Riding the Glacier Express

---

Waking early in the mountains on a fine clear morning, we found a trace of ice on the car – this is July after all! Breakfast over, we made our way to the station just 3 minutes down the slope from our mountainside hotel to catch the local train to St Moritz. Swiss trains are always on time, so at 8.30am on the dot the shiny red train slid soundlessly into the little station and we were off. In the 24 hours we have been in Switzerland we have seen many clocks, large and small, and all have shown the correct time. Perhaps this is why the trains run on time.
At St Moritz our seats on the Glacier Express were ready and we settled in for the ride to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Second class seats they may have been, but we had no complaints about the comfort or the service. With Swiss care and precision we were transported up, down and through the most glorious alpine scenery thanks to the feats of engineering that had the train looping the loop (horizontally) through tunnels at different levels – like the Raurimu spiral in the North Island of NZ. This was repeated many times and we emerged from tunnels to see the track we had previously been on now far down the mountainside.
Points of interest were given in a variety of languages through the on board sound system courtesy of complimentary set of ear phones. Before leaving New Zealand we had the opportunity of viewing the Glacier Express journey on the Travel Channel as part of Swiss Rail Journeys. The narrator of these programmes gave every detail imaginable, right down to the technical data of the engine power of the locomotives. As soon as the words came through the ear phones we recognised the voice. It was our friend from Travel Channel. We were now living the TV documentary.
Impressions of the day include rugged snow capped mountain peaks, brilliant green high summer pasture with contented cows ringing their bells, plunging gorges, icy blue rushing snow rivers, picture perfect villages perched high and low, the tallest greenest conifers climbing steep slopes and finally, as we entered Zermatt, the unmistakeable shape of the Matterhorn. We had arrived, along with fellow tourists and were disgorged into a town full of tourists; on first impressions not unlike Queenstown, NZ. A major difference is that cars are not allowed to drive into Zermatt, so the only reason to get off the road is the little electric taxi shuttles and the liberal sprinkling of something that looks very like goat droppings. Perhaps there was a parade or some such event earlier in the day. We will investigate.
We had had a substantial and very healthy Swiss lunch on the train, so this evening we followed our instincts and dined on soup and apple strudel. Delicious.

---