In June, Tai and I took a 24-hour trip into the Graubunden Canton of Switzerland. Our “architectural destination” (a friend who is an architect described it as such) was the 7132 Therme, a hotel/spa built over hot springs in the village of Vals. The 7132 Therme was designed by Peter Zumthor, winner of the Pritzker Architectural Prize in 2009.
I picked Tai up in Zurich and we made the 2-hour drive to Vals. Tai, who has explored much more of Switzerland, loves the lesser-known Graubunden region. As we drove past bikers on Harleys, made a pit-stop in Flims to check out the Caumasee (Lake), and talked about the area’s hiking trails, I could appreciate its charms.
We got to the spa unscathed and checked into our (deeply discounted, thank you corporate discount) room in the “House of Architects.” This is the mid-range option at the hotel, where you get to select rooms that were designed by various famous architects. Ours was a Tadao Ando room. It was simple, streamlined, with a kind of Japanese Tea House aesthetic.
We enjoyed an over-priced lunch and then headed to the spa. Zumthor’s concept for the building is an architectural interpretation of a stone quarry. It was built using locally quarried Valser quartzite slabs. There are maybe 15 baths of different temperatures indoor and out. I loved how my plantar fasciitis felt in the fire pool.
Tai and I tried all the pools and saunas, got massages, and then tried all the pools again. We were grateful that, unlike our Baden Baden spa experience, there were no naked German men (or naked men of other nationalities), though we did get shushed again in the sauna. When it occurred to us to wonder about the time, we realized it was an hour after our dinner reservation. We rushed to shower and dress, calling the restaurant to apologize. It is rare and nice for two mom-lawyers to be so relaxed that we completely lose track of the time.
The evening was equally blissful. We had drinks and then a heavy, almost sedative, dinner. We could smell the butter and sage and more butter on our ravioli. After dinner, we enjoyed the fireplaces and views and then hit the Ando sack.
In the morning, Tai went running and I went to the gym, as we needed to work off some of that butter. We had a light breakfast and coffee, taking pictures outdoors of the hotel, which is built into green Swiss hills covered in wild flowers. We returned to the spa for a final circuit through the pools before checking out and driving home.
When we moved to Switzerland, I was excited about its centrality in Europe and proximity to places I really wanted to visit. But Switzerland is extraordinarily beautiful in and of itself. Every drive has involved breathtaking views of mountains, hillsides and lakes. It is all so clean. As our time winds down in Switzerland, this blogger grows sentimental.
Swiss Family Lang-Newkirk 