Our Northampton correspondent replied in his usual oblique way.
Your mention of Orario Grigioni, allegedly inventor of the Swiss Army knife, reminds me that my watch has three sets of initials on the dial, namely:-
SBB CFF FFS
Trains carry the same set of letters ...
... and are, of course, the initials of the Swiss national railways in the THREE official languages of that country, viz German, French and Italian.
Alan continues:-
But un Romansch-tically
VFS or Viafiers Federalas Svizras
is omitted.
Switzerland has a FOURTH language, Romansch!
What Chur-lish person is responsible for this?
Could it be creator of the Daleks, Dav(r)os?
Surely not the holy man, St. Moritz?
He is also known as St Maurice.
Maurice (from Africa) became the commander of the Theban legion, leading a thousand men. He was an acknowledged Christian at a time when early Christianity was considered to be a threat to the Roman Empire. Yet, he moved easily within the pagan society of his day.
The legion, entirely composed of Christians, had been called from Thebes in Egypt to Gaul to assist Emperor Maximian. The Theban Legion was dispatched with orders to clear the Great St Bernard Pass across Mont Blanc. Before going into battle, they were instructed to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods and pay homage to the emperor. Maurice pledged his men’s military allegiance to Rome. He stated that service to God superseded all else. To engage in wanton slaughter was inconceivable to Christian soldiers he said. He and his men refused to worship Roman deities.
Because of this refusal, hey were all progressively slaughtered by the (pagan) Roman Commander. Hence the town of St Moritz!
So this is a map showing the Swiss Canton of Grisons (French), Graubünden (German), Grigioni (Italian) OR
Grischun (Romansch).
In this Canton this language is still used, has official status, is taught in some schools and displayed on road signs.
It also features (with German and Italian) on the cover of the area's bus and rail timetable.
It is the only timetable book that has its title printed in Romansch! (Unless anyone knows differently?)
Correspondent James writes:-
An interesting find at our third stop was a complete timetable for the canton (Graubunden), covering all trains, buses, boats and cable cars and running to 360 pages and, again, free of charge.
There was a regular sight at the stations on our journey of buses waiting to provide connections.
On the Postbus from St Moritz to Chur, a two and a half hour journey via the Julier Pass ...
... I noticed that the driver’s ticket machine gave an indication of whether he was running early or late measured down to the nearest ten seconds. Buses, and the more modern trains, had information screens showing the names of the next four stops, as well as the terminus, and of how long it would take. In addition stops were announced, sometimes in up to four languages.
James also sent a scan of the route map, very diagrammatic, but comprehensive.
The key explains the colours ...
... reasonably easy to follow. Most buses are "Post Auto" but Chur (BLACK) and Davos (BLUEish) have local operations with separate maps (Linienplan). That for Chur is a bit too diagrammatic for fbb!
But no doubt with a little time and a street map, the routes can be unravelled. Here is Google Maps showing the RED and BLUE rectangular routes ...
... a bus on Ausstrasse ...
... and the bus stop (upper far left) called "Altes Gaswerk" (Old Gasworks).
The service 4 runs every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday, every 20 minutes on Sunday.
And when it comes, the bus is stylish and distinctive!
As you might expect there are articulated buses as well, also seen her on route 4.
But, if you want stylish ...
... take a look at the Post Auto bus station in Chur.
Wowsers. Here is the view back towards the bus parking area and roadway (above picture).
And everything, and that means everything, is in the 360 page book. Including the cable car.
A bit scary?
A bit more from James tomorrow.
Next Geneva blog : Friday 7th September
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