Up, up, up in Liechtenstein

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Scott and I set out for a long weekend in Switzerland from City Airport - very convenient but a little run down. We arrived into a muggy Zurich Banhof late Friday night. Just as the local youth were getting ready for a night on the town, preparing by drinking boxes of beers in the local squares. After a short sleep we were up and back at the train station zooming towards Liechtenstein along Zurich See (Lake). Arriving into Sangans we had a bit of time before a connecting train so decided to pick up our tickets for the Glacier Express. Lucky for us there was a really helpful lady at the counter as it appeared we only had a reservation and in fact needed to buy a ticket as well. She worked some magic and we ended up buying a Swiss rail pass, giving us 50%!o(MISSING)ff travel then bought 2 x all day travel cards and extra tickets to St Moritz. Really we didn’t know what we were buying, but she was so efficient and knew what was going on. We walked away with a packet full of passes and tickets feeling like we had got the best deal. After another local train and two buses that ran like clockwork (literally leaving to the second of the scheduled departure) we arrived at Bendern, Liechtenstein for the start of the Streckenprofil LGT Aplin Marathon. I was however, only doing the half marathon PLUS (25.4km or 15.6m), thank goodness. On entering this event I didn’t really comprehend what the event was. Now post the event, I have to say it is the most ridiculous thing I have ever entered! It was way more hardcore than anything I ever want to enter again. That said the experience was amusing. The first 10km was a breeze, flat as a pancake and because of the low cloud no real inkling about what was coming up. After passing through the capital, Vadus and under the castle we went up, straight up. We climbed 1200m over 11km, and it wasn’t all on road. Nope, it was a host of different terrains; gravel hiking path, through fields of flowers, paddocks, small mud paths, jumping small waterfalls. And to add to it, as soon as we started ascending it started to rain and the clouds came down and at one point you couldn’t even see more than 20ms in front of you. There were a few spectators around the course braving the weather and they all yelled ‘up, up, up’, well it sounded like that but I am sure it was something in German meaning go-go! I was relieved to find that no one really attempted to run up, it was a fast walk and if people did run they shuffle ran for 20-50m and then stopped to walk again. This worked for me as there was no way I was in a state to be running up these mountains. Anyways, I finished in a respectable time and state. After meeting up with Scott and a quick lunch in Vaduz we headed towards St Moritz.
It was a stunning train journey; I admit I slept a little as we were coming back that way the following day. We were staying in an old school hotel right on St Moritz lake, it had spectacular views across the lake and up into the mountains and in to the old town. You can see why this place is revered, it is extremely pretty. The morning treated us with a perfect reflection of the mountains and town on the lake. Interestingly in the winter the lake totally freezes over and they play winter polo on the lake and the pictures of it are pretty crazy.
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We boarded the Glacier Express; an 8hr scenic train journey to Zermatt and it departed on the nose of 10.02. Clockwork these trains! The panoramic carriage was brilliant with huge windows up the side and into the roof so you really did have a near on 180 degree view going through the gorges and valleys. It wasn’t the best day in the world with light drizzle throughout the day and low hanging cloud, but the bits we did see were fantastic. We were served a three course meal on the train with a glass of sparkly wine. We passed via gorges, through mountains (one tunnel taking 15mins), up and down a pass over 2000m high, over 291 bridges, following the twists and turns of the Rhone River before heading into the mountains and the Matterhorn. Zermatt was a cute Alpine town, shops lining the main road selling watches and all the hiking gear you could imagine. After a few wrong turns in the rain, we managed to track down our hotel. Even though a little cold we headed to the roof terrace with a bottle of champagne, got out the deck chairs and watched the peak of the Matterhorn show itself briefly. That was the only opportunity we got to see the elusive peak, but a partial view was probably more then some people see. That evening we tried some local fare; fondue and wiener-schnitzel, yum-bo .. but way too much cheese to be eating that every day.
The following morning the low cloud was still hanging about, and the webcam of the top of the mountain showed cloud and more cloud. We cut our losses and headed back to Zurich, again the train was brilliant racing via Bern back to Zurich in about 2.5hrs. That afternoon we wandered around Zurich old town enjoying the sunshine and relaxed atmosphere.
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