SWITZERLAND VACATION – HOTEL SCHATZALP

I’m back from our Montana and Wyoming vacation and I still haven’t posted my photos from our Switzerland trip. Time to dive in…

For the first part of our Swiss vacation we stayed in a grand old hotel full of history and slightly shabby character. The Hotel Schatzalp was built in 1900 as the top luxury tuberculosis sanitarium in Europe. It was the inspiration for Thomas Mann’s book Magic Mountain. I read half of Magic Mountain years ago and gave up because I found it boring. Maybe I’ll have to try it again. The hotel was changed from a sanitarium to a hotel around 1950. It has beautiful original art nouveau features and it is perched up on the side of a mountain in Davos. Lovely alpine meadows surround it and beyond that spectacular views of the alps. Our rooms had big covered balconies where the TB patients would sit. I absolutely loved our balcony – so quiet so fresh and such a magnificent view of the valley below. We were lucky to have three perfectly sunny days and I had time to sit out on the wicker lounge chair and romanticize about being a wealthy patient convalescing. On one of our first days it was cold and I was up early because of jet lag; I wrapped up in a robe and a heavy wool blanket out on the balcony. Of course I had to remember (a little) that it was probably not too fun to have tuberculosis. But I can’t imagine a more peaceful, restorative spot than those covered balconies at the Schatzalp. Here are some photos.

This is the view when you get off the funicular that carries you up the mountain.

The front of the hotel is all covered porch and balconies above – and it looks out over the valley and mountains beyond. Yes, that is snow on the grass below. Luckily it only lasted the first day of our trip and then it was warm and sunny.