Mountain stroll and village visit

After an early night, I awoke at 5.20am to see a beautiful orange sky. I sat outside on the balcony in the cool morning air and waited, camera in hand, to watch the sun rise. Just after the church clock stuck six, the first brilliant flash of the sun's rays broke out of a low mountain ridge across the plain, over in Austria. Then I did some Chi Gung exercises before returning to bed to sleep for another hour.Not too long as we had to breakfast and then get a nine fifteen bus from Grabs Post Office to take us up the narrow winding Grabserberg road to Voralp, for a cool walk on a hot day around a lake set in the forest surrounded by mountain peaks at 1,200m.

In a meadow above the lake twenty cows with grey velvety coats made music with their bells as they munched. It was the only sound to be heard apart from that of distant streams descending steep slopes. Four elderly herdsmen quietly worked the grassy enclave with scythes, excising unwanted plants which can grow to occupy such space that the grass yeild is reduced. And grass yeild of high quality is essential to the cheese making that follows milking.

Also above the lake is a small terrace with a portakabin for serving drinks and snacks. A fire had reduced the wooden one to ashes last winter, and this will be replaced eventually, but in the meanwhile, service to visitors continues as usual. By the time we'd walked around the lake families with children began to arrive to have their picnics, walk their dogs or go out on the lake in an inflatable. The only other occupant of the lake was a pair of brown ducks with their brood, making strenuous efforts to keep as far away as they could from anyone else enjoying the water.

By the time we arrived back in Grabs, with the midday bus, the temperature had risen to over thirty degrees and it was quite humid. Later as it began to cool slightly, I walked the two kilometres down the valley to take photographs of Werdenberg Castle, and the remarkable collection of three dozen wooden houses gathered within its outer walls. Some of the houses date from the middle of the fifteenth century and all are different in style and decoration. It's one of the oldest collections of wooden buildings extant. Most others comparable villages have burned to the ground and been re-built at one time or another. Not unsurprisingly there was a notice which declared the entire area as a no smoking zone. Another notice describes it as the smallest town in Switzerland.

This 'smallest town' and its castle (now a cultural centre) are in the commune of Grabs and sit just beside the main road from Buchs to Grabs. The castle has a small vineyard, and on our first evening, Hans gave us a glass of their 2008 Blauburgunder rotwein. It was something of a rarity as only 500 bottles were produced - a gift from a patient. It was a pleasure to photograph this remarkable historic treasure - as much a tribute to the Swiss passion for conservation as the alpine forest, meadow and lake we'd visited earlier in the day.