draft... Switzerland with the Folkes

So my parents arrived from Australia for a 3 week holiday. They will be visiting London (obviously), Switzerland, Rome, Florence (day trip) and Paris. I joined them for the Switzerland leg of their travels (6 nights).

We flew into Geneva and caught the train to Interlaken where we would stay for the first 4 nights. As you would expect, the scenery in switzerland is amazing, particularly away from the big cities and in the middle, mountainous part of the country. The town of Interlaken is located between two lakes (hence the name) and is full of tourist shops (mostly watches and expensive restaurants).

The day after arriving we caught the train to Lucern to vist Mt Pilates. We boarded a ferry and cruised along the lake and was dropped off at a train station. This train took us all the way up to the top of the mountain (2300m) and is apparently the steepest rail in the world (48% gradient). The train is driven through a big cog wheel in the middle of it which slots into a grooved middle rail. this allows it to travel up steep inclines (normal trains would slide down the mountain). The view at the top was pretty good, though there was a bit of fog around Lucerne whah made things a bit hazy. There was no snow at the top and it was a lot warmer than expected, i wore a long sleeve shirt and didn't need my jacket.

The next mountain on our list was Jungfrau, the top of Europe. This also had a cog railway to get to the top, though the last few k's were through the mountain via a tunnel dug completed in 1912 taking 16 years. The whole complex is built inside the mountain and it was bloody cold inside. At a height of over 3900m we were well above the snow line, with amazing views of glaciers and snow covered mountains. I went for a little trek through the snow to check out another chalet/hotel/restaurant building off in the distance. After 45 mins of walking up what was practically all uphill, I reached it totally exhausted. By the end I only had a t-shirt on in minus 7 temp (the sun was quite hot though). The walk was worth it, I took some awesome snaps of the scenery which could only be seen from here.

Third mountain was the 'James Bond Mountain'. the 1967 film 'on her majesty's secret service' was filmed there. The lookout is at an altitude of about 3200m and it has the world's first rotating restaurant. It took 3 cable car lifts to reach it. Again the views were amazing, and it was a lovely clear day. Over the edge of the mountain about 100m below us we could see an eagle circling around riding the updraft and slowly rising up toward us and then above us. That was pretty cool to watch. The restaurant was actually pretty good and not too exe. Mum and Garry shared this huge Ice cream desert that was loaded with fruit and about 8 scoops of different flavoured (and tasty) ice cream. After lunch, I decided to walk from the top lookout down to the next cable car station below. The sign said it would take about 45 mins - no prob. The parts of the path that we could see all seemed pretty easy, all exposed rock. So off I went on my merry way until I stopped about 1km into it and about 200m lower in altitude than from where I started. In front of me the path was quite steep, curving around a mountain side and it was totally iced over (as it was in the shade). I watched some rather distressed locals coming the other way hanging on for dear life as they pulled themselves around and up the slippery path. I wouldn’t say you’d die if you went over the edge, but it would’ve been a very painful slide down a rock covered hill. So I pondered for about 20mins trying different routes to get past and not making much progress. Turning back meant a bloody exhausting climb. Eventually, to my luck, some experienced locals came along and showed me how to attack it. Fortunately I was wearing propper trekking shoes on with suitable soles or I would’ve had to turn back. The rest of the path was comparatively easy and I chatted with my new friends


For our last 2 days we stayed in the town of Zermatt. it’s a pretty nice looking town but nothing exceptional apart from no cars are allowed on the roads, only electric buggy things. The town is about 1600m above sea level, so it was a bit chilly at night. From here here caught a big cable Gondola up to our final mountain, the Matterhorn. On the way to the gondola (which was at the edge of the town), I saw some tourists posing for a photo holding a Toblerone bar which I thought was rather odd until I looked and saw the mountain in the background - the Matterhorn is the mountain shown on the chocolate bar!

It quite a lovely and clear day, and Gondola was full of people heading up the mountain. Some were decked out in some serious rock climbing gear, others with skis or snowboard. I discovered later that this region has all year skiing. If I had of known I would have done my best to hit the slopes if only for one day - made me look VERY forward to Christmas. So we had a wander around up the top, again spectacular views. The Matterhorn mountain itself is quite spectacular. Unlike most mountains which are surrounded by each other, it appears to be isolated giving it much more prominence.