2005 Switzerland

Although when Gina and I travel we always go carry on, we decided to try something new this trip and go ultra-light... like just what we could carry on our backs. What made this a bit tricky is the standby travel rules require "casual business" attire in order to get in first class. That meant my size 12 hiking boots had to go in the backpack... they took up half my packing space! Gina definitely had the packing advantage.

After pretty much giving up on there being room on the lone Delta US to Zurich flight, they called our names at the last minute and we were on our way. About 9 hours later we were in Zurich. *** The Swiss rail system is outstanding by all accounts except for making it easy to figure out the cheapest way to get from point A to B to C to D over the period of several days. I spent a lot of time before the trip trying all the various combinations of unlimited travel passes, 1/2 fare passes, and other pass types and it ultimately seemed to work out about the same cost so we bought a 4 day "flexi saver pass" which could be used for any 4 days in an 8 day period. Fortunately the train rides are incredibly scenic which made the $400 cost easier to swallow.

Zurich is about 4 1/2 hours from Zermatt, where we would be staying for the first part of the trip. Since we would be going through Bern, the capital city, we spent the day there (hard to fall asleep from jet lag while walking around a city).

It was about 11:30 when we arrived so we set off to find food. Now I'm not the most adventurous guy for playing the "pick the most interesting sounding German word on the menu" game but at least I did get my lunch from a cafe that had German sandwich names displayed. Still not sure what the odd white sauce on my sandwich was but it tasted pretty good. Gina caved though and headed for more familiar territory. *** This was also our first food sticker shock. I attributed it to being in a food court in the Bern train station but it turns out Switzerland is one pricey country to eat in... we are talking $10 minimum for a mini-size McMeal. Thankfully they don't throw two handfuls of McKetchup packs in the bag like in the states as those add about $.50 each. McKaching.

Why are all German street names a minimum of 20 characters? I have a real problem trying to keep them straight because after about 15 characters I give up trying to phonetically pronounce and memorize them. Where is Ryan when you need him and those two years of German he has under his belt.

Now we find out we could have brought Kip with us (yeah that would have been real fun).

The Bern Parliament building.

Einstein did most of his famous work while living in Bern working as a patent office clerk and this is the 100 year anniversary of when he wrote some of his most famous articles. So of course there was no shortage of Einstein hats, candy, etc.

The house he lived in is now a small museum. It was pretty neat standing in the same place he lived while doing this work.

This clock tower was built between 1191 and 1250. At each hour (actually 4 minutes before the hour) the various figurines begin a show that lasts several minutes.

Part of the ornate decorations on the cathedral. Construction started in 1421 and continued until 1573. The 328 ft high bell tower was not completed until 1893.

A narrow alley way that had interesting lighting and shadows.

The Aare river. No the white balance is not off in this shot... the water really is a deep turquoise color.

We watched a short movie about Bern that talked about the infamous bear pits but we were so tired I think we were half (or more) asleep :( As I recall, the brown bear is the mascot of the city or something like that. This is one of several "bear pits" where some very large brown bears spend their days opening their mouths as tourists toss carrots down into the pits.

Those small ripples in the water just in front of the bridge are some swimmers drifting downstream with the very fast current.

After walking around Bern for 4 hours in the warm sun we took the Bern Mobile back to the train station to retrieve our backpacks and head on to Zermatt.

Zermatt is about a 3 1/2 hour train ride from Bern. I feared it was going to be really hard to stay awake at this point in the day, especially after walking all afternoon but the scenery was so incredible that we had no problem.

Lake Thun

Parasailing near Thun

Note the abrupt tree line.

As I recall, this was nearing Brig where we would switch to a narrow gauge train for the trip into Zermatt.

Starting to get into the bigger mountains now...

Zermatt is a "car free" town so anyone driving to Zermatt has to park here and take a train for the last 15 minutes or so. The lack of traffic sounds was not noticeable at all when we arrived but after leaving Zermatt it was surprising how noisy cars were. *** We finally arrived in Zermatt about 8:30... 26 hours after leaving home (including the time spent in Bern). After having a second dose of "there is no cheap way to eat in Switzerland" we crashed for the night.

Our home for the next 4 nights would be a coworker's apartment that sits up on the side of the Zermatt valley. We had a great view from the balcony. What was a bit of a surprise was the telephone booth / aka shower stall that sits square in the middle of apartment. *** Thanks again Brian for letting us stay at your place ;-)

First thing we did was pick up a 3 day pass so we could ride the mountain trains without worrying about buying point to point tickets. You get a photo pass that you just wave in front of a sensor on the turnstiles... pretty neat. *** On our first day in Zermatt we decided to go up to Gornergrat which is at 10132 ft and a 45 minute train ride from Zermatt which is at 5262 ft.

Brian's apartment as seen from the Gornergrat train on the other side of the valley (significantly zoomed in here).

Zermatt is all about the Matterhorn - probably one of the most famous mountains in the world. Even people that don't know its name recognize it as one of the classic "alps pictures". I purchased a new carryon bag a few weeks before our trip that was made in Switzerland. The Matterhorn was on the side of the box. *** Even though I had seen it many times before in pictures, especially in preparation for this trip, seeing it first hand was still really amazing. From the summit (which we obviously did not climb to) you can see 33 peaks over 4000 meters/13120 ft.

The train up to Gornergrat starts off by going through the heavily forested valley walls just above Zermatt. It then opens up as the elevation increases and has many sweeping vistas of the surrounding mountains and Zermatt valley. We wound up going up 3 different times as it was a nice relaxing scenic trip after a long day. The terrain is so steep that the train uses a cog railway where a gear beneath the locomotive engages with a toothed rack between the tracks. According to the Michelin green guide this is the highest open-air railway in Europe.

This gives an idea of the slope the train goes up.

One of many great Matterhorn views on the trip.

Looking back towards Zermatt which is nestled down in the valley just out of sight (the gray path is the train track we came up).

The view from Riffelberg, the second of two stops where there are mountain hotels located. Riffelberg also has a small church as seen here.

This is the long ridge of the Breithorn and the "Zwillinge" ("twins") of Pollux and Castor with I believe the very tip of Klein Matterhorn (which we would be on top of the next day) visible poking above the ridge on the right.

One of the many summertime activities here is renting scooters with oversized knobby tires that you take up into the mountains and then ride back down to Zermatt.

Fantastic view from the top of the Gornergrat glacier. There are some later pictures that give a better sense of size to this. One thing I really wish we would have had time to do is hike out to Monte Rosa hut. You actually walk across the glacier (using carefully marked out "safe paths"). The Monte Rosa hut is on the bluff just to the right of the little emerald lake. Monte Rosa itself (Alps 3rd highest at ~4634m (15,203 ft) is just behind. To the right is the scary North face of the Liskamm, also one of the highest in the Alps at 4527m (14,852 ft).

Fantastic view from the top of the Gornergrat glacier. There are some later pictures that give a better sense of size to this. One thing I really wish we would have had time to do is hike out to Monte Rosa hut. You actually walk across the glacier (using carefully marked out "safe paths"). The Monte Rosa hut is on the bluff just to the right of the little emerald lake. Monte Rosa itself (Alps 2nd or 3rd highest at ~4634m (15,203 ft) is just behind. To the right is the scary North face of the Liskamm, also one of the highest in the Alps.