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!)