made the whole experience a little more awkward, and very lonely. All things considered though, a very relaxing day in a beautiful building, in a beautiful setting.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Chur/Vals, Switzerland
Breakfast at Hotel Eingang was in a second story restaurant room of what was probably the building that was closest to a “chalet” that we were ever in Switzerland. The traditionally constructed and decorated room had had a very modern sleek stainless steel and black slate bar inserted into it. This is probably not something that anyone in America would have done but in the end I think it was far more successful than trying to replicate the craft of an earlier period. We walked around Chur a little bit that morning, which included Cheddar dunking his ‘fro in the fountain outside the hotel. Corey gave us an assignment to go and sketch, while he obtained the key to the roman ruins building, from the tourism office. I sketched the Aracas Platz one of the main squares in the town. We then met to go to the Zumthor designed enclosure of some roman ruins. The design was very clean and lightweight but had some whimsical features such as staircases that cantilevered down almost to the ground and a button that lit up the inside at night so that the ruins could be viewed as if in a display case. I grabbed some focacia bread from the grocery store for lunch and headed back to Aracas Platz to try to finish my sketch from the morning.
We finally picked up our bags from the hotel and took a train up the mountain to Vals. We got of the train in some small town and waited in the train station in the rain for the bus up to Vals. The bus weaved its way up the steep climb with those with window seats gasping at the 200 ft. cliffs as our tires came within inches of the edge of the road. After a couple room changes to get the rooms worked out correctly we all headed down to the thermal baths. The building was gorgeous on the inside with 20+ ft tall stacked stone walls everywhere and slits of light cutting the ceiling into a series of impossibly floating slabs of concrete. The various bathing rooms were interesting in their own right, but overall I didn’t like that they seemed to force a constant pointless progression from one to another without allowing for a comfortable amount of time to be spent in each room, and I also wish they had been several degrees hotter, but overall the experience was excellent. Around 8 o’clock they closed the pool to prepare for night bathing, and we went to eat our excellent 5 course meal. After dinner we headed back to the baths for a few more hours of “silent” bathing which just made the whole experience a little more awkward, and very lonely. All things considered though, a very relaxing day in a beautiful building, in a beautiful setting.
posted by idiovoyager at 12:43 AM
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