Letter from Munich and Flims, 1946 March 13

Creator

Robert D. Davis

Files

Creation Date

3-13-1946

Keywords

letter, correspondence, army, World War II

Subject

World War, 1939-1945; Letter writing; United States. Army

Description

Davis describes his trip to Flims, a mountain resort town in the Rhine Valley in the Grisons region. Davis continues talking about Flims. He stayed at Hotel National where the landlady spoke tourist English and a pair of waitresses who spoke Romansch, the fourth official language in Switzerland. Davis then went skiing. He says it had been snowing with increasing intensity and continued for the next three days.

Transcription:

Agent R Davis

13 CID US Army

APO 203

% Pm NYNY

U.S. ARMY POSTAL SERVICE 403 MAR 23 1946

13-14

AIR

MRS R. L. DAVIS

1619 BOSTON ‘MUSKOGEE, OKLA

13 February ^March 1946

München-Grünwald

Dear Folks:

The period at Flims was really an exile. It is a mountain resort town, in the Rhine valley. The region is called the GRiSONS, and is very romantic.

We got on a Swiss bus that looked like an American school bus, but was the modern car I have ever seen having been built in 1944. It was a curious, smooth running combination of an old model, with wonderful new devices.

Of course, the first impact of vast mountain scenery is always a ravishing experience, and tho’ I went unwillingly to this resort town, and with the premonition that it would be a less interesting experience than a similar stay in the cities, I allowed myself to be delighted.

The village itself was quaintly charming, with a lovely profile at a distance, before one got close enough to notice the ugly face of commercialism. Standard Alpine stuff. Our bus passed several nice hotels, wound up several steep hills and came to a less nice hotel. Unfortunately, it was to be my billet for the next four days. HOTEL NATiONAL. It was a sizable hotel, but rated 4^th or 5^th in the town.

The landlady spoke tourist English, and there were a pair of stupid waitresses who spoke ROMANSCH, THE 4^TH Official language of Switzerland. It was a fairly unsatisfactory local. We arrived in town at one oclock in the afternoon, promptly ate a meal which was to repeat itself in various patterns twice a day for the remainder of our stay. At 2 o’clock we all filed, in humble obedience to the tour schedule’s recommendation, we all field by a tiny hut marked “G. I. Ski Equipment,” and paying in $3.00, received a pair of skis, shoes, and ski-stocks. That afternoon I began to ski.

All the time it had been snowing with increasing intensity. It was to continue for the next three days of our vacation in the mts.

Love,

Bob