May 18th was a rail trip from St Moritz to Zermatt. It was a lovely day and the landscape simply stunning.
I was awake by 06:00 in St Moritz as the bags had to be out by 07:00 hrs. I threw open the windows to behold one of those Alpine sunrises that takes your breath away. I was immediately reminded of an almost identical scene at Lake Louise. The sun slowly crept down from the snow-capped peaks until the whole valley was illuminated.
The stark contrast between the brilliant whites and the darker greens called up a special technique called High Dynamic Range. I experimented trying to master this technique and was rewarded with a couple of keepers.
I had a light breakfast, mainly muesli and coffee as I need to get a rope around my weight.
The group walked down to the train station in brilliant sunshine. What a difference from the day before!
By 09:15 we were in our carriage on the Glacier Express and en route to Zermatt. What does Glacier Express conjure up for you? Exactly how fast does a glacier move?
The first stretch was perhaps the most spectacular. It is called the Albulalinie and contains 47 tunnels and six viaducts. It was built 1898 to 1904 by 5,200 workers who suffered 2,200 accidents and about 50 deaths. The pass in question had been used since the Bronze Age, but as late as 1903 a stage coach required ten horses to traverse the route. Not unlike the CPR line in Alberta/British Columbia, three spiral tunnels are involved. However, the 3.5% gradient is much greater than the 2% in the Canadian spiral tunnels.
The area is known as the Grissons and tourism is the game. Half the work force services tourists and there 14 million overnight stays per year in the 850 hotels.
By 10:20 we were at Filisur where another line came in from Davos to the northeast. The Romans had used Tiefencastel as a control centre and the nearby Julierpass was named after Julius Caesar.
At one point I got a photo of a hydroelectric dam and found out that Switzerland produces 60% of its electricity this way.
In the Thusis area we went over the Solis viaduct, the highest on the trip. Then we were into what the Romans called the Via Male (the bad route). The Romans considered it the fastest way to get through the Alps, but also the most dangerous. Bronze Age petroglyphs attest to its early usage.
Once we got as far as Reichenau we were entering the area of the Vorderer and Hinter Rhein. In other words, this was the source of the Rhine, which flows from this area all the way to the Belgian-Dutch estuary. We saw kayakers and rafters in this area.
Das Heidi was set in 1880 in the stretch from Reichenau to Chur. It was subsequently translated into 50 languages.
Chur is the oldest town in Switzerland having been settled for 5,000 years. It was an important centre for the Celts and then the Romans.
As we left Chur, retracing our steps back to the west, the lunch service started with drinks. I enjoyed a full-bodied beer called Feldschloessen.
As we ate a lighter lunch of beef stroganoff , we got into a sedimentary rock area, complete with hoodoos. The area is home to 350 different species of butterflies. The town of Ilanz styles itself the first town on the Rhine and its speciality is cabbage dumplings.
This area gets the Fern winds which dry out things and it gets more sunshine.
About 13:00 we got to Trun, which even the Saracens visited. More importantly, Emperor Frederick the Great visited three times.
We pulled into Disentes and had a ten minute break while they put on a new engine to handle the upcoming cog railway track with its steeper grades.
We were now in the area of the Gotthard Tunnel. There were 170 deaths during its construction.
We assaulted the Oberalppass of 2,033 metres. The slopes were littered with avalanche control fences. This is the home of the St Bernard rescue dogs. One famous dog named Barry rescued 40 people in his career.
A couple of our group were suffering headaches as a result of the altitude.
This was a tremendous ski area, complete with marmots.
One stretch in the Andermatt area had a grade of 18.1%. Andermatt was key to the Swiss Army’s redoubt strategy. Once the enemy had been worn down, the counter attack force could emerge from underground complexes to restore the situation. The Army has been cut by 50% and of the 200,000 only 5% are full-time professionals.
We had now moved into the source of the Rhone, which flows 1,175 kms into the Mediterranean.
In the Brigg-Moerel area is the Aletsch glacier, which Winston Churchill visited. Brigg is key to the Simplon Pass, which gives access to Italy.
At Visp we turned south to climb up the Matter valley towards the Matterhorn. Then we suddenly saw grape vines on trellises. It turns out the Swiss produce quite a bit of wine, but export less than 2% so the world knows little about Swiss wine.
The Matterhorn is the king at 4,478 metres, but in the area there are 29 other peaks at more than 2,000 metres.
We passed Taesch, which is as far as coaches are allowed to go up the valley. At the Zermatt station we transferred to electric taxis able to handle eight people. We were soon in the wonderful Sonne Hotel.
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The Travels of David Ironsides 