Blown Away to St. Moritz

When we were buying our ski tickets in Liechtenstein yesterday, we tried to buy them for 2 days, but the cashier said that due to high winds, he didn't think that the resort would be operating today. (We thought it typical that, at 10:00 that morning, they were already planning not to work the next day!) Since there are no shops in Malbun, and our hotel lacked amenities, we thought we might be bored staying there with nothing to do. Therefore we decided to stay in Malbun just one night. It's a good thing that we skied there yesterday, or skiing in Liechtenstein may not have happened at all for us.

True to the cashier's predictions, gale force winds blew overnight. I heard things blowing around outside all night. We checked first thing in the morning to make sure that our car, Slippy, had not blown away. He was still there!

Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky at morn, sailors be warned! We had a red sky this morn, but it was warm.

After a nice breakfast, we headed out of Malbun, through Vaduz, where it was sprinkling, and on to St. Moritz. We came into St. Moritz via Julier Pass, which had plenty of snow and some on the road, too.

After about 2 hours of driving, we made it to St. Moritz, where it was also windy and very cold! We're back in winter again!

We are staying on the top floor of the Hotel Soldanella, which is over 100 years old.

Our room wasn't ready for us yet, so we walked down to the frozen lake for lunch at a place called "Pier 34" which is adjacent to the yacht club where we stopped on our previous visit to St. Moritz! Pier 34 is in the foreground (with food trucks), with a tram in the background:

We look pretty warm, don't we?

There is a pretty clock tower in the center of town.

There are quite a few chocolate shops in town! We stopped in "Laderach" and purchased some candy. We then paid a visit to "Hanselmann's", where I took a few photos of some of the attractive merchandise, including chocolate bobsledders and snowmen:

This behavior nearly got me thrown out of the store! So, for the effort I went to, these photos absolutely must be included in the blog. I then got a revenge shot from the outside of the store, where the cashier couldn't scold me:

Aside from one enemy, I have made two friends in town already:

Baldrutt's Palace Hotel is in the background, with some pretty homes in front of it. You have to admit that what the Europeans seem to lack in work ethic, they make up for in style. Despite our best efforts to spend money, most of the stores we attempted to visit were closed for lunch between noon and 2:00 +!

St. Moritz is surrounded by mountains!

The views from our hotel window are amazing! We sit atop the Soldanella eye-to-eye with the Swiss Alps, gazing down upon the frozen lake. There is a horse track on the lake! There is also a city of tents associated with the horse track. We understand that they hold skijoring race events here. We hope to witness one before we leave.

You can pick out the clock tower and Baldrutt's Palace Hotel in this shot; we are very close to the city center:

The Kempinski Hotel, where we stayed during our previous visit, is in the distant background:

So, now I am wanted in Switzerland not just for spear touching but also for photographing chocolate!

We hope to ski tomorrow if the resort chooses to open!