Landing in Zurich makes you realize, yes you have come now to a western city. Our flight was a non stop one. The first thing we had to do was collect our baggage. As soon as we came out of the craft we moved along with the crowd through a couple of escalators to be led to a mini train. The train whisked us along foe quite a way ( say about 5 to 6 km) and landed us at a terminal. There again we had to move up in a escalator then a mall and further down finally to reach the baggage claim area. The entire proceeding though looking complicated is done with out any confusion. Checking our baggage and clearing the immigration and customs with out much hassle we were out of the airport.
On coming out of the airport we found ourselves plonk! at the railway station. We held the Euro railway passes for movement. So just looking at the name we boarded the right train from Zurich airport itself to Zermot.The entire Switzerland has a very efficient ,sophisticated train system which goes through a long tunnels made along the Alps and the railway lines are laid till the mountain peaks. So all the traveler or the passenger has to do is to sit relax ,look at the view and with out a sweat reach any part of Switzerland including mountain peaks.Our first journey called for a long travel. We had landed in Zurich which is middle of Swiss.
Now our first halt was at Zermot the southern most corner of Switzerland very close to Italy border. Hence this amounted for a travel of about 300 kms. We were armed with the timetable and stations enroute. We had calculated the journey will take about five hrs. But as we got the fast train the GlacierExpress starting at 7.45 a.m from Zurich going at a good speed and the train was whisking through long stretches of the land. We reached Berne the capital of Switzerland and then to Visp. Enroute we saw how orderly and uniformly developed the entire country is. Everywhere you can see the mountains traveling with you. But all along there are pleasant single houses as well various factories , well laid out lying side with out any clutter.
The people are mostly anglo saxon with ruddy healthy complexion and build. Hardly very few are able to speak in English. They speak mostly German or French. Only people dealing with tourist know a little bit of English. At Visp we changed train. From then on for an hr . or so the scenery around and the pace of the train changed as we were steadily climbing. It was all along Alps and the valley of Alps, so beautiful and picturesque. It was more fantastic then any picture can convey. The weather was just perfect, sunny with long meadows amidst beautiful country side houses. Each one of them decorated with beautiful flower baskets (real ones). The flowers were in full bloom . The whole place looked as though it is made up for the visitors.
We reached Zermot around twelve noon. we fell in love with the place as soon as we landed there. It is a small township below the towering Alps mountain. The Zermot itself is at an altitude of about 10.000 ft. In that altitude & latitude the vegetation is getting increasingly sparse. En route there were lot of pine trees and pine forest. But around Zermot the mountains are almost bare and imposing giving me the familiar feel of being in Ladakh.The town is unbelievably cute, clean and perfect. Like many mountain towns it is a one street town with few by lanes. Almost the entire place is hotels. But protruding form each and every balcony are bunches and bunches of fresh flowers of different hues giving the entire place a look of a beautiful lady dressed up. The only kind of vehicles are handful of electric cars and tongos driven by healthy hefty horses. Our hotel was an equally cute one called Hotel Butterfly ( a chain of Best western hotel) - a 3 star one. , Nicely furnished with all works , a TV and a sit out facing the mountains. We were provided with a kettle in which we could make our own tea , coffee as well heat the ready to eat meals bought by us.After organising ourselves in the hotel room and then taking meals and a bit of rest we went out by 3.00 p.m to explore the place and we were in for a surprise.
Just across to our hotel on reaching the station we were told there is a 3.36 p.m train to Matterhorn one of the well known peaks of Alps. Actually we did not hold a train pass for it but on spot we decided we should make it to Matterhorn though it was not in the itinerary. It later proved to be a good decision. We bought tickets for 76 francs swapping the card as it was not provided by yatra.com people. We did get a Euro concession of 50%.The trip indeed was memorable. The train went winding through some of the steep pathways of Alps showing us a panorama of gorges and valleys down below as were inching like a lizard. The train has a middle toothed grip with which it inches forward carrying all of us carefully in the rail car. The Alps ranges and glaciers travelling along with us were real magnificent.The last station in the route is Garnergrat which took half an hr to reach from Zermot travel ling at 15 km an hr. From Garnergrat we could see all the glaciers at close quarters. people continuesly leave the train and go for trekking from diff places. The railways here is known as Garnergrat railways.It is a real Engineering marvel. It makes every one to reach the 4480 m above 14,000ft Materhorn peak in the Alps with out breaking a sweat. I felt we must do like this in the Himalayas which can help more people to appreciate the grandeur and beauty of the mountains.
We returned to Zermot back in a couple of hrs and were strolling the streets for an hr. The sunset here late only by 7.30 to 8.00 p.m. However the shops close down by 6.00 p.m to 7.00 p.m driving us back to the hotel. We had a sumptuous meal at the hotel thanks to our provisions. Heated the food packets in the kettle and had a hot dinner.
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