SWISS RAIL HOLIDAY June 2013 - Part 3

[jay-ell71]

OOPS I MISSED A BIT




Part 3

Day 5

After an excellent buffet breakfast, we set off for Gonergrat to view the Matternhorn. The last bit of the journey is by cog railway. I should point out here that my OH is greatly interested in the engineering of railways, and particularly steep railways, so he was fascinated by this aspect of our travels.

We arrived at a mountain top restaurant, and whereas most of the visitors set off to walk, with poles and heavy boots, we sat on the terrace to wait for the cloud, covering the Matterhorn Peak, to clear away and give us a perfect photograph. Well we waited, and waited...... Two hours and a lunch later, the cloud was still there! We gave up and got back on the train and returned to Zermatt. After a Swiss pastry in a Swiss cafe in Zermatt we returned to our hotel room and Lo! from our balcony, the summit of The Matterhorn, peeking above the roofs and mountains, was clear as a bell against the blue sky. We got our photo....................


Day 6
THE GLACIER EXPRESS TO ST MORITZ

The train left Zermatt station at 9.45 am and we left the hotel at 9.30am and wandered across the road to the station and the Train which was waiting for us.
I should point out here that there are no motor vehicles in Zermatt. The only transport is electric buggies and horse drawn carriages. Delightful.
We had a reserved seat on the Express and lunch booked. All the carriages have tables. First class seating is two and four seats across, and ordinaire class is four and four seats across. We were ordinaire class. The journey takes eight hours. For the first half an hour we were on our own at our table with two empty seats next to us. When we got to Visp, many passengers got on and the OH had to share his seat with, not a very small lady!
There were headphones available for a commentary and this was the only train we travelled on with no changes. It was all very relaxing especially when at Chur (pronunced Kour) a couple of hours down the track, the not small lady, and her companions across the carriage, de-trained and the OH had more room.
It is a spectacularly scenic journey, and I very much enjoyed the rest. I have to admit I found all the traveling, getting on and off buses, boats and trains was quite tiring. This was definitely a “working” holiday.
Lunch was excellent. It was “served” rather than plated. and the waitress came back to serve seconds too. Wine/beer was included.

On arrival in St Moritz, we had to phone our hotel from a bank of phones on the train station and they came and collected us in a car. St Moritz is very, very steep and quite impossible for a couple of oldies to walk up with luggage. Even luggage on wheels!

The Monopol Hotel was the best of the three. The bathroom was particularly luxurious. Each hotel was better than the last. Although we were on half board tariff, in The Monopol, we could choose from the full a la carte menu at dinner and very nice it was too.


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