Switzerland 2018

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Blog1 Switzerland

Flew Bris to Milan and arrived in Milan at 6am. It was good to finally start our holiday after Graham breaking his wrist and having surgery. Sorted out our hire car and with Leanne at the wheel we departed Milan for the tiny town of Eglberg on the north west side of Switzerland on the Rhone River. Driving went well and the highlight of the day was driving the Simplon Pass. This is the old route between Milan and Paris. Weather was hot and the Pass provided stunning mountain views.

Arrived at out hotel and did a little local drive on the tiny one-way roads high above the town. It was good intro into driving on tight narrow roads with serious blind corners.

Next day saw us driving to the railway station to get the train to Zermatt. We were off to the high mountains to see the Matterhorn and the Gornergrat Glacier. Zermatt village was amazing. It is a place that you can only reach by train. The village is full of tourists and there is quite a lot of mountaineering history associated with it.

Got our tickets for the Gornergrat train and before we knew it we were on the cogwheel train heading towards the Matterhorn and the glaciers of the Swiss and French Alps. What a journey it turned out to be. Arriving at the top in full sunshine the mountains and the glaciers were an incredible sight. Took way too many photos but that’s what happens when the scenery is awesome. Saw the Swiss Mountain Rescue helicopter drop off two staff members, mountain bikers were riding the slopes and tourists were everywhere. It was a splendid day out.

Day 3 saw us driving in the direction of Zurich via Lucerne. Unfortunately we hit a very heavy storm with driving rain so heavy that visibility was almost zero at times. The driving was extremely difficult and the road works with temporary line markings made it quite dangerous at times. Not to worry – we managed to deal with it and as we approached Zurich the rain stopped and the sun began to shine.

Checked in to our hotel at the Airport, parked the car and headed into the old Zurich City Centre on a train. Trains in Switzerland are wonderful. It turned out to be a wonderfully warm, sunny afternoon/evening. We enjoyed exploring the old buildings, walking along the river and peeking in the designer shops. The old buildings have a wonderful charm but unfortunately stores like H&M and many others look way out of place and spoil the face of the old town area. Found a great little restaurant for our evening meal where they served gluten free pasta – made life very easy for us. Caught the train back to the hotel and crashed after a very tiring day.

Cheers Leanne and Graham

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