Didn’t sleep too well, time difference still having an effect. Left at 09:00 and got to the train station with plenty of time so went to the Paul and got some food for the trip since we’re on the move all day with little time between changes. Had a bit of a panic when the ticket wouldn’t scan but it needed the seat reservation, not the ticket. We’d bought a First Class Eurail pass which gave us 10 days of travel, but for most trains you also needed to pay for a seat reservation – one of ours was over 100 Euro. A bit of a con if you ask me.
Train was good, seats big and comfortable with power points, wifi and tables. Watched some tv on the laptop and looked at the French countryside going by.
Arrived at our first stop, Basel, had half an hour till the next train so went for a wander and looked for a coffee. There were plenty of places but none had soy milk so we left the station out onto the square to look for a Starbucks, which of course we found. Yay for globalisation.
Bought a medium soy latte for 7.40 Swiss francs, about $13 AUD, which now takes the prize for the most expensive coffee I’ve had, beating Niagara Falls (Starbucks again) into second and a cafe on the Champs Elysees into third. I won’t be complaining about Melbourne prices for a while.
Got the train ok, not very busy but it left 3 minutes late so we might miss the next connection, but I checked and the trains run to our next stop about every 30 minutes so no panic.
Luckily the trains stopped at the platform next to the ones we had to get next, so no dramas.
The scenery was typical Switzerland – rolling hills covered in trees, small towns and villages in valleys and very green. We passed a couple of lakes. The weather was overcast and foggy, which was what we expected for the time of the year. As we got deeper into Switzerland the hills became mountains and patches of snow could be seen at the top.
Changed again at Visp, only 6 minutes after the train arrived to get the next one and it seemed everyone was doing the same thing and running to get the train, but it was only one platform over and there was more than enough time.
The train had huge windows and the trip was spectacular, climbing up the mountains alongside a small river cascading over the rocks, steep granite cliffs either side, heading toward snow covered mountains. We saw quite a few houses far up the sides of the steep hills all on their own, it must be a nightmare if you run out of milk and have to go to the shops
Arrived at Tasch, one stop short of Zermatt where we will get the cable car tomorrow. The train takes 12 minutes to get from Tasch to Zermatt, but hotels in Zermatt are around $700 – 800 a night, Tasch is $250 a night – because Zermatt is close to the ski runs .
Went for a walk down the road, the town is very small, basically one main road with mostly hotels and parking garages – Zermatt doesn’t allow cars without permits, so people park in Tasch and get the train shuttle there.
It was getting cold and started to rain lightly so we headed back. The temperature is going to be -2 to 4C tonight.
Tomorrow we’re going to Zermatt and doing a cable car trip of 90 minutes, it goes through the mountains and over the border to Italy and back. The views are supposed to be amazing, but the weather isn’t looking great, cloudy and foggy.
We still had some baguettes from Paris so had them for dinner, then watched some TV (Australian GP qualifying) and went to sleep. Althought we didn’t walk much today apart from running up and down stairs between train platforms, we’re still a bit jet lagged.