September to December: a bit busy

So, we have lost September to December when it comes to the blog!  What with Tom back at school, and all his after school clubs, work starting up again and Bob to look after, it got a bit busy and the blog was the last thing on my mind.  We didn't really do that much as we couldn't leave Bob on his own for too long, so there wasn't really that much to write about.  Tom had a trial for the under 15s District cricket team and to his and Matt's surprise got in (the others according to Matt all looked huge compared to Tom!)  So, that means training in Sedbergh every Tuesday night - 8.00 to 9.30 - pretty late for our Tom who likes his bed!)

In October we went to Blackburn to see The Proclaimers which was good - they can certainly belt out the tunes, not much engagement with the audience though.  

I had my usual run around trying to find Christmas marshmallows - found them in the end in B&M in Blackburn and bought as many as I could.  They came out mid October, were exclusive to B&M this year. I bought 150 snowmen, 50 penguins and 40 rudolphs and ran out of snowmen quickly as Di Handly ordered 50 in mid November!  We tried everywhere to buy more and failed, so next year buy 200 snowmen as soon as they come out.

For October half term we met up (finally) with Mum and Dad at a cottage near Nantwich.  Even that was disjointed as Tom and I went down on the Friday, then I left him there on Sunday, came back to help look after Bob and then on the Tuesday Bob moved back to his house and Matt and I went down to Nantwich for the rest of the week.  

Also Mum wasn't in a good way - she was having chemo cream on some skin cancer on her face and was right at the end of her treatment and not doing well - she didn't really move for the first 2 days, but got better as the week went on.  We all managed to go out for dinner out on the last night - which was good.  Maybe next time we will do better.  It was a case of really bad timing, but if we didn't meet up then, it would have been over a year since we saw each other!

October to December was then the big grind of Christmas orders: marketing everywhere I could think of and then fulfilling orders.  I did an Open House: invited friends for mulled wine and cakes on the Friday night and opened up to the village on Saturday morning (11th/12th November)  Then I went to Cross Leigh Stores for a market.  Note to self: DO NOT DO A CHRISTMAS MARKET - people don't buy my goodies, mainly because there is food and drink at the market run by the organisers and people are loyal to them rather than buying from me.  I made £12. What a waste of time.  This is why I do an open house - much more lucrative!  I got lots of early orders this time, I also got quite a few cakes, so a lot of juggling.  I need to work out whether  it is better to say no to all cakes and just concentrate on chocolates?  I had to put out of stock on my website pretty early, plus the school broke up really early this year (16th December) which didn't help, along with Royal Mail postal strikes, I basically had to stop taking orders from the 12th December.

Tom had 2 really horrible colds - one in the first half term and one in the second half term - both lasting about 3 weeks.  They were evil and completely drained him.  Somehow Matt and I didn't catch them which was good - although both of us were getting headaches and rumbling sore throats so I guess it was in our system!

Tom has also had his 4 immunotherapy injections at Manchester Children's Hospital - fingers crossed they work for him in the summer.

Bob has been getting better and better, going back to his house gave him a new lease of life, and within days he was able to walk (he was still hopping at ours), he was out on the mobility scooter and getting stronger and stronger.  We found him a home help so we were able to relax knowing someone was visiting every day and doing any awkward jobs for him.  He even held a Christmas party for his friends which was fab. 

Tom has had to choose his options.  We went to the Options evening at school - first time we have been invited to the school as parents.  It was wholly confusing - came out completely confused as did every other parent we asked.  QES is an Academy of two schools: the main school and the studio - the Studio does practical courses such as engineering, art, DT, performing arts, PE, land management etc etc, but we came out not knowing what sort of qualifications you get, if they are recognised by HE/FE establishments, if you take one of these 'pathways' it takes up the time of 2 GCSEs but does the qualification equal 2xGCSEs?  We managed to talk to a teacher afterwards to get some questions answered (she told us that the Land Management doesn't lead to any qualification - surely that is something we need to know?!)  Also afterwards, we found out that if you want to take a science at A Level, you have to take all 3 separate sciences at GCSE.  Another thing they failed to tell us!  I tell you that school is just rubbish at conveying information to parents!

Talking to Tom, he was absolutely adamant that he didn't want to do any studio school courses as 'all the idiots are going to studio school".  There is a good engineering course in the studio school where you have to be top stream science and maths to qualify, but he still refused, nothing I said would change his mind.  So his choices:

1) Separate science, 2) French, 3) Modern History, 4) iMedia 5) PE (GCSE version not the studio version)

I'm sad that he has dropped geography, but was very careful not to influence him too much.  Modern History is a bit of an anomaly, apparently all history courses have to include a medieval element - so he has to do 1066 and medieval medicine, but the rest is 1900+.

He also has his first school trip coming up...to France!  They go to the D-Day beaches, Paris and Parc Asterix.  5 days, £800!!!!!!  It isn't until July - but at last a trip!!!!!!!!!

Oh and Tom has a girlfriend - Georgie (one of Evie's friends from Caton)!  We haven't met her yet, but they are texting each other all the time (all quite benign and quite sweet).

Lastly, I have managed to loose 2.5 stones.  I have slowed up recently due to circumstances, but plan to get down to 10.5 stone in January - just half a stone to go (assuming I don't put on for Christmas / New Year!)

First Week Back

The first week back has been a bit of a whirlwind.  Getting Tom ready to go to school, sorting out Bob and getting work done as well.  It all got done, just have had to get used to a new routine and working out the best way to do things.

We got back on Friday evening, Jon Radda picked us up and dropped us off at home.  We then made various phone calls to Jude and Bob to find out what had happened.  Bob was still in hospital, and quite immobile as his leg is in a cast and he was finding it hard work to get around with a walker and impossible with crutches.  He was also very short of sleep and in pain.  After a restless night worrying about him, I said to Matt that the only solution was to have Bob here.  If he was to be here we don't need to worry about him at home, we can stay as a family and he can be looked after, have company and not worry about all the humdrum of running a home.  Matt agreed, offered our home to Bob, who then said the hospital were happy to let him out to come to live with us.  So, Matt went to collect him, whilst Tom and I changed the guest room round to give him as much space as possible.

It was a bit of a trauma to get Bob into the house, no matter which way you enter the house there are steps to negotiate, the only way Bob can do steps is on his bum and as it was his first time and Matt and I had no idea what to do, it was a bit of a fumble, but we got him in.  Poor Bob was very sleepy, couldn't eat much, and really just a sorry sight.  He asked to go to bed at 8pm, once again it took quite a while to get him up the stairs, but we got there and he went to bed fully dressed - too exhausted to change!

Sunday Matt and Tom went to play cricket for the afternoon - so it was just me and Bob.  Bob spent most of the afternoon snoozing, I spent the afternoon making sweet peas for a wedding cake going out on Friday.

Monday - Tom's last day of holiday.  We still haven't been able to get him any new PE uniform.  We discovered on Sports Day last term when kids went to school in their PE uniform that his was all too small - he looked like a 1980s football player!  I was hoping to get second hand, but had failed in my quest, so reluctantly took Tom to Preston to get some.  Always a pain going to Preston - I don't like the place and find the roads extremely confusing.  I know where the main car park is, but find it so difficult to get to.  Had the same problem again this time, the centre of Preston was dug up and the sat nav tried to take me down a bus lane!  We then followed signs to a car park for it to be permit holders only.  I then stopped a postie for advice - we could see the car park, but he said that I would have to go right round the centre to get to it.  Oh joy - I drove in a random direction hoping I would find some sort of car park, it worked, we found a multi-storey and it wasn't that far from the high street - a normal stressy beginning to shopping in Preston.

We got to Monkhouse and I bought the biggest PE uniform I could get away with.  Then we headed to M&S to get some underwear for all 3 men, as we were looking it up, Tom noticed that there was a Mowgli next door - oooooooh!  We do love Mowgli.  Preston suddenly looked better...we went to Mowgli, got in and ordered yoghurt bombs, sticky wings and fenugreek chips - we were in heaven.  The conundrum now was - do we tell Matt or not?  We knew he would be upset to find out we had been without him, but we didn't know it was there...  No matter it was a perfect end of holiday treat for Tom.

We bought the underwear and then I decided to check out a shopping centre we hadn't been to before...inside was a Kawaii shop - called Kenji - full of Japanese cutie products - wowzers, Preston is even better.  I got myself a froggy tape measure for my cakes.  Perfect.

We came home, confessed to Matt about the Mowgli trip - seems he is keen to join us on school uniform shopping trips now!

Home!

On the ICE in Basel

We are home!  We had a pretty much stress free journey home.  On arrival to the station in Luzern, we found out that our scheduled train to Zurich was cancelled - argggghhh!  However, Swiss railways being sensible allowed us to cut the corner and get a train to Basel which meant that we could pick up our train to Frankfurt in time.  We did this, and the rest of the journey was perfect.  We think that the DB timetables changed on 1st September which helped us out.  

Beer o'clock

We were sad to say goodbye to Switzerland, we had had a good (and expensive) time there. The part of Germany we passed through was dull and flat, but the trains ran on time and were fast so we can't complain and we had reserved seats.  We managed to grab some pretzels for lunch in Frankfurt station as we switched trains.  We arrived in Brussels on time and our hotel was directly outside Brussels Midi which was good.

We dumped our luggage and had a little bit of down time before tea.  At the same time, Matt got a text from Bob saying he was in an ambulance after falling off a ladder which was a bit alarming! He was supposed to be picking us up tomorrow, so we quickly got in touch with friends and made alternative arrangements and then kept in touch with Bob and Jude as he went through A&E etc.

In the meantime we headed out to Le Bistro, just up the road from the hotel.  We went there last time we were in Brussels and knew it to be good.  It was again.  We had a fab night - a HUGE lasagne for the boy, chicken kebab for Matt and rabbit & beer stew for me.  It was a lovely end to the holiday.

Didn't get much sleep that night as we were worried about Bob, turns out that he has broken his ankle in 3 places and was admitted to hospital.  

On the catwalk

The journey from Brussels to home was uneventful.  We arrived in London on time, took our suitcases to the Premier Inn we stayed in on the way out - they were happy to look after them for us for a small donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital and then we headed to Camden Market for a look round and lunch.  We were starving because we had got up very early, plus the hour's difference!  Most eateries were still getting ready, however, we did find one which was ready, it did chicken karage, gyoza and noodles so we ordered a bit of each and were very very happy with the result - it was the best meal of the holiday.

We then headed back to Kings Cross and got the train to Leeds and then another to Ribblehead, where Jon met us and drove us to our house.  

We had a great holiday - well travel experience, it wasn't restful like some holidays, but completely worth it - we saw and did loads.

Le Bistro

Notes for future similar trips:

+ Take swimming stuff and goggles for the boys (they are lost without their goggles).  European swimming pools are much better on the whole than ours!

+ Quick dry materials are best for clothes

+ Sandals are essential, don't take many socks!

+ If an hotel offers to do a basket of laundry for a set price jump at the chance.

+ We don't actually need that many clothes, just one jumper.

+ All local transport in Swiss towns are free of charge if you are staying in a hotel - make sure you ask about this everywhere you go.

+ Tom can't cope with going to bed at the same time as us - he gets too tired.  He can only get to sleep if all lights are off, so if there is a bar use it, if not, it is early to bed for us too with a silent phone to play on!

Hotels we used - these were mainly 3 star hotels, all very different and on the whole very good:

+ Zurich - Hotel Bristol, quite basic, but clean and friendly staff.  Laundry service was amazing and cheap

+ Interlaken - Chalet Swiss, fab place, two storey room, with loads of space, we enjoyed this one a lot.

+ Montreux - Bon Porte, very very basic: no wardrobe even in the room, very noisy with restaurant on top and extremely hot.  They had taken the knobs off the room fan to stop you putting it on a higher speed, boiled eggs at breakfast were grey?! The guy behind reception wasn't great!

+ Zermatt - Jägerhof - lovely hotel - huge room, lovely bar / restaurant area, lovely staff, couldn't ask for better

+ St Moritz - Laudinella - huge room, huge hotel, huge bar / restaurant area, free entry to amazing pool across the road.  Great experience, although full of US tour groups!

+ Lugano - Hotel Walter au Lac - 2 rooms for the price of one, lovely staff, freebies in the room, air conditioning, right on the lake, beautiful view, breakfast overlooking beautiful view.  What else can you need? 

+ Luzern - Hotel de la Paix - happy staff, great location, comfortable room and good breakfast.

Would happily use all hotels again except for the one in Montreux.

Rest Day in Luzern

We didn't have a schedule today - so we slept in.  When I say slept in, it was more of a lie in.  We got up at 9am and headed down to breakfast which was the usual array of cold cuts, bread etc, but Matt was disappointed not to find any little pastries - thinking they probably all went a little earlier.  Anyway it was nice not to be in a rush!

It was raining this morning and the forecast was for rain all morning.  Most of the activities to do around Luzern involve either going up high in a gondola / railway or being on the lake.  We couldn't see the mountains so there was no point going up high and we spent quite a few hours on the lake yesterday!  There is a transport museum here, but it is very expensive, and reviews weren't great - it includes a planetarium and a chocolate museum, neither of which we wanted / needed to do and made us wonder if the transport part of it was really up to anything.

After our experience of the pool in St Moritz, we looked for something similar in Luzern and found one.  After putting the options to Tom, he plumped for the pool, so we packed our cosies and the hotel hand towels and got the bus over (oh, think I have forgotten to mention that every time you enter a town / city in Switzerland, the hotel gives you a card which gives you free access to public transport.  It is fantastic, means we don't have to work out the local system and can just hop on / off as we please if we get tired.  Seeing as the Bahnhofs in each town are the centre of each transport system, each bus stops at them which means we can't really get lost - such a great system (however, we have also had to pay tourist tax at every hotel - so they are getting our money anyway!))

We got to the swimming pool - was CHF29.50 for the 3 of us, which we thought really reasonable (for Switzerland!).  It wasn't as good as St Moritz, but it was good none-the-less.  There was a big pool which was set up for lane swimming, a deep pool with two spring boards and a 5 meter diving platform, a curly wurly slide,  a warmer pool with bubbles and massaging spouts, a warmer pool with an adjustable floor mainly for children learning to swim and a children's pool with spouts of water, and a tiny slide.  All immaculately clean and being continuously cleaned.  We had a great time, did a bit of everything and a lot of sliding on the slides.  We had the place more or less to ourselves (the schools have gone back here) which was ace.  At one point we had exclusive use of the junior swimming pool with the floor lowered so we could swim well in it and were playing racing games: Tom won them all of course! We also had a number of goes on the spring boards - Tom did both levels and also jumped from the 5 meter high platform which neither of us were up for!  Anyway it was a great way to spend a grey rainy morning.

Around 1pm the pool started to fill up with school groups, so we left.  Downstairs was a Migros, so we bought our lunch there: tuna sandwich for Matt, a chunk of apple pie for me and a donut in the shape of a pretzel for Tom!  We then got the bus back to the centre, then another one to the hotel, dropped off our wet things in the room and as it was looking a lot nicer, we went for a walk into the old town.  The town has ancient crenelated walls with tall towers dotted along it.  We found one and then discovered you could go inside the towers and walk along the walls...for...free!  Yay, so we did.  It wasn't that far to walk and very pleasant.  We even discovered a field with some alpacas and some highland coos in it.  Matt was so excited when he saw the sign for the Highland Coos, that he pointed it out to me - unbeknown to him, the fence it was attached to was electrified and as the sign was metal that meant he got a shock!  Ouch!  Those Highland coos are trouble aren't they?

We walked back to the hotel and had a chillax in the room before heading out for tea.  We did a recce on the computer of possible places to go (we are down to our last CHF100 so needed to make sure we didn't go over!) We found a place which was in the station, but when we got there, we discovered it was a take away - there were no seats to eat, you had to eat standing up.  Not a nice relaxing night out, so we carried on outside and ended up in all of things an Irish pub!  Oh hum, never mind, at least the prices were what we needed.  Matt had a burger and Tom and I had tacos and it was all well cooked.  We then went for an amble in the old town - it is another very handsome town, loads of the buildings in the old town have old historic paintings on them, lots of gold guilding, plenty of money spent on making sure they look good.

Then back to the hotel for a last pack and sleep.  Got to be up early tomorrow! 

Oh, almost forgot, had a lovely Whats App video call with Mum for her birthday - finally they are set up on Whats App, hoping we are able to stay in touch better now with photo sharing etc etc. 

Gotthard Express & Uri the Paddle Steamer

So another flying visit, which is a shame as we liked Lugano and the hotel room we had was brill but on our way we went.  We had the usual buffet breakfast - but this time in a lake view room which was lovely - learnt some more Italian as everything was labelled in English and Italian.  It was one of the better breakfasts with lots of variety.

We then packed our bags and headed out towards the funicular.  I noticed a Co-op just behind it, so we went there first for drinks and lunch - a box of pasta salad each, then up we went in the funicular - a whole 2 minutes later we were back in the railway station.  We found our platform and waited for our train to arrive.  

Tom and Alfred

It was as lovely as we expected AND we were met by a very jolly gentleman, Markus, who very obviously was in charge of the carriage and enjoyed a crowd.  Now, I will remember this trip because of Markus, not because of the scenery or engineering we experienced (all of which was mind blowingly amazing).  Markus switched effortlessly from English to German explaining what we were seeing, but mainly he was a bit of a joker, a people person and a performer.  He asked everyone where they were from and changed his patter accordingly.  He also knew his stuff, a gentleman from Texas across the aisle from me asked many questions and Markus was able to answer them all.

Here you can see the track at 2 different levels...

Once again this was a regular railway - no rack and pillion here!  After ascending gently out of Lugano, past a number of castles, we then started to loop in and around the mountains.  We kept seeing the same scenery again and again but out of different windows and higher up each time.  It is amazing how they did this and how early it was when they did it - in the 1880s!  

We thought the Ribblehead Viaduct was impressive, but what these guys did was even better!  On top of all the mountain switch backs, they also built the longest train tunnel in the world (at the time) 15km in distance.  Markus took us through the history - apparently the 'lucky' people to build it were Italians from across the border, and they were treated very badly - had to live in cramped conditions where disease was rife, were paid very little and then made to pay the company back for any equipment they needed (eg lights) etc.  It's the same story the world over - with us it was the Irish navvies that were badly treated.

Tom 'working'

Tom and Markus - his boss!

The chief engineer for the project was a gentleman called Alfred Escher, however, he run out of money before the end of the project and was sacked, he died shortly after, so never got to ride on it or even be acknowledged for it - which seems to be the case so often for brilliant men ahead of their time.  Not to worry - he now gets to ride it every day as he is in the photography coach enjoying the ride - lovely touch!

As I said, the main man of the day was Markus and he made the journey feel about 30 minutes long.  He took a shine to Tom and made him help him out - handing out souvenir chocolates, he got paid - he got 4 extra chocolates and a special badge.  Tom was made up! We also got given souvenir ready paid postcards, so we wrote some out and handed them in, a bonus for the grandparents - a second post card each.  We were sorry to arrive at Flüelen and say goodbye to Markus - he got two very well deserved rounds of applause!

Cool sculpture at Flüelen

Flüelen

At Flüelen we connected with a paddle steamer, Uri, which took us along pretty much the full length of Lake Luzern.  It took 2hours 45 and was a lovely gentle way to travel.  First class on the boat was basically a restaurant...we took one look at the prices and laughed!  No way were we paying that, so we found ourselves a bench under a canopy and stayed there for the whole trip, eating our supermarket bought pasta salads for lunch!  We had been expecting rain today, but it didn't - for most of the ride the sun was out although it was much more cloudy than previous days.  It was very hot and muggy though! 

Tom really enjoyed watching the pistons and paddles on the steamer - it was an original from the US and looked a day old!  It is obviously much loved, and well looked after.  No grime anywhere, just shiny metal. We stopped at about 10 towns on the way to Luzern, all of which looked like holiday resorts with either lidos on the lake or funiculars or gondolas up to the mountains.  All very lovely in the sun.  

We arrived in Luzern at 2.45 and found the hotel without much trouble (no hills or cobbles - yay!)

We checked in, did some laundry, had some down time and then headed out for a bit of an explore (lovely 14th century covered wooden bridge right in the centre of town) and something to eat - decided to have something completely different today and ended up in a Thai restaurant which was both very reasonably priced (for Switzerland anyway) and delicious - all freshly prepared.  I had a red curry, Tom chicken wings and Matt Pad Thai.  We were all very happy with our choices.

As we were in the restaurant we heard claps of thunder and saw some lightning - it was extremely hot and muggy - it needed to clear...oh yes the rain came down and we had nothing suitable on us!  So we ran from the restaurant to Aldi on the shopping street - coldest we have been since we got here and it was blissful!  We bought some cheap beer in Aldi - recced it for lunch tomorrow (yes we will go there - so much cheaper than the regular supermarkets) and then headed to the hotel to chill out again.

We have a full day to ourselves tomorrow and have been wondering what to do with it, however, as we have had such full days recently, we have decided to (hopefully) sleep in, then see what the weather is doing, how much energy we have and go from there.  We might not do much - we need an easy day before we attempt to head home on Thursday (we have a strong feeling DB will cancel the train we are on from Frankfurt to Brussels, which will mean we might have to go round the houses to get to Brussels and therefore arrive very late (again!) 

St Moritz - Tirano - Lugano

So we were up early today in St Moritz after a good night's sleep in our huge room.  Went downstairs for the buffet breakfast - another step up.  This is a four star hotel and full of American tour groups - so lots of loud people at breakfast (not what we English like - we (I) are far too refined (sleepy) for noise first thing in the morning - plus they were being obnoxious, had feet up on the chairs etc - it's just not right!)

Anyway the buffet was the biggest we have yet seen - loads of cold cuts of meat, huge selection of cheese, hot food (eggs / bacon / sausages (2 types, 1 x veal, 1 x spicy) and even a water boiler so you could boil your own egg (must be for us Brits!) lots of salad, breakfast cereals, yoghurt etc etc.  All very exciting but I think the novelty of a buffet breakfast is wearing off on us now so we didn't indulge as much as we have been doing!

We got packed and then got the hotel's mini bus back to the station.  It was literally a fleeting visit to St Moritz, we didn't even get to see the town at all.  Another place to return to.  At the station we got on board the Bernina Express which is the highest railway across the Alps and doesn't use a rack and pillion system - not sure how it does it to be honest.  It had two locomotives at the front heaving it up and breaking on the way down, but even with those I don't know how it does it?  The scenery was absolutely amazing - different from yesterday in that it wasn't green valleys with wooden chalets but up up up beyond the treeline, amongst the ski lifts and gondolas.  We also saw some big reservoirs which help feed the hydro electric apparatus. The top of the line was Ospizio Bernina at 2,253 meters - this is where the water catchments come together.  If a raindrop falls one way it will end up in the Adriatic Sea and another way in the Black Sea.  It is also where the languages all come together too - I can't get my head around how the school system works here and how many languages they must do?

The train stopped at a place called Alp Grüm where we could get off the train for 10 minutes - what a place too - was magnificent.  Then we headed down towards the valley a long long way below us.  I lost count of the number of times we turned on the way down, it is nuts to know it was a regular train too.  

Towards the bottom we came across the Brusio Circular Viaduct which took the train on a 360 degree turn as it headed down, ending up with the train going through the arches of the viaduct on its way down to the valley.  Does that make sense?  As soon as I saw it, I recognised it from one of the train programmes I have watched at home with the boys - I thought it was more spectacular than the Lang Wasser Viaduct yesterday.  If you have a really long train you would be able to see it almost tying itself in a knot!

We got to Tirano, the end of the trip (and in Italy)  around 11.30 after receiving the best freebie of the trip - a train tin of chocolates.  It was steaming hot!  We were hoping to dump our luggage and then go for a wander - but it was CHF8 per piece which is extraordinary for 3 hours!  We kept our luggage with us and bumped it along the cobbles of the town (all towns around here seem to have cobbles which means when you are wheeling your suitcase you make a racket!)  I had seen something about a train museum in the town, however, the website was wholly in Italian so we weren't 100% sure about it.  We headed over, it was very shut - oh hum.  

Gelato!

We went in search of somewhere for lunch and found a cafe with a covered outdoor area.  We sat down, looked at the menu and laughed at the prices - paninis were €5 each - cost for lunch for the 3 of us came to the same amount it would be for 1 of us in Switzerland.  We took a while having our lunch and then decided to try to find some real gelato - when in Italy etc etc.  The places we found on the map were all closed, but as luck would have it, we found one whilst just walking past.  We went in - couldn't fathom out the flavours, and when we tried to translate them on our phones, it wasn't much better.  Feel completely lost here - we don't speak any Italian at all - took a while to work out grazie, si etc.  Anyway, Tom ended up with a nutella one, Matt chocolate and I had bilberry (still not sure what that is - but it was half way between an ice cream and sorbet and very refreshing)

We walked back to the square in front of the train station and found a bench under a shady tree to people watch a while.  At 2.20 we got the Bernina Express bus to Lugano.  There is no railway from Tirano back into Switzerland unless you double back.  The only other route is to Milan, so you have to get a bus across to Lugano.  The bus was completely full and the air conditioning not working all that well (true to form - all Swiss public transport seems to be warm, but then it is unseasonably hot at the moment so I'm guessing their air conditioning just can't cope with the heat?).  The first part of the journey was down a wide valley which was pretty dull - full of industrial zones, car show rooms, furniture show rooms, warehouses, distribution centres, supermarkets etc etc.  It seemed to go on and on and on, we couldn't fathom where all the customers would come from as the settlements along the valley were pretty small towns.  Tom fell asleep - it was hot after all - Matt got a picture - poor lad - not looking his best!

After a while the road turned off the valley and headed up into the mountains - using a number of tunnels and hairpin bends.  At some points we were millimetres away from hitting the side of the coach with rocks / buildings on the side of the road, I'm not sure how the driver did it?!  It was a pretty ride at the end, as we hugged the shores of Lake Lugano and headed into the town (significant settlement of over 150,000).  We were glad to get off the coach at the end, although it was still very hot in Lugano.  Luckily the hotel we are staying in was at the bottom of a hill, a cobbled hill of course, so we clattered our way down.  

Once again we were struck with how rich everyone looked.  All the ladies are a shade of orange and dressed in designer labels and all the labels are here: Gucci, Hermes, Bally, Prada etc etc.  I felt very out of place in my vest and trousers, sweating away and looking very dishevelled.  We found our hotel, Hotel Walter au Lac, which is right on the lake in the centre of town, couldn't ask for a better location.  We got our room - it is a suite of rooms - so Tom has his own bedroom, Matt and I have our own bedroom and we have a communal bathroom - how lovely, shame we are only here for a night (we seem to say that a lot!).  We all had showers, 40 mins chill-ax time and then got dressed to explore the town and find dinner.  We got free transport card with the hotel booking and there is a funicular from the town to the station so we rode that as a recce for tomorrow morning and then walked back down again.  We came across a restaurant serving Italian food for CHF18 which is cheap so we headed in.  We had fun as the lady running the cafe had no English and of course we had no Italian.  Luckily the little Italian we do know is food based, so we managed to work out most of the menu.  Then the lady found someone who spoke English to help us out, we weren't far out with our understanding which was reassuring.  It is always fun using sign language to try to get yourself understood.  She recommended the lasagna, so Tom and I plumped for that and Matt went for another pasta dish.  We were all happy and ate every last crumb of it.

We then did our usual evening walk, this time along the prom of Lake Lugano.  Lugano is a handsome place - it has two lumpy mountains rising out of the bay - they look like James Bond islands - we reckon that there are secret bunkers of all kinds in them.  We found a park which had some steps down to the river, in an instant, Tom was in the lake!  That boy!  He loved it though and who can blame him, it was a really muggy night.

We got back to the hotel, had another set of showers and enjoyed being in our air conditioned rooms! 

The Glacier Express

We woke up early in Zermatt, Fabio the lovely driver had told us that the best time to see the Matterhorn without any clouds was about 7am in the morning.  So, we set our alarms for 7am, Matt got up and headed to the balcony from which you could just about see it if you leaned far enough - he came in - he said the sun was on it and it was clear.  I jumped out of bed, Tom had requested to see it too - so we woke him up, but he was satisfied with just leaning from the balcony! 

Matt and I got changed very quickly and headed down to the bridge on the river - from which there was a decent view - oh my word, it was positively glowing in sunlight and completely clear of clouds.  We stayed there for a while clicking away, watching the sunlight hit more and more of the mountains around.  It was going to be a good day.  We walked back to the hotel and made Tom get up for breakfast as we were getting hungry after the walk and standing around in the cold.  Breakfast was the best one yet - there were waffles, pancakes, bacon, lemon cake on top of all the usual fair.  Very happy boys - they both like waffles for breakfast.

We went back to the hotel room, packed up, but we were too early, so Tom and I went back into town to find a postbox for the holiday postcards.  Thought we would have a look at the Matterhorn again as we were there, it was even better - all the foreground was now lit up and the sky impossibly blue.  We snapped away again and I sent Matt a quick photo message - he was on his way back down again pretty quickly - too good an opportunity to miss.

Before we made a mess!

We tore ourselves away from the mountain and headed back to the hotel ready to get the electric bus back to the station (Matt stole the driver's seat for a photo opportunity!).  The Glacier Express was in the station ready to receive us.  We weren't disappointed, we were 1st class again, 3 of us in a group of 4, meaning we had the extra seat to move around in which made life easier.  It was already laid up (we were worried initallythat they might give us breakfast - but they didn't - phew!)  The layout was 1 and 2 across the carriage - so we had big chairs and a decent aisle to get around in.  The windows went from the tap top to the ceiling - this meant that it was pretty hot on the train, but it didn't matter - we didn't really feel it.

We set off dead on time (of course) at 9.52 back down the line we had come up yesterday to Visp.  After that we were in new territory.  Now, I have run out of words to describe the scenery: glorious, beautiful, wondrous, bonkers, picturesque, chocolate box, none of them do it any good!  It was better than you can imagine.  

Some facts for you:

+  91 tunnels

+ 291 bridges

+ 183 miles

+ Highest point 2033 meters (Oberalp)

+ Lowest point 575 meters (Chur Station)

Second of three locomotives of the day)

It is known as the world's slowest express train as it does move slowly, not surprising considering the gradient it was going up and down.  It was all narrow gauge and some of it rack and pillion.  It really was the most wonderful and peaceful way to spend 9 hours - it didn't feel like 9 hours at all - it went in a blink.  Plus we got fed on board.  A 4 course meal none the less. It was a slow affair, with plenty of time between courses.  We had salad, followed by chicken stroganoff (for me and Tom and Matt had tomato and lentil dhal) then a huge plate of cheese followed by apple cake.  All very lovely, think it took about 2 hours from start to finish!

It travelled up the most impossible gradients round and round and sometimes in circles to get enough height.  At the very top, we were level with the snow fences at the top of the mountains!  The longest tunnel was about 10 miles and took us through a mountain at the end of the valley. The journey involved lots of stopping for trains to arrive at a station as it was single track all along, we also had to change locomotives 3 times.  Now, normally we would get frustrated at that point, but not today, all was good - the scenery was so beautiful and impossible to drink in - how could one place be so gorgeous.

Rhine Gorge

Once we had got through the mountain, we found ourselves on the beginnings of the Rhine river.  We followed it as it made a huge gorge through the scenery, plenty of people kayaking and canoeing on it - although it did look very low.  Oh - have I mentioned the colour of the river water in Switzerland?  In Interlaken it was green, in the Rhine gorge it was white - all to do with it being glacial water being mixed with water than has seeped through the mountains picking up minerals as it went along.  Makes for a striking scene.  We also saw lots of castles, apparently this part of the Rhine Gorge has the biggest concentration of castles anywhere in Europe.

The way down to St Moritz was very very twisty, but as beautiful as elsewhere.  I have been to St Moritz before - on the same trip as Interlaken, we camped in a tent, it snowed, we were cold and spent our time in the swimming pool there.  Once again I had no recall of the town at all.  We were picked up at the station by our hotel (good start), arrived at the hotel, it was enormous and can't possibly be 3 star as we requested???!  Luckily I had read on the hotel website last night that included in the stay was free access to a local swimming pool.  Tom really wanted to check it out, so we asked at reception and yes we could go...it was amazing!  There were 5 pools: a diving pool (Tom and I had a go on the spring boards), a lanes pool, a shallow pool, a kids pool and an extra hot outside pool.  Matt spotted something that said Funtower and investigated - he found some slides.  The place was immaculate and empty.  We had a lot of fun.  Took me a while to get in...I couldn't work out how to work the lockers.  I didn't have much valuable with me so put my stuff in a locker and then went to find someone who might be able to help.  I couldn't find anyone, but when I got back the locker was locked!  I couldn't open it!  

Langwasser Viaduct

I asked someone to help, she didn't know what was wrong, so I ended up having to go to reception dripping wet in my cossie for help (I had had a shower whilst trying to find someone as you had to have one before going poolside!)  Great!  I went, explained the problem, was told I must have gone back to the wrong locker - definitely not the case!  She made me look in all the other lockers, my stuff wasn't in there.  She then said she had to find someone else to come down as if they were to open a locker, they needed two people present.  I had to describe what was in it - a bright red Ingleton Primary School Bag - nice and unique.  She opened it - saw the bag and my delight and gave me a lesson on how to open and shut the locker - I was doing it right - just my wristband being faulty - she thinks that maybe a cleaner locked it whilst I was trying to find someone.  Oh hum, stupid English lady messing up!  Poor Matt and Tom were wondering where I had got to!

We spent a good hour or so there, we would have spent longer if we could, but it was already past 7pm. So we walked back to the hotel, had showers, and went searching for tea.  Ideally something small, but there weren't any convenience stores nearby, so we ended up having pizza in one of the many restaurants here.  Then bed for Tom whilst Matt and I headed downstairs to the bar to chill out and give Tom the chance to get to sleep before we got back.

Oh - other interesting facts we picked up:

+ The Swiss rail network is the densest in the world

+ Every person in Switzerland takes 2,300km worth of train travel every year - the highest of any country in the world

+ 90% of the energy used to power the Swiss network is from hydro power

+ By 2050 Switzerland will be self sufficient in hydro-electricity

+ One glacier is 900meters thick

+ 2/3rds of the population speak German, 20% French, 0.5% Romansch (they didn't tell us a percentage for Italian!)

Zermatt

Panorama coach on the narrow gauge railway

We woke up, more refreshed than we expected after a very hot night in the hotel.  Went down for breakfast - usual array on offer and then packed and walked our suitcases to the station.  We went along the prom this time, said goodbye to Freddie, and then wondered how to get our suitcases up the very steep hill to the station...our first attempt we saw a huge flight of steps - hummmm, we walked on, I then noticed a blue line on the pavement that said lift...we walked to the end of it...there were escalators up - phew, for the first time we were going to arrive at the station without a sweat on!  We found our train, 1st class compartment (of course) and settled in.  The train headed along the lake shore for a while and then headed in land along a valley - most of which was industrial - quarries (well they have plenty of rock in Switzerland don't they?!)  When we arrived at the town of Visp we changed trains to go up a very steep valley to Zermatt.  It was in a rather lovely panoramic train, 1st class again, narrow gauge with rack and pinion - it was very very steep in some places, but all rather lovely as the hills and mountains took over, and wooden chalets became the norm again (although I think Grindelwald is slightly more picturesque but I am picking at hairs).  

Cow with bell

We arrived at Zermatt, luckily I had looked at the hotel website yesterday and discovered that if you called ahead they will send a bus out to meet you, I did so and the bus was waiting for us.  Lovely.  No cars are allowed in Zermatt, you have to park at the village before and take a train into the village, the only other vehicles allowed are these electric buses that the hotels have to ferry their residents around.  It meant again that we didn't get in a sweat getting our bags to the hotel - yay!  We got to the hotel and were able to check in right away - it was only 12!  Result.  The hotel room is spacious and modern - a huge step up from last night - we are excited for breakfast already!

Zermatt from above

We dumped our stuff, did some emergency laundry in the sink - we have a huge balcony on which we can dry it and headed out in search of lunch and ended up in a pretzel shop again - can't get enough of them (I wonder how many lbs I will put on in these two weeks of carbs and meat!) We then went shopping - turned out to be a bit of a mission in the end.  Although Zermatt has all the designer stores, it is more down to earth than other places, and the prices are reasonable (well by Swiss standards anyway).  My rucksack has been falling apart throughout the journey and needed replacing, but everything was CHF100 and above which is too much.  I found a whole load at CHF80 and at 30% off so I went for it - much to the boys' delight - my falling apart rucksack has been annoying them, I also got a new T-shirt.  Matt got himself a new baseball hat (he left his on the train to the chocolate museum in Zurich - silly boy), Tom got himself a new bear (of course) and a bear T-shirt!  So we were all winners.  We looked at restaurants on the main drag and they seemed very reasonable - so made plans for the evening.

Reward for a steep walk in the heat!

We then went back to the hotel as we had left the suncream behind - and it was heating up again.  Once we got there, we decided to have our afternoon down time and then go out when it was a bit cooler.  Matt had found a view point above the village from which we might be able to see the Matterhorn clearly.  Just as well it was a bit cooler, cause it was hot work walking up the steep tracks to the viewpoint.  It was a great viewpoint of the rock, but clouds were obscuring the top of it.  We waited and waited but the clouds were stubbornly attached to it.  Oh well, we had been told that the view of it is better in the morning, so we will try again then.

By the time we had returned to Zermatt we were all gasping for a drink and hungry so we headed to one of the bars we had recced earlier - the Brown Cow (of course) for a huge hot dog (Tom) and Burger (Matt) and chicken wings (me) it was delicious and the cheapest meal of the holiday and I had a large beer when I normally have a small one!  

We then walked through the town slowly back to the hotel.  As we passed a good view of the Matterhorn we noticed the clouds had gone so got snapping.  Phew - problem was it was twilight so not great photos, but at least we had seen it (and as you see in black and white they come out great).  We then returned to the hotel for more showers and down time before bed.  We left Tom in the room to get to sleep whilst we went to the hotel bar (first hotel to have a bar) for a drink.  One theme of this holiday is thirst - always we are (well I am) thirsty - it is hot and anyone who knows me well knows that I sweat in the heat so I am constantly replenishing but never satisfied!

Interlaken to Montreux via the Golden Pass Belle Epoque

Tom inside a cow in Zweisimmen

It was another sweaty night - didn't even try to sleep under the sheets!  Woke up a couple of times to clashes of thunder, but no rain.  Looking out the window this morning it looked quite cool but we stepped outside and it wasn't!  The clouds have come in though and the Jungfrau has disappeared in them.  We got up (all woke up naturally today - I think because we went to bed early) and had breakfast - same as yesterday - so yoghurt and a couple of buns with cheese and eggs for me.  I do like a continental breakfast as do the boys, but it always seems wrong when at home - I guess because cheese and ham are traditionally lunch items rather than breakfast foods.  We did a bit of people watching...we are staying in 3 star hotels, mainly to keep the price down but also because we aren't that fussy about hotels and don't actually spend that much time in them.  The faces at breakfast are a mixed bunch - European, Asian (South Asian - guessing most are Indian) and Middle Eastern (lots of women in head scarfs).  The Europeans tend to be scruffy like us: shorts and T-shirts, the Middle Eastern families better presented and then the South Asians seem to have an attachment to brands and are wearing full Louis Vitton / D&G / Burberry and lots of other brands I don't recognise.  They look so out of place in a 3 Star Hotel and were demanding all kinds of things from the staff who were politely saying no to them!  We wonder why, if they are happy to spend £1000s on branded goods, they don't spend more on accommodation (assuming it is all real of course?!).  They must have been so disappointed with the hotel!   Anyway it leads to good people watching.

Luxury travel

We got packed up and headed to Interlaken West station to pick up a train to Spiez from which we got another train to Zweisimmen.  Once again we were plunged into the countryside of Alpine chalets and mountains soaring up into the sky at impossible angles.  It is all so picturesque that really you don't get board watching it pass by.  At Zweisimmen we had an hour to kill.  Tom and I went in search of lunch from a supermarket whilst Matt stayed behind with the luggage.  We found a new supermarket chain which was selling goods at an ok price.  We got a curry chicken sandwich for Matt, a Tuna mayo sandwich for Tom and I found a salad and some vinaigrette.  All good. 

In the lake!

We returned back, I took a little look around the village (another very picturesque village) and before we knew it our hour's wait was up.  The Golden Pass Belle Epoque rolled into the station.  The engine was just a regular engine, but the carriages were amazing - 2nd Class looked good, but, of course, we are in 1st Class.  The seats in 1st Class were huge sofa like chairs - very wide and very comfy.  What a lovely way to travel!  We settled in and enjoyed the ride.  Luckily the set of seats opposite us were free so we spread out and had access to the views on both sides of the train.  The time went very quickly.  Just as well as the train didn't move very quickly.  Steep gradients and sharp bends meant it crawled along the track.  When we got to Montreaux we were in tight hairpin bends all the way to the bottom - we are all amazed that trains are the main form of transport in such a hilly country!  You would think that it would be impossible to build these lines, but not only are they in existence they are also well used.  Whatever the Swiss are doing with them, they are doing right.

We arrived into Montreux at 2.30 and headed to the hotel.  We are now in the French speaking area of Switzerland, and as we walked through the streets, it did really feel French.  It didn't feel as wealthy as Zurich or Interlaken either.  We were too early to check in, so left our luggage and walked down to Lake Geneva for a look.  Tom tried it out, he loved it.  Before we knew it, he had stripped down to his shorts and was swimming in it.  He does love a swim in cold water.  I popped my legs in and got up to my shins, not a chance I would go in any further!

Once it had turned 3 we went back to the hotel and checked in, had showers etc etc.  This one is a bit cramped and very hot! However the showers are great and the beds comfortable.  We had our usual downtime and then headed out to the prom.  We found a statue to Freddie Mercury and said hi - they owned some recording studios nearby, then a quick once round in a shopping centre before looking for somewhere for tea.  We ended up in a really friendly place - we were the only customers, but the gentleman running it was lovely and had a laugh with us (all in French too!).  Tom had a calzone, Matt had a pizza with Mereguez sausage and I had mushroom risotto.  All very lovely and washed down with some ice cold beer which is what both of us needed (Montreux is very hilly - only the street on the lake's edge is flat, everything else is up a hill and we are talking very acute angles, it is sweaty work walking up them.  After paying the usual CHF100 for tea we headed down to then lake to walk along the prom - it was very pleasant, the sun was setting, everyone was in a good mood and it was a little cooler - phew!  

Got back to the hotel - wowzers, our hotel room was boiling, so we opened all the windows to try to cool it down.  We are in the centre of town, so now we have a choice of windows open, cooler but very loud street noise, or windows closed and the room boiling!  Not sure what is best?!

Jungfraujoch

Today was an exciting day as we travelled on the highest train in Europe to the Jungfraujoch.  I did this trip with Mum & Dad & Simon whilst camping in Interlaken, and although I couldn't remember all of it, I could remember the view from the top and a rather dodgy first attempt at skiing which ended up with a Belgian dude having to come and rescue me from being tangled in a fence as I was completely out of control!  Other than that my memory is pretty blurred, although I remember it as being a grande (and expensive) day out.

So there are departures all the time, and we weren't booked on any particular one, however, we knew it would be better to go in the morning and make a day of it.  We set our alarms for 8.15 and got up and showered (well I got showered - it was so hot I didn't sleep particularly well, and was sweating pretty much all through the night.  Then I had a bit of a nightmare which I wasn't sure was real or not and that was it - I was done for the night.  A shower woke me up!)

We went for breakfast - pretty much the same as the Hotel Bristol in Zurich - bread, cheese, ham, eggs and yogurt.  We then headed into town to the Co-op to get drinks and lunch for the day - we were assuming that to eat at the top of the mountain would be insanely expensive.  We each got a salad for the day - the boys were on pasta salad and I had a leaves, egg and tuna salad - still CHF7-8 each (about £6.50-£7.50) so not cheap as chips but cheap enough.  We then walked to Interlaken Ost where we got the first of 3 trains, it was jam packed - good job we got their early.  It took us to Grindelwald - such a great name that.  The scenery was magnificent, straight out of that children's series Heidi which was popular in the late 70s/80s.  Every house is made from wood in a chalet style and dotted around the countryside, they look so insanely picturesque and at last we found our first cows with bells - they sound so gentle and look cute.  So strange to see cows all over the hills rather than the sheep we are used to.

We got to Grindelwald Terminus where they said to get off if you are heading up the Jungfrau so we did.  But then we couldn't see another train up from their to the top, everyone was getting on a cable car, there was no mention of a cable car on our tickets, but we handed them over and were waved through - oh, ok then.  So we were on a huge cable car which sat 28 people for a good 20 minutes.  It was very very smooth (no rumbling when you go over the pylons) and obviously a lot more direct than any train. It was a very pleasant way to travel, we got quite close to the North Face of the Eiger, and just enjoyed watching the scenery pass us by.  In no time we got to Eigergletscher - the station where you get the train through the mountain to the top of the Jungfrau.  Everyone was queuing for the train and being British our instinct was to join them, however, there was a view outside to see, so we broke off and walked around the station to enjoy the views - they were magnificent too.  We were quite close to the big mountains of Mönche, Jungfrau and The Eiger and on the other side we had steep green hills with chiming cows and Grindelwald below, all with deep blue skies, just gorgeous.

We went back to the station, no queue, we just hopped on the train and it left almost immediately - we spent our time well! We then headed into the tunnel and up we went.  We stopped half way up for 5 minutes where there were viewing windows (apparently the developers ran out of money before they got to the top, so they carved out some viewing windows and charged passengers to go up for the view - they made enough money to continue up to the top - didn't take long either.  The journey was on the whole quicker than expected and we spent most of the time at quite an angle heading upwards.  When we got to the top and out of the train, it was noticeably cooler, however, it has been so hot recently that a day in the cool was welcome.  We got into the station at the top and immediately followed signs to the Sphinx which is the top most structure, we had to go in lifts to get up there, but were rewarded with awesome views of a glacier surrounded by rugged mountains on all sides.  I remembered the views from the childhood trip I did.  Luckily they haven't changed (although I'm sure some of the other glaciers have shrunk!)  

It was 2 degrees outside, but as it was so sunny and bright, it didn't feel like it.  We took jumpers with us and that was all we needed, we didn't get cold.  After enjoying the views, we headed in and had our lunches (our pack of crisps had almost burst as the difference in pressure between the shop where we bought it and the top of the mountain had made the bag swell significantly - made for a good science lesson!).  We then found a way outside and went for a bit of a walk - it was pretty slippery and the altitude definitely made it harder to walk, even Tom was huffing along.  I think the area we walked in was probably where I went skiing last time, there was no skiing now, there was a zip line and inner tyre tobogganing, but all a bit lame and pretty expensive, so we gave it a miss) We returned to the station and followed signs to an ice palace - this was built into the glacier: we slipped and skidded along tunnels to enjoy lots of ice sculptures: polar bears, penguins, wolves, even a soft toy Scrat from Ice Age which I thought was very funny.  A keg of whisky had also been frozen in - not sure why?  From there we walked the length of the station and out the other side where there was a nice viewpoint and some Swiss flags to pose with, someone also burst into song - doing some yodelling which was good.

By now we were flagging, it was mega bright outside, hard to stand upright and not fall over as it was so icy and the altitude was probably having an effect, so we had a quick look in the souvenir store which was surprisingly reasonably priced (Tom got a Swiss Penknife for CHF5 which was very cheap - it wasn't the real deal Victorinox but even so, he was very pleased with it), so we decided to head down.  

We thought it would be good to do a full loop of the railway, so instead of returning the way we came, we got the train to Kleine Scheidegg, then swapped trains to Lauterbrunnen down in the valley.  The trip back was much slower as obviously the trains were having to go slow to avoid getting out of control, the gradient was mighty steep too.  Once we got to Lauterbrunnen, we swapped trains again to Interlaken and trundled along the valley floor at a much quicker rate.  On arrival at Interlaken Ost, we got a bus back to the hotel, it was roasting hot and the thought of a longish walk in jeans etc was too much.  On arrival to the hotel, we jumped in the shower one by one and then collapsed.  We really didn't do that much but we were all exhausted.

At 6.30 we headed out in search of tea.  We had spotted a restaurant near the hotel, Bären Restaurant, where they did interesting rosti for CHF21 each (that is cheap by the way!), so in we went: a sausage one for Tom, a ham, cheese and egg one for me and a 2 cheese and onion one for Matt.  The waitress suggested a mixed salad to start with - I am so glad she did - it was delicious: leaves, beetroot, corn, radish, cauliflower, cucumbers, carrot and only 1 segment of tomato - we had a portion each and then I happily hoovered up what was left - I really needed that.  After we finished our rosti, we went for a quick walk to help aid digestion.  Tom ended up with an ice cream so he was happy.  It was still blazingly hot, hotter than yesterday, so in the end we gave up and headed back to the hotel to crash.

Another good day.