Chur

August 30, 2018

Chur - Chilling in Chur

We woke up this morning and the weather forecast had come true. It was raining. It wasn’t a surprise, and we had planned to head out this morning, however, Chur (pronounced Coor, like the beer) is charming and the oldest city in Switzerland. You can guess what happened next. Our room was available and we grabbed it. A rest day! I don’t know how many times I said to Keith today that it was absolutely the right decision.

We started with breakfast of course. We agree that for the most part Swiss breakfasts are at best six jammers on our scale of ten, which Keith developed on our first bike tour five years ago. One breakfast in Germany actually had ten jams and a wide variety of cheeses, meats, breads and eggs cooked to order. Every breakfast since has been measured by that standard. There don’t necessarily have to be ten jams to be a ten jammer of course...just overall variety and great presentation. Can you tell we love our breakfasts? At any rate, today was a six jammer. Adequate, but not over the top. What is over the top at Zunfthaus zur Rebleuten is the staff. They are wonderful. We feel like old friends. The building is ancient and remarkable. It is in the middle of the old town and we are very comfortable.

Keith had bike problems yesterday and we started the day with a visit to a bike shop. There we found Reto who diagnosed the problem and suggested a whole new rim and spokes. We have a long way to go and want to feel confident that there won’t be any more problems so we left the bike (retrieved from the dungeon) in Reto’s capable hands. Reto turned out not just to be a mechanic but also to be an enthusiastic tour guide. He got us sorted in every way. If you are ever in Chur and need help with your bike or your navigating look for Reto at Exodus.

With the bike looked after we made it about 100 m before we were seduced by the most amazing bakery and coffee shop. The selection was so good and the couple who own the business so lovely...and then the presentation. We were so happy.

The incredibly lovely and welcoming couple who put it all together.

Now seriously, when you order a coffee in Canada does it arrive at your table like this? The vanilla cream deliciousness that we had with our coffee was swoon worthy. A woman came into the shop and laughed at me and my moans of appreciation. It was that good.

Next up was a cultural tour as suggested by the front desk at our hotel, so off we went to the Cathedral and the look out above it. The CN handed me the tourist map and suggested I navigate for a change. I got us there, but in a fairly round about fashion. It was fun to reverse roles. The Chur old town is so pretty we weren’t in a hurry.

Just one of the many streets in the maze like old city.

The temporary Navigator studying her inadequate tourist map.

Right by the Cathedral there was a vineyard. We love vineyards. We love wine 😀.

Then it was off to the art gallery. It was interesting. There were many, many paintings by Giacometti and we really enjoyed that. The buildings themselves were worth the visit. The old building has parquet floors and fascinating ceilings. The new addition is ultra modern and the way the two buildings have been put together is remarkable. The exhibit in the new building, Black and White, was a little beyond Keith and I. The first painting was titled Black on Black, and was a canvas painted black. I kept looking for something intriguing about it (as a retired teacher it looked like a blackboard to me) so I eventually asked the docent and she assured me I wasn’t missing anything. Okay then!

This was intriguing. If you were at the right angle you saw Marilyn Monroe. Looking at a different angle...a blackboard.

We had lunch in the art gallery cafe and it was outstanding. Then we walked some more and visited a grocer and a butcher. We had decided on a picnic in the room tonight. It was fun to put it together. Then it was back to the room for a nap. That was as dreamy as it sounds. Then we ventured back out and found a bar for an aperitif and people watching. So much fun.

We love the bike and pedestrian culture in Europe. It is just so darn sensible

More bike tourers. These two are from Venice.

Our people watching was pure pleasure. We briefly wondered why we don’t take the time to do this at home and then remembered...we don’t have pedestrian zones like this where cafes can spill out onto the street with all the seats facing out.

Off we went to pick up the new and improved version of Keith’s Surly, double checked tomorrow’s plans with Reto, and retired to our room for our picnic. We have had such a relaxing evening listening to music, writing the blog and chatting. And of course, drinking a special bottle of wine. A very special bottle of wine.

Waiting in the hotel lounge for Keith to return with his pony.

Our son Mark and his partner Kelly are the proud new Aunt and Uncle to the sweetest wee Aussie lass named Mia. What a wonderful way to choose a wine. We drank a toast to baby Mia and her proud parents Louise and David tonight.

Onwards, and I am hoping not quite so upwards tomorrow 😀.

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Steve Miller/GrampiesThanks for the great tour of Chur!

One thing, surely not as significant as whether Darwin or Wallace thought of evolution and natural selection first, but about the "Jammer" scale: Your first tour was in 2014, a time when the Grampies were also circulating around the breakfast lands of France and Germany. I am submitting these two excerpts:

Grampies: International Meeting on the Eurovelo 6: Dannemarie to Baume Les ...
Sep 18, 2014 ... The much anticipated breakfast was a pleasant surprise. While only a three jammer there were croissants, baguettes, butter, jam and a big pot ...

The Best Kind of Tour Guides: Berlin, Day One - Poking Around ...
Oct 22, 2014 ... Anna spoiled us with a ten jammer breakfast that included croissants, buns, cheeses, meats, fruit, and scrambled eggs and bacon.

Since September 18 is a month before October 22, I am submitting a bid as the originator of the "Jammer" index. If you can come up with an earlier reference, I will humbly withdraw. However, either way, research does show that you have used and developed the concept most extensively since 2014! It is a complex area, because as you point out, you can not rely on a simple jam count. And even if you did, there are tricky questions like how to handle Nutella and honey!
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5 years ago

Keith ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesHi Steve - thanks for your note regarding the jammer index.

The original ten jammer was near the beginning of our first tour on September 8, 2014 in an amazing winery on the Mosel. The breakfast was over the top. Keith then suggested we should have a scale upon which to rate breakfasts calling this one a ten jammer.. We have copied and pasted the reference below.

Monday September 8, 2014, 22 km (14 miles) - Total so far: 375 km (233 miles)

Ascent 208 m - Descent 196 m - Net Ascent 12 m
The day started by awakening to the sound of church bells - a common sound in this part of the world. Looks like it is going to be another great day with the high of 23 degrees forecast (and it was).

The breakfast at the winery today was a "ten jammer". That's a standard by which we will rate the breakfasts we have...by the number of jams offered. We are assuming there is a direct relationship between the number of jams offered and the overall quality and variety of food/beverages provided. Further research will be required to confirm this hypothesis.

More importantly how is Dodie’s knee coming along?

We are here in Chur enjoying our meager “6 jammer” (generous) contemplating the next several days of forecasted rain.
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5 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith ClassenOk, even with the vast research resources available here at the farm, your claim to the Jammer index is holding up! In fact, it turns out both that the quote from Sept. 18 was yours, not mine, and that you also gave a Jammer rating in Kreutzwertheim on Sept 5, 2014!

Worse (for me), even much later I was still toying with an inferior 8 jam scale, like this:

"The much anticipated breakfast in the hotel Reinhard this morning was just ok. The basics were pretty much all there, but hey, we have higher standards than that now. For example, there needs to be eight varieties of jam, all in large pots from which you fill your little bowl. Jam in foil covered plastic tubs? How much suffering can we take!

Fuelled by not quite the right jam, and not quite enough coffee, we limped out onto the bank of the Rhine, and headed south"

Dodie has actually been having a pretty hard time, with lots of pain starting on the second day and still there, being zonked by the heavy drugs, a white count that spiked, and generally feeling unwell. She did come home today, but I have just sent a note to our friend Erika Paxman, who teaches nursing, asking her to come over and check things out. There is no emergency, just no joy - yet.
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5 years ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesOh Steve, I wish there were a way to make this easier for Dodie. For what it is worth, days two and three were the worst for me post shoulder surgery. Our oldest son, who is well acquainted with cyborg life, had warned me about that. Keith shared a room after surgery some years ago with a man who had his knee replaced and he said he had never experienced pain like it. So our hearts go out to Dodie. When you think about what is done to the body to complete a knee replacement...actually, don’t think about it. Tell Dodie we are pondering our options this morning. It is pouring with rain. We have a short day planned because of the weather forecast but even at that this is the kind of rain that soaks through despite all the modern rain gear. The hourly forecast shows it continuing for, well, hours. We may jump a train, or sip cappuccinos until noon or just get soaked. We haven’t decided yet.
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5 years ago

Keith ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesHi Steve - yes one of the many benefits of keeping a journal is to settle such contentious issues such as the originator of the jammer index. Nice try though!! I have lost several issues with Kathleen when we agree to check the blog to see who is right on an issue when or where did such and such take place.

Sympathies with Dodie. I shared a room in Kamloops recuperating from gall bladder surgery one Christmas some 20 years ago. The fellow in bed next to me after a knee replacement was in excruciating pain through the night despite the powerful pain killers...moaning that he had never experienced pain like that before. Incidentally while i was recovering from my surgery Kathleen abandoned me and took the kids skiing that day. Now I know you wouldn’t do such thing to Dodie.
Wishing her s speedy recovery.
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5 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith ClassenWell I did famously drop Dodie off somewhere with an appendicitis and went on to keep a squash date. But that was in the old days, when squash was everything. Actually she has just had a big pile of zonky drugs, which will give me a chance to go buck some logs. A warm fire in winter has clearly replaced squash in my priorities!

Dodie says she would gladly join you in the rain instead of being set in front of the TV here, watching Leave It To Beaver. It's kind of interesting, though. The premise of today's episode is the grief that comes to Wally from the other boys for letting a girl drive him on a date. U.S. was Saudi Arabia not that long ago!
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5 years ago