Romansh language
by gmg61
Scuol is the main city of the area where "Romansh" is spoken.
Romansh is one of the 4 official languages of Switzerland (together with German, French and Italian); it belongs to the "Rhaeto-Romance" languages, heritage of the Roman domination over the area. It's spoken by less than 1% of the Swiss population, mostly resident in the Alps area.
Other similar dialects can be found in Northern Italy (Dolomite area, Friuli).
Hiking tour to Piz Lischana
by Sigmundo
This summer, two good friends of mine and myself wanted to do a 2-day tour to the well known "Piz Lischana" (Region Scuol).
We tried to do that tuor 2 or 3 times before, but the weather was always bad. To be on the safe side (which is always the best decision in the mountains), we said to ourselves: "Let's try next year, guys!"
Finally this summer (august 2005), we managed it to have 2 days off of work and the weather was perfect!!!
Tour:
We took the train from Zurich to Scuol and then the "Postauto" (a bus connection) to San Jon. From San Jon it took us about 3 hours to get to the Lischana cottage. We slept in the cottage and headed to the peak of Piz Lischana the following morning (which took us approx. 2.5-3 hours). After a glass of wine on the summit, we took the other side to get down to Sur En. The descent to Sur En took us another 4,5 hours and contained a wonderful way past the lakes of Rim and through the "Val d'uina" (gorge of uina).
! The tour does not require high hiking skills, but one should be fit and able to walk a couple of hours with a small backpack. Furthermore, you should not be scared of height! To make it a little easier, you can leave out the summit of Piz Lischana. The tour will still be wonderful...