From Lausanne the mystery tour continued, the next train went to Brig. At
this point Sue got out her Travel Guide and set out to be logical about this
and started to read about Brig and it's environs, with particular reference
to glaciers. There was how ever one problem with this, Brig lies in the Rhone
valley and this valley is famous for it's glaciers and makes up a large part
of the route of one of Switzerland's famous train journeys, The Glacier Express.
A trip from Zermatt to St Moritz which takes two days. Her confusion was first
worsened when we got off at Visp and finally cleared when we got on to the
Glacier Express for.......Zermatt.
We had booked into a hotel for one night so that she and we could see the
village and the mountain. It was our first visit too and, if you have been
following my exploits over the length of our stay you will know I'm a mountain
addict, so for me this was the realization of a dream.
Zermatt is an incredible experience, part of which we had been briefed for by friends. There are no petrol driven cars in Zermatt, all road transport is either horse drawn or electric. Indeed unless you are a resident you cannot take your car there at all. Instead all road tourists leave their cars at Träsch (pronounced Traesch) and ride in on the train. On arrival we had to phone the hotel on the courtesy phone at the station, they then sent their electric minibus to collect us. It arrived and after a short but interesting ride we checked in to the hotel (The Carina). This was a small (36 Bedroom) family run hotel. Sue got a Single room with her own bathroom, an absolute luxury for someone who lives in a religious community and we got a room with a view of the mountain. At least we would have had a view if the weather had co-operated.
