What an idiot. I may have just turned into the cycle lane a bit too close to his handlebars. But that's no reason for him to keep ringing his bell after me. He doesn't even stop at the next red light: dingdong, dingdong. Now even the waiting drivers join in. Saaag mal. The dingdong sounds at me from all sides - wait: cars make dingdong ...?
I open my eyes: No more cyclists chasing me, no more cars, it's just dark. Only the ding-dong from my dream is still there. It's even getting louder. And it smells of ... oh yes, the shepherdess had warned us. All 40 cows, which were still scattered peacefully across the hilly meadow last night, hurry to be milked at the crack of dawn. Carina doesn't seem to mind the ringing at all. She lies in the bed next to me, buried up to her nose in her pillow and blanket and doesn't make a sound. It's funny that I associate these cowbells with hectic city traffic in my dreams. Apparently I haven't really arrived in our little mountain break yet.
So I throw on one of the red chequered woollen blankets and feel my way barefoot on the wooden floor and Moroccan carpet to the tent exit. The cotton tarpaulin hangs heavily from the frame, soaked with morning dew. The air outside is cold and crystal clear. Nothing, absolutely nothing up here is reminiscent of hectic city life. The meadows of Alp Nagens spread out calmly in the middle of the Surselva mountains, 1000 metres above the still sleeping holiday resorts of Flims and Laax. Only the peaks all around are slowly awakening and are silhouetted against the morning sky. In particular Pize and Hörner, but also the 3028 metre high Vorab Glacier. We will get to know it better after breakfast when we crank up the remaining 600 metres in altitude to its ice carapace.
Carina, Jenny, Lilly, Mia and I had actually planned a bike weekend together with the campervan. Book somewhere nice with an extensive trail network for biking around it - done. But while researching on the internet, we came across this glamping site high above the Upper Rhine Valley in Graubünden: 20 Bedouin tents sprouting like white mushrooms from the alpine soil at an altitude of almost 2000 metres. Spacious, circular bedrooms with wooden floors, real white-covered beds, electricity and a small espresso machine. There are even fluffy towels for the shower container next door.
We don't even need to bring any food with us, as breakfast and dinner are provided by the nearby Stalla Alp, a cowshed converted into a restaurant that is now famous for its cheese specialities. No question, we wanted to go there. Besides, we hadn't been travelling in the mountains above the three villages of Flims, Laax and Falera for a while. In addition to the well-known Runca Trail and the seven-kilometre-long Never End, a lot is said to have happened there in recent years in terms of trails.
The morning sun has already warmed up our small wooden terrace in front of the tent as we sit down cross-legged and open our wooden breakfast boxes. Inside: a crusty roll, homemade blueberry jam, butter and alpine cheese as well as warm, fragrant coffee.
"Shall we tackle the classic descents first?" asks Jenny, still chewing her cud. She hasn't been biking in Laax before and is probably a little worried about the 600 metres of altitude difference up to the Vorab glacier. But we manage to convince her that it's smarter to warm up first in these barely double-digit morning temperatures. However, we warm up surprisingly quickly, as the gravel track doesn't have much in the way of grain-saving hairpin bends. It sticks up the side of the mountain at high per cent and the thinning air doesn't make it any easier to find our rhythm. We laboriously wind our way up into an increasingly barren lunar landscape until we reach the start of the pre-trail at an altitude of not quite 3,000 metres in the middle of this stony desert. One of the newly designated enduro trails. Although it was of course also laid by hand, shovel and pickaxe in the mountain flank, you hardly notice it. Its route resembles a stream of meltwater that first creeps shyly out from under the glacier ice and then ripples indecisively over large slabs of rock. The direction we need to take is revealed by red and white colour markings that someone has painted on the rock.
Hesitantly, the delicate track drips down from one step to the next, turning tight bends as it goes. But then the path soon becomes more and more pronounced in a high alpine gravel field, the tyres grip the lush alpine soil between the stone slabs more and more often.
The tyres grip the lush alpine soil more and more often between the stone slabs, and suddenly the hopping is over: the path flows smoothly through a hummocky meadow as a pure ribbon of earth - with a view of the white peaks of the main Alpine ridge. The trail architects must have had a brief relaxation phase in mind, because when we reach the sparse coniferous forest, we almost seamlessly join the established bike park descents in Flims Laax. The trail widens out, its curves rush into berms, undulate around the trees and in between bridge northshore bridges - until finally the final turns to the lift come into view.
Jenny is back in her element here. As we also received a lift ticket with our overnight booking, we spend the rest of the afternoon on the park trails. Unfortunately, in our trail frenzy, we miss the last ascent of the Crap Sogn Gion cable car, which would have at least saved us a good bit of cranking up to our Bedouin dwelling. Jenny seems close to a nervous breakdown.
However, the rest of us don't want to crank up another 1000 metres to Alp Nagens either. But Carina remembers reading something about a shuttle service to the Alp. And indeed, we are lucky. When we finally reach the Stalla Alp in the car, the landlady Claudia welcomes us on the wooden terrace with a blueberry smoothie.
The small lights in the tops of the tents are already glowing and bathe the surrounding meadows in warm light. It could hardly be cosier. "You're lucky," says Claudia. "There's a full moon tonight, it's going to be a particularly beautiful night." But before that, one after the other disappears into the bathroom container. The showers are clean and hot, soap and body lotion are ready and there's even a hairdryer. Afterwards, Claudia is waiting for us in the Stalla Alp for dinner, where we are served a perfect Swiss rösti. As we make our way back to the tent
back to the tent, the full moon is already shining over the mountain ridges, competing with the Bedouin tents.
"Should I get another bottle of red wine from Claudia? We can't possibly go to bed on a night like this," says Carina and doesn't even wait for our answer. We sit on our little tent terrace for a long time and tell each other stories that only women tell each other. From time to time, a gentle ding-dong sound comes from a dark corner of the alpine meadow. It must be a cow that can't sleep because five holidaymakers just won't rest.
Info Glamping Laax - Glamour camping in Switzerland
The Flims Laax Falera area
The Flims Laax Falera region is located in Surselva in the Swiss canton of Graubünden and was one of the first Alpine regions to build trails for mountain bikers. The area stretches from the 3028 metre high Vorab Glacier down to the adventurous Rhine Gorge. In the meantime, sustainable thinking is also very much in evidence here: New trails are being built exclusively with e-excavators powered by renewable energy. As are the 28 cable cars in the valley. The entire region aims to be CO²-neutral by 2030. For this reason, guests are also welcome to use the excellent train and postbus connections when travelling here.
There are various ICE connections from Germany to Chur, and from there you can take the Postbus or the Laax shuttle to Laax (25 km). If you still prefer to travel by car, there are parking spaces available on site in the Stenna Flims car park and the Laax Murschetg car park.
Accommodation
The Bedouin tents on Alp Nagens each offer 20 square metres of space and are equipped with a wooden floor, carpet, made-up beds, a small coffee machine, electricity and an ecological Kompotoi toilet. The showers are located in a separate container. The tent walls themselves are made of tightly woven cotton. This makes the tents heavy, but also tear-proof and UV-resistant. Even rain does not seep through. Although the fabric soaks up water, the mesh swells so that no water can seep through to the inside. In contrast to synthetic fibres, cotton allows moisture to "breathe" from the inside out, which in turn ensures a pleasant climate in the tent. Accommodation from 230 euros per night and tent (two mattresses for 75 euros each can be booked in addition to the beds). Information can be found on the websites of TCS Glamping and Stalla Alp Nagens.
The trails around Laax, Switzerland
A total of 330 kilometres of tours have been marked out in the region. Five of these are built, but very varied trail experiences for bikers: Vorab Trail (13 km downhill, but also 684 metres uphill), Nagens Trail (5.9 km), Segnes Trail (2.7 km), Runca Trail (7.6 km) and Never-End Trail (7 km). There are also various trail combinations for longer back-country tours.
The lifts open for the summer season in June, Arena Express Flims-Nagens and Crap Sogn Gion only on 24 June, but from Whitsun there will be weekend operation. If you have a Gravity Card, you can ride here free of charge.
General information
All information about other accommodation, bike shops, refreshment stops and the opening of the season can be found on the Flims Laax Tourist Info website.
