As you may or may not know. I travelled on my birthday. After I arrived a Brigitte’s home, I had a lovely meal followed by a surprise birthday cake and a glass of bubbly. It was wonderful.

This must have been a special candle a it would appear all my wishes came true.

On waking the next morning the view from my window was spectacular. I could see a beautiful little church and had heard the bells chiming.

Brigitte took me to visit the church, which was called The Church Of John The Baptist.

We walked through the village on the way to the church.

Some of the houses were older than others with arch ways where the horse and carriage would pass through before cars were available.  Brigitte explained to me that the Swiss houses in the village, did not have front gardens like those in England. The garages and gardens were at the back of the houses.

I love the metal chicken in the garden above.

We passed by a shop window with a very unusual  coat hook stand for sale

Some of the houses were very big and Brigitte explained that if a house had 3 floors then 1 family would occupy 1 floor, so if the house had 3 floors, then 3 families would live there.

We passed under an archway with cobbled floor and proceeded up the hill towards the church. the weather was beautiful and sunny.

 

Taking in the view on the way.

A wonderful wooden carved owl

You can see the bigger church down below that was built when the population of the village grew.

Beautiful biblical scenes adorn the wall on the way up to the church.

When we reached the top the view was spectacular.

The parish church of S. Gion Baptista/St John the Baptist was built on the Tuma Turera tower. This large guard tower was integrated into the church from the initial construction. In the early 16th Century it was rebuilt in a late gothic style  and the extensive wood carvings of the  altars were added at that time.

In the grounds of the church there is a Beinhaus which means bone house in English. I have never seen one of these before and it is where bones of old buriels are kept. after a number of years in Switzerland the bones are removed from the graves and moved to the Beinhaus.

As you can see it is beautifully decorated.

Also in the Beinhaus there is a statue of Jesus depicting the time after he was taken down from the cross and before the resurrection .

In another part of the grounds there is a tiny little chapel I believe is for baptism. Once again this was ornately decorated.

After  taking all the delights of the church in, we descended down the hill.

Passing more beautiful homes, some of which were decorated according to the region the owner had lived in.

I noticed that some of the houses had a little window at the top, which I presumed was an attic window. Brigitte informed me that in the older houses these little windows were known as soul windows. If someone were to die in the house the window would be opened enabling the soul to ascend to heaven.

Once we had made our way back fro the Church, we headed off to the train station for some retail therapy in Chur.

Whilst we waited for the train to arrive I spotted another couple of interesting houses.

The train arrived and off we went.

In Chur I spotted this unusual piece of art on a roundabout.

I love goats but this is a Stein bock and no ordinary goat.

The Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), also known as the steinbock is a species of wild goat that lives in the mountains of the European Alps It is a  species with larger males who carry larger, curved horns. The coat colour is typically brownish grey. Alpine ibex tend to live in steep, rough terrain above the snow line They are also social, although adult males and females segregate for most of the year, coming together only to mate. Four distinct groups exist; adult male groups, female-offspring groups, groups of young individuals, and mixed sex groups.

The water above gushes out of a disused mill.

At the end of our day out we headed home to relax and prepare for the next days adventures.