Switzerland

One of the great things about travelling in Europe (and especially in Switzerland) is the train travel. The trains are so easy, efficient and clean. Plus you can watch the countryside go by outside your window. My mom and I took the train up to Zermatt, the alpine village famous as being the gate to the Matterhorn. The train ride was amazing! We took a train up one side of a small valley and had incredible views the whole way. One of the highlights was seeing the "beehouses". Honeybees in Switzerland are kept in small houses as opposed to hives likes in the US. They are small buildings that look like sheds, but on the front there are individual panels (all brightly colored) that are the entrance to the hive. There is a door in the side of the building and the beekeeper goes in that entrance and works the bees from behind. It was really fascinating because it is so different that what we do. The bee houses ranged from little run down shacks to bee palaces. I will try to post some pictures soon.

In Zermatt, we again found that most of the town was shut down. It wasn't as quiet as Grindelwald, but a lot of the hotels and restaurants were closed. It was a nice town to stroll around and the history of the town is very intertwined with the Matterhorn. The church graveyard is filled with graves of people who died trying to ascend the mountain. It was really fascinating. We also went to the Matterhorn Museum. It gave a good idea of what life was like for the people who lived in the valley before tourism. Basically the valley was shut off from the rest of the world during the winter, so villagers had to be totally self-sufficient. These were hardy Alpine folk. Of course there were lots of exhibits about the mountain and the various ascents. One interesting tidbit: Teddy Roosevelt went to Zermatt for his honeymoon and climbed the Matterhorn. Who knew?

Unfortunately for us, we didn't get to see the Matterhorn. It was too cloudy and the mountain never showed itself. We could see the surrounding mountains, just not the most famous one. Our hotelier made us laugh when she said that a lot of the Japanese tourists still take a picture in that direction, whether they can see the mountain or not. We opted to not take any pictures of where a mountain should be.

The next day we had planned to hop on the Glacier Express panoramic train. Unfortunately, it was all booked, so instead we hopped on the train to Bern. It ended up being a really nice city. Bern is known for having a well perserved old town, and it is currently the capitol of Switzerland. We enjoyed strolling around the city and poking in the shops. The market was interesting and great for people watching. By far the highlight of the trip to Bern was our walk to the rose garden. The rose garden overlooks the city and has an amazing view. Plus all of the spring flowers were blooming -- wisteria, azaleas, rhododendrons. No roses yet, but the other flowers were so pretty. Plus the rose garden is a neighborhood park. We had fun watching a group of kids playing hide and seek. Another popular thing in Switzerland is the outdoor life size chess board. We saw these in many parks and public squares, and there was almost always a group of men standing around watching two guys play and giving unheeded advice. It was great to just hang out in the gardens and watch people going about their life. The even better part of the evening was when we headed to a pub. We walked from the rose garden down to the bear pits. The bear pits are famous in Bern, but alas, there are no longer in any bears in them. The last one died 2 weeks before our visit. I can't say I was sad, because I can't imagine keeping bears in the small concrete pits. Apparently the people of Bern agreed and they are in the process of developing a "bear garden" along the edge of the river near the bear pits.

It just so happened that it started to rain while we were standing there, so we ducked into a building that looked like a former train depot. It turned out to be a brewpub so we sat down and had dinner. It was probably the best meal of the whole trip! The food was amazing -- including a warm Bavarian pretzel and the BEST sweet mustard -- and the beer was awesome on top of it! It is so funny how you sometimes find the best things merely by coincidence.

The next day we hopped on the Glacier Express. Switzerland has several train routes that are known as panoramic routes. They run special panoramic cars that have larger windows and windows on the ceiling of the train car. It was really cool. The Glacier Express runs from Zermatt to St. Moritz. We hopped on in Brig and rode it to St. Mortiz -- about 7 hours. It was really incredible. We went over some high mountain passes, through lots of tunnels (91!) and over 291 bridges. We were in the first class car and there were only two other people in the car with us. They were an older brother and sister from Luzern, Switzerland who were taking the trip for the day just to do it. They were a lot of fun to talk to. Everywhere we have gone in Switzerland we have met the nicest people. Everyone seems to want to go out of their way to make sure you learn about and enjoy their country.

We ended the train journey in St. Moritz, which is a world renowned resort town. However, it was even more dead than the other mountain towns we had been in. Only a couple of hotels were open, and I think only one restaurant in town was serving food. This is in a town that is packed with hotels and restaurants. We went to bed early and headed out of town early the next day.