Allegra!

I spent a wonderful week hiking in Müstair and enjoyed immersing myself in a completely different world where I would have liked to stay even longer.

Allegra is the typical greeting in Val Müstair, the valley named after the village Müstair. Allegra is Rhaeto-Romanic, one of the four official national languages spoken in Switzerland, and means joy or cheerfulness. So the greeting is a wish for joy.  I think it’s nice to express to each other that you’re happy. Happy about meeting someone or simply about life. And when I observed the residents, it always seemed to me that they really enjoyed being in this beautiful valley right on the border to Italy. Everyone talks to everyone, people greet each other, smile in a friendly way, wave to each other. For me, living normally in the middle of the city of Basel, where everyone somehow lives in their own world and nobody has time to even look the other person in the eye, this stay was a blessing that reminded me of my earlier life. The life of my childhood in the countryside in Germany. And it wasn’t just because of the swallows that populated the sky there, just like the sky back then and the cowsheds where they built their nests.

A cheerful valley

Val Müstair shines not only with its friendly people, but above all with its beautiful nature. A wide, lovely valley with beautiful villages with stately houses, often decorated with traditional sgraffito – also an expression of joie de vivre.  The whole area is framed by mighty mountains that are majestic but never overwhelming. Directly in front of the Ofen Pass, from which the valley can be reached, lies the Swiss National Park, where nature has been left to its own devices for over a hundred years. Wolves and bears, ibexes, chamois and birds are at home in this area. Everything can be easily reached by bus, which runs through the valley every hour and is free if you are staying in a hotel situated in the valley. The perfect place for a carefree week of hiking, especially if the weather is perfect as it was with us this week.

Monday

Hiking to Lü

After a wet Sunday spent to visit the monastery of Münstair, Monday also began with light rain. Nevertheless, we set off in the morning to hike into a valley that is situated across the border in Italy. Unfortunately, we got lost and ended up back on the Swiss side and spontaneously decided on another hike. This one took us through mountain pine and larch forests to Alp Sot. We walked on to just above the tree line and then found a place where we could eat the sandwiches we had brought with us. We then continued past Alp Tabladatsch to the small mountain village of Lü, where we had a coffee before taking the bus back to Münstair.

Impressions from Monday

Tuesday

A hike up to Munt la Schera

The first hike in the national park. We took the bus to Il Fuorn. There we briefly found out about the situation with the bears and wolves. Currently there are no bears on the Swiss side, which reassured me. I think the wolves are rather shy and in fact, we never saw any. The hike began in the fragrant mountain pine forest, which changed to Swiss stone pines the closer we got to the tree line. There we had a clear view of the many peaks of the Italian Alps and Lago di Cancano, which was deep below us. The closer we got to the summit, the more edelweiss bloomed along the path and on the meadows. The summit itself was rocky and barren, but offered a wonderful panoramic view of the mountains on the Swiss and Italian sides, with their magnificent colors, structures and shapes. As thunderstorms had been forecast for the afternoon, we walked on quickly after a short lunch break and took the bus back home from Buffalora.

Impressions from Tuesday

Wednesday

Scuol and a hike to Lai Nair and Tarasp

The thunderstorms predicted for yesterday didn’t finally break out until after midnight, waking me for a moment from the otherwise deep and sound sleep I had every night in Münstair. In the morning, however, the sky was blue again and we were able to set off on another tour. We took the bus over the Ofen Pass to Zernez and then the train to Scuol. After crossing the center of Scuol, we hiked down into the valley and from there up to Lai Nair. We took a break at the lake and enjoyed the mountains reflected in it, before we continued our hike towards Tarasp. Tarasp Castle on its hill, on which larches grew, reminded me of the story of The Black Spider, a Swiss novella by Jeremias Gotthelf. After a coffee break in a restaurant near the village fountain, we hiked on through the Inn gorge back to the train station, from where we headed home.

Impressions from Wednesday

Thursday

Piz Praveder and Lai da Rims

For today’s tour, we took the bus up to Pra da Vau. From there we started our hike and were soon surrounded by a beautiful mountain landscape in Val Mora. From the lovely valley, we climbed steeply up into the rugged mountain world. The rocks with their different formations and colors fascinated me. They constantly changed their appearance the higher we were hiking. Shortly below the summit of Piz Praveder, we suddenly found ourselves at a small lake where beautiful cotton grass was blooming. I was truly overwhelmed by the beauty of the landscape. After a steep final ascent, we reached the summit. It was windy and cold up there. We put on our jackets and lingered for a while in the grass, watching the clouds form on the other peaks. For our rest and food, we then hiked a little lower down, where it was no longer that windy. We then continued on and soon Lai da Rims came into view. It is considered one of the most beautiful mountain lakes in Switzerland and indeed its blue color and crystal clear water is very fascinating. Nestled in the beautiful mountains, it looks like a piece of the Caribbean out of place. After a break at the lake to enjoy this spectacle, we hiked down to Santa Maria Val Müstair.

Impressions from Thursday

Friday

Hiking up to Fuorcla Val dal Botsch

Today we headed back into the Swiss National Park. We started at the P8 parking lot and followed the trail through beautiful mountain pine, larch and Swiss stone pine forests until we reached the tree line. The trail was a circular route and led back to the parking lot. However, we turned off and climbed the steep path up to Fuorcla Val da Botsch, a pass that leads into Val Plavna and over which you can hike on to Tarasp and Scuol. However, we just enjoyed the view of the valley and then, after a break, hiked back into the national park and followed the rest of the circular route until we reached the parking lot again, to take the bus back to Münstair.

Impressions from Friday

Saturday

From Stelvio Pass to Rötlspitz and down to Sta. Maria Val Müstair

A bus ride up to Stelvio Pass in Italy was the beginning of today’s tour. The place was a bit of a culture shock. Masses of tourists, motorcyclists and summer skiers and a totally obstructed landscape took all the charm out of mountain life. But we set off straight away and quickly left everything behind us. After a little information along the way about the history of this place, which was heavily fought over in the First World War, we found ourselves back in the untouched nature. This consisted mainly of red rocks and gravel. We were at an altitude of just over 3000m and climbed the Rötlspitz. A wonderful view of the glaciers and snowfields of the Italian mountains rewarded the effort. From Rötlspitz we hiked down into Val Costainas. From bare red rock into a green, grass-covered landscape, crossed by a stream that originated from a spring. It was striking that the entire stream bed was covered in a white layer. As I found out later, this has been happening to some streams in the area for a few years now and the phenomenon has not yet been fully explained. It is a deposit of heavy metals that are released from the permafrost, which is melting due to climate change. But how these heavy metals got into the permafrost is still a mystery. It got warmer with every meter we descended into the valley and were glad when we arrived in Santa Maria Val Müstair after the steep descent. A short bus ride took us back to Münstair.

Impressions from Saturday

A revair!

On Sunday it was time to pack the bags and say goodbye. I felt really wistful and could have spent even longer in this beautiful place. We took the bus one last time through the sunny valley over the Ofen Pass back to Zernez, where we caught the train. It was already cloudy there and on the rest of the journey across Switzerland it was raining, cold and gray.

Back in Basel, it was dry and warm again, but the hustle and bustle and noise of the city seemed totally alien to me. I took care of my things, put my clothes in the washing machine, had a coffee on my balcony and reviewed the wonderful week with a feeling of Allegra in my heart.

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