Too hot

We're having the hottest stretch of weather I've seen since we moved to Switzerland. It was 92 degrees yesterday. Keep in mind that I don't have air conditioning and that I live on the top floor. All part of the cultural experience, right?

To escape the heat yesterday, I fled to St. Moritz, a resort town in the Alps in the eastern part of the country. It was about fifteen degrees cooler there. As usual, the train ride through the Alps to get there and back was most of the fun, at least until late afternoon. The trains don't have air conditioning, and once I came down from the mountains, and the sun was beating down on the train, it was plenty hot on the train. I had to break down and buy a bottled water on the train for $4.50 because I had run out. Other than that, the train is nice because it relieves you of the stress of driving there yourself, but it doesn't come with all of the hassle of air travel. It's kind of the best of both worlds.

The scenery was up to the usual amazing standards, which waterfalls, tall mountain peaks, cool bridges over deep gorges, all that kind of stuff.

St. Moritz advertises that they have sun something like 330 days out of the year, which is nice but had an interesting side effect: for the first time ever in Switzerland, I saw brown grass and sprinklers. I guess the obvious downside of having a lot of sun is that you don't get much rain. It was weird to see that.