What would we do without Swiss Rail?
Did we mention that Caz likes train travel? Perhaps not quite an official "train buff" but she comes fairly close. So, today we really start our 'Golden Pass Panoramic' train travel through some of the most beautiful and diverse parts of Switzerland and Caz couldn't be happier. Luckily Switzerland is also home to some of the world's best chocolate, one of Georgina's passions. Both tastes catered for.
The Golden Pass is designed to take travellers through some of the most spectacular scenery that Switzerland has to offer whilst also getting you from A to B. Our first leg starts in Lucerne and takes us to Interlaken, the tourist gateway to the some of the best that the Swiss Alps has to offer. Simply spectacular. We arrived at Interlaken at midday and found our hotel with ease, dropped off our bags and headed into the town for a stretch of the legs and what has become our favourite Swiss dish for lunch - a bowl of hot, well-priced veggie soup.
Sights along the way to Interlaken
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| Each town church is quite picturesque |
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| This will be us on our next trip |
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| Hello what's this? Rain? Here we go again.... |
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| I had to get one shot in with the cow bell |
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| Coming in to Interlaken |
Interlaken
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| This area is where the paragliders & sky divers land. |
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| Interlaken streets |
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| Jungfrau view from my camera |
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| Jungfrau view on a perfect day (according to the tourist poster I took this from) |
The weather started to brighten up so we quickly got ourselves on the funicular to the Harder Kulm summit which at 1,322m overlooks Interlaken and it's two glacial lakes as well as providing phenomenal views of the "top 3": the Eiger, Mönch and the Jungfrau. Another train-like thing for Caz! We were finally spoilt with the weather and Georgina managed to get some stunning shots. We couldn't believe our luck, so much so we thought we would walk back down to Interlaken through the alpine forest, but alas the weather rolled in yet again. Maybe on the next trip to Switzerland.....
Harder Külm Summit
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| Left to right (Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau) |
But the main attraction for all three of us was the Jungfrau, the most famous summit of the Swiss Alps in this area and a bit of a Swiss icon. We were determined to make it as close to the summit as possible so day 2 at Interlaken was dedicated to doing just this. By the way, we started the morning by waking up to this view from our room:
Morning views of Interlaken...
Now we really hate to be repetitive, but the weather.... well, you can probably guess the rest. We were not going to be deterred, but Georgina thought the best option was to buy tickets for the first two of the three trains required to get to the highest viewing point which takes you to Kleine-Scheidegg, a mountain pass below the major peaks. If the weather improved by the time we got to Kleine-Scheidegg we could always buy tickets for the final leg to Jungfraujoch. The train journey itself was absolutely stunning.
Train journey from Interlaken to Kleine-Scheidegg
A very wise decision by G as we were greeted by very limited visibility at Kleine-Scheidegg due to the SNOW. Pure, soft, feathery crystals of white drifting silently down on us and crunching under our feet. As we have mention previously, Caz has never seen snow before this trip so to be able to see snow falling on the slopes of the Swiss Alps - well, it doesn't get any better really. Again, G's photos really tell the story:
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow......
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| Caz makes her first snowman |
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| Look closely - there's snow falling.... |
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| G's favourite picture of our whole trip |
Completely and utterly satisfied with what we had seen, we stuck to G's plan and headed slowly back down to Interlaken by train, taking a slightly different route back via Grindelwald. If you're ever in Interlaken.....
Kleine-Scheidegg to Grindelwald
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| Grindelwald |
Interlaken itself is a tourist Mecca and requires some patience from the individual travellers like us (notice the word "traveller" rather than "tourist"!). The buses bring tourists in all day every day and the streets are swarming with Switzerland-capped people desperate to buy the best Swiss watch, get the best happy snap of anything passing by, and grab anything red with a white cross on it. Having said that we have already decided that this is the place we would have to come back to and spend some real time here - the alpine walks alone look fantastic.
The next day Georgina woke to another great view for her birthday. Quite lucky really because Caz didn't quite manage to get her an actual present! (G comment - I did get a card though so all is not lost)
It's also our final Golden Pass train travel day as we head to Montreux on Lake Geneva. We actually travel along 2 lines today and cover and amazing diversity of landscapes and waterways.
Interlaken to Montreux
We arrived at Montreux to be greeted by rain, rain and then some rain - welcome to the Swiss Riviera. Even the hotel staff apologised for the weather! All we really wanted to do here was relax and enjoy G's birthday so Caron had sneakily contacted the hotel and arranged for our room to be upgraded to Lake-side with a balcony. Fantastic. When we finally got to the room later in the afternoon Georgina had her second surprise of the day - a bottle of French champagne on ice with a note from Mike and Rod, Caz's brother and his partner, wishing her a very happy birthday. Just brilliant. So the only thing left to do on a rainy day in Montreux is to run a bubble bath, put the comfies on and settle in to a gourmet platter of cheese and fruit provided by Caz, a bottle of lovely bubbles and music from home playing in the background. Happy Birthday to Georgina......
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| View from our lakeside room |
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| G's b'day bubbles :) |
On the move again the next day and this time to Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn.
Wait till you read that blog!!!.....