On our second day of this road trip to the Eastern side of Switzerland, we drove from Andermatt (after a detour to Airolo and St Gotthard pass) to St. Moritz.
How about a bit of Bach for this stretch of the road trip ?
We took Hauptstrassen 19 running alongside the river Vorderrhein (which feeds into the Rhine) to Flims, crossing the canton border from Uri to Graubünden, and passing through a string of picture-perfect villages.
The famous Glacier Express also runs through this valley. It is 90 years old in 2020 and claims to be the slowest express train in the world. See the avalanche barrier (photo below on the left) protecting the road and the track.
The tourist train with panoramic windows and catering onboard runs a 8-hour journey from Zermatt to St Moritz covering a 290-km length that includes 91 tunnels and 291 viaducts. This train is the best option to see this area without driving. We might use it to see areas that are not reachable by car in the future. Highly recommended.
We just caught sight of one going over a bridge above us.
Before the village of Disentis, we passed but did not stop at Oberalpass 6706 feet (2044 m).
This pass is important logistically, and different from the others because not only it has a small lake (Oberalpsee), it also has a train station, a ski area, and a lighthouse!
The 14 m-tall lighthouse was installed in 2010 as a tourist attraction and came from the river Rhine further downstream.
This was a local train which runs between the villages and uses the same viaducts and track as the Glacier Express.
We turned South on A13 towards Thursis but detoured to see the narrow gorge of Viamala-Schlucht (see post here), before continuing to Albula.
Joining the national highway A3 at Albula, we passed Lake Marmorera within the boundary of Parc Ela.
The road became twisty again as we started our ascent towards the fifth mountain pass – Julierpass. But this road is nowhere near the spectacles of Grimselpass and Furkapass we saw the day before. Apparently, certain sections of this road were rebuilt in 2009 to reduce the number of serpentine turns.
Julierpass at 7493 feet (2284 m) in the Albula range of the Alps connects the Engadin valley with the rest of Graubünden.
Julierpass
Julierpass lies between Piz Lagrev (10,384 feet, 3165 m) and Piz Julier (11,090 feet; 3380 m), and crosses the watershed / drainage divide between the basins of the Rivers Rhine and Danube.
Historically, the romans built a temple of Jupiter on top of the pass. There are two buildings now – the red one with lots of windows is the Julier Theatre built by Origen – an organization that maintains the Rhaeto-Romanic cultural heritage. Rhaeto-Romance is a family of romance languages that include the fourth official language of Switzerland – Romansh.
It is a wooden construction and has multiple terraces inside. The spectator terraces embrace a central stage which directs the view of the audience outside to the vastness of the landscape during a performance. According to Origen’s web site, Julie Theatre will “dedicate itself to the world theatre, it will act with the seasons and reinterpret the mountain pass as a place of culture.”
The other building is a tower but we cannot find a description about it. Both buildings were closed and there was no one around except curious motorists.
From this point on, the drive was all downhill to Silvaplana 5,955 ft (1,815 m) and Highway 27 took us to St. Moritz – 5,978 ft (1,822 m).
We arrived at our hotel in St Moritz after 7 pm and concluded the long day of driving with a nice dinner.
In two days, we managed to see Grimselpass, Furkapass, St Gotthard pass, Oberlap pass and Julierpass – watersheds of major rivers of Northern and Southern Europe. It was mountaineering by car. Ideally, we would like to have experienced the vast openness, forever-changing cloud formations, and muted colors of the Alpine landscape by hiking. We are considering this trip as a preview.
Click to see our earlier posts on this road trip, part 1, part 2, and part 3.