Hike Pontresina to Sils Maria
I didn’t join the hike today and instead ran my wallet recovery mission. However, I asked that the family take a lot of pictures and here is there journey to the amazing Lake Hahnensee from Pontresina and ending in Silvaplana.
Part of Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection. Also see Pontresina to Sils Maria from Europe 2004 Collection collection.
Switzerland & Italy Log - Day 6
Weather: Very cloudy with rain and thunder in morning. Clear through mid-day with additional heavy rain in late afternoon. Then cloudy and cool in the evening.
Split path for first half of today:
Family
- Hike out of Pontresina through town up the trail
- Sought cover from heavy rain
- Rolling walk with a final ascent to Hahnensee Hut
- Picnic lunch on a rock at Lake Hahnensee
- Descended down to Silvaplana
Jamie
- Bus from hotel to train station
- Train back to Guarda
- Bus to Guarda Village
- Recover wallet! 🤩
- Bus back to train station.
- Train to Samedan to change lines
- Train to St Moritz to transfer to bus
- Bus to Sils Maria
- Walk out to Nietzsche’s Rock
- Started raining hard so walked to Silvaplana instead of walking back
All Together Again
- All meet together in Silvaplana to catch the bus back to Sils Maria
- Visit the Gallaria Chesina and look at some amazing art
- Shopping at various stores and explore the town
- Dinner at Hotel Edelweiss
Jump to day 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 or Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.
I think there is a huge potential for Generative AI in tools, but this is a heavy expense that is going to make it a tough decision.
Microsoft announced that it would charge $30 a month for AI features in its productivity software. That could mean a cost increase of up to 83% for the millions of subscribers to products such as Word and Excel. Shares in the firm jumped to a record high at the prospect. — Economist Espresso, July 19, 2023
🤔
Family selfie at the Hotel Edelweiss in Sils Maria. 🇨🇭
Walked out to Nietzsche’s Rock near Silvaplana-Surlej.
Wallet Recovered
Yesterday I shared that I had lost my wallet. We were still juggling some logistics last night. The mountain huts we are visiting are cash only but our guides have been kind enough to loan us some Swiss Francs. We tried to get cash last night and that proved to be very difficult with the other credit cards we have.
This morning I woke up a little early and was thinking how someone would contact me if they found my wallet. My website is the first thing that a search engine would suggest for my name and I have this Hello page. My profiles at other sites are listed there and that made me think I should check various social platforms. I went to LinkedIn not expecting much and scanned my notifications.
To my astonishment there was a comment from Martin Lienhard saying he had found my wallet! 😲
Incredible! I found the Volg store he mentioned and they didn’t open for another 45 mins. Right at 7:30a I asked the hotel to please call the store and confirm they had it. They did! 🥳
I let our guides know and took a rest day from hiking (which I was considering anyway) and made the trip to collect my recovered wallet!
After a train ride back to Guarda, then the bus into the village, I ducked the rain and ran into the Volg Guarda where the nice cashier reached under the counter and produced my wallet! Joy!
So where was it? The whole thought about the train station in Ardez was a dead end. Martin’s wife found it by one of the city water fountains — the one that we dipped our feet in. That means when I realized I didn’t have it, as we were walking to dinner, it had only just fallen out of my pocket no more than a 100 feet away.
A huge thank you to Martin Lienhard and his wife and the Volg shopkeeper for recovering my lost wallet! 🙏🤩
Makes me wonder — we’re the Goats of Guarda watching over me while we were there? 😊
Switzerland & Italy Log - Day 5
Weather: Cooler day. Very windy on the mountains today. Raced to chair lift before storm and lightning arrived.
- Depart Guarda and take bus to train station
- Take train to Funicular.
- Guide Dave gets a lot of static from the conductor about having the wrong tickets.
- German lady that moved to Switzerland sits across from Tammy and I and starts a lengthy conversation with Tammy.
- Arrive at funicular and take it 1,000 feet up to start hike.
- Huge climb up to Segantini Hütte.
- Delicious lunch I’d Barley Soup.
- Hike traverse from hut through rock field and take upper trail.
- Mad rush down to chair lift before storm shows up and possibly shuts lift down.
- Get on lift and have a slow, cold, stormy, raining, anxiety producing lift ride.
- Rainy walk to hotel.
- Attempt to get cash and fail.
- Shop.
- Dinner at restaurant.
- Downtime in room.
Jump to day 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 or Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.
Hike to Segantini Hütte and Pontresina
Another day of great hiking. Started with train ride to funicular and then a big hike up to the amazing hut followed by a traverse on the mountain and a cold, rainy, stormy descent on a chair lift.
Part of Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection. Also see Zuoz to Pontresina from Europe 2004 Collection collection.
Pretty simple calendar for this part of our trip.
Current POV. Wow!
Lunch at Segantini Hütte. So amazing.
Lost Wallet
Update: My wallet was recovered!
Yesterday morning I realized I had lost my wallet. The previous day we had finished our first hike and while waiting for the train in Ardez I gave Tyler some cash so that he could get small ice cream cups for the group from this self-serve stand. That was the last time I saw my wallet.
I realized I didn’t have it when walking to dinner that night, but assumed it was in the room and didn’t think much of it. The next morning I looked for it and started to worry when I didn’t find it right away. Where was it?
I traced my actions and remembered the ice cream. I also remembered that Tyler brought me change back and I put that in my wallet. But i didn’t. I found the change in my pants pocket.
So where did my wallet go? I suspect I set it down by the train station thinking I would put the change in it, then I didn’t. I also was rearranging my backpack at the same time.
Our guides did there best to try and find it. Dave actually took the train back to Ardez the next morning to look for it but no luck, and then hiked back to the group. The hotel called around as well, no luck. By the late afternoon after having looked everywhere multiple times I declared it lost.
I keep all my important numbers and info in 1Password and years ago read a suggestion to tag items with “Wallet” that are in your wallet. That paid off yesterday when I was able to confidently inventory all I needed to deal with.
Net it isn’t too big of a deal. Unfortunately I had a good bit of spending money in it and that is gone. But everything else is in the process of getting replaced now. And having everything on my phone gives a good backup.
Suggested Rule:
The quality of a social network decreases by the square of the quantity of posts about social networks.
Get above 10% and there is nothing left.
While we are in the Engadine Tammy has been hoping to find these amazing ceramic goats that we got and she adores from the first trip here 19 years ago.
Today, she found them and it is a great story. 🤩
Cold Therapy for Sore Hiking Feet
Every town in the Engadine Valley has multiple water fountains that have the most delicious and pure drinking water just flowing out of them constantly. It is amazing to be able to get fresh delicious water. It is also very cold. We saw some others dipping their feet in this freezing water and thought we would try it as well. It was amazing. It is painful to submerge them, but it made our tired feet feel so much better nearly instantly after hiking so long.
Switzerland & Italy Log - Day 4
Weather: Hot and sunny in the morning. Day cooled off a bit and was nicer in the mountains. Evening cool.
- Jamie realizes that he has lost his wallet and that sort of sucks a bunch.
- Breakfast.
- Jamie asks front desk person to see if they can help with locating wallet. They have some ideas.
- Dave, one of our guides, attempts to find Jamie’s lost wallet by going back to the train station at Ardez. Sadly no luck.
- We take off for todays hike up to Piz Buin.
- Everyone else hikes down on the service road, Jamie takes a mountain scooter and has a blast.
- Jamie gets back early and decides wallet search is over. It is lost, time to move on.
- Tammy and Mazie explore the town and Tammy has an amazing find! 🤩
- Cold therapy for our tired feet.
- Nice dinner at Meisser Hotel.
- Cool evening back in the room, getting ready for an earlier morning tomorrow.
Jump to day 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 or Switzerland & Italy 2023 collection.
After getting to Chamonna Tuoi I decided to take one of these mountain grade scooters back down. It was awesome! It took a bit for me to get comfortable on it. The shocks and disc brakes are a must since you brake nearly the whole way down. I got down in 32 mins!
Amazing spot for lunch at Chamonna Tuoi looking up at Piz Buin.
