An Afternoon on Tyneside

Lincoln Cathedral, one of the symbols of the
cities served by LNER, appears on the cans of
Hop On Board ale served on the trains!

By Train to Newcastle Upon Tyne,

in First Class with LNER

I needed to buy a new cassock, the long dress-like garment that Church of England clergy wear. I have always worn black and my old robes are wearing rather thin, but although I estimated that they might see out my active ministry, I had recently been appointed as a non-residentiary Canon of Lincoln Cathedral and the cathedral Canons traditionally wear a shade of blue, as do the Choir and the Vergers, so this was my opportunity to replace my old black cassock with a new blue one. It would be nice not to have holes in the pockets and fraying button-holes for the rest of my ministry!

The cathedral provides the fabric, and the new Canon pays for the cassock to be made, and although I could go to a number of clerical outfitters, there is one, J&M Sewing, which keeps a stock of the blue fabric in order to make the choir robes, so it is simpler to go there for clergy robes as well. The snag is that it is in Newcastle Upon Tyne, a great city but a long way from anywhere else! I needed to act fairly quickly as my installation at the cathedral was only a few weeks away and I knew it would take a while to have my cassock made, so I did not book train tickets ages in advance but went for the least expensive I could reasonably find on the next day when I had enough time to spare, having arranged to visit J&M Sewing at noon on the appointed day. It was a long time since I had been north by rail, and I decided to travel First Class in order to enjoy a leisurely meal on the train home rather than the rushed affair involved in travelling the short hop to and from London. Given Cross Country Trains' tendency still to cancel our local trains at a moment's notice, I decided on this occasion to drive to Peterborough and start the train journey there. Cold weather, and some snow, was anticipated so I knew there was some risk to timekeeping whether by rail or by road. Although the cost of parking at Peterborough station is many times more expensive than the rail fare from and to Stamford, it is still less than the taxi would have cost in the event of a train cancellation, and I wanted to avoid hanging around Peterborough station for an extended period in the cold.

My wife travelled with me (for company, but also to ensure that I ordered something sensible!), and we travelled north on the 09:48 departure from Peterborough, one of the services that stops only twice, at York and Darlington, on the way to Newcastle, taking just a touch over two hours so that we would arrive just neatly in time for my noon appointment - the premises of the company being a short walk from Newcastle Central station. We were served coffee on the train and I resumed my breakfast with one of LNER's delicious bacon rolls, and we each had a yogurt. These refreshments are all within the ticket price. Here and there on the way we saw traces of fallen snow, but the weather in Newcastle when we arrived there was sunny and, for early March, quite warm: the cold and snowy weather we had left behind at home, and it was at its coldest and wintriest in London and the south-east: one does not often go to the north-east for the warm, sunny weather, but we had done well that day.

After choosing the wool/terylene mix over the pure wool, and being measured and choosing my options and placing the order (14 weeks expected delivery, so I would not in any case have it for my installation), we walked into the shopping streets of the city centre to find some lunch and to buy some black jeans to replace my worn-out ones (not all my clothes are wearing out at once, just these two items!). We found both at John Lewis - although I could not help wondering if a large lunch was the thing before dinner on the train ... 

Although we have stopped drinking alcohol on weekdays in Lent, we broke our Lenten fast this day because it was the feast day of Edward King, Bishop, a very important feast day in the diocese of Lincoln, and how appropriate it was that I had ordered my Lincoln blue cassock on such a great day! So it was wine with lunch: I'd have to go easy at dinner, feast or no feast, because I'd be driving home from Peterborough station.

We had a short walk around the city centre, gradually making our way back to Newcastle Central station, where we waited in the First Class lounge for the 16:26 train back to Peterborough. This train had been chosen for the affordability of its First Class Advance tickets rather than anything else, and was slower than the one on which we had come north, stopping at quite a few more stations on the way. One of the advantages of First Class which is not often considered is that there is a lot less disturbance at intermediate stations, for several reasons: there are fewer people in the carriage overall, and most people are travelling longer distances (since most of us will be happy with Standard Class on short trips); there is more space in which to move and wider aisles so it is easier to pass people. The catering staff in First Class are kept busy even so, keeping track of who has been served, though, as people get on and off!

In due course we were offered our meal, from the intermediate "Dish" menu, and I chose a vegetable curry which went well with a can of Hop On Board ale. This was plenty, given the early hour and the large Caesar Salad I'd had for lunch! The crisps and biscuits went home for later ... Taking the first opportunity to eat meant that the ale would be safe to drink, being well before I would have to drive.

The Hop On Board can carries pictograms of famous landmarks on LNER's routes, including Lincoln Cathedral, which was nice in the circumstances! 

Arriving on time in Peterborough we encountered a wintry shower and met someone we knew from Stamford who was looking for a lift home because the next train, which had been late, had just been cancelled owing to a fault, so we squeezed him in our car (which had the grandchildren's child seats in it!) while I cleared the snow off the car ready to drive home, carefully, though the snow. We were glad that we had brought the car, much as I love walking home from the station across the meadows at Stamford, but the idea of waiting over an hour for a train at a cold and snowy Peterborough and then walking home through the snow did not have quite the normal appeal. The walk in the snow would have been OK if the scheduled train had been running, but it turned out that we were right not to trust them. We dropped our acquaintance at his home and drove home to ours. Job done. Now I wait for my new robe to arrive, and soon, a visit to Lincoln for my installation ceremony!

Thinking about the trip, it has occurred to me that starting earlier and finishing later it would be quite feasible to arrange a day trip to Newcastle to enjoy some of what the city has to offer. Keep a look out for it on my "Come with me" page as soon as travel becomes more reliable!

I’ve Been Expecting You, Mr Bond

Alpine horn for the tourists at Schilthorn: cut-out of James
Bond disguised as Sir Hilary Bray lurks behind!

A week by train in the Bernese Oberland

Ever since our first visit to the Alps five years ago we have wanted to return to visit some places we had not then had time to see. I had begun to think about spending a week at, say, Interlaken, which would enable us to trip out to The Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch plus any other places that might come to mind, and when I opened my latest Great Rail Journeys catalogue I saw the Inclusive Jungfrau tour which provided all that we needed and more, with seven nights in Grindelwald (and, bonus, a night in Colmar on the way there, a place we had wanted to revisit after a short stop there on a previous trip). A visit to Jungfraujoch was included, as well as visits to Röthorn and Schynige Platte, and there were two free days on one of which we could arrange to visit Schilthorn, so we simply booked the Great Rail Journeys package, with a night in London before departure, and waited for the date to come!

It was an early start from London St Pancras International so we did not have breakfast at our hotel but went straight to meet our tour manager Stephen at the Great Rail Journeys office at the station. Once through check-in we had coffee while we waited for our train to Paris, and then enjoyed the light breakfast served on the train (as usual we were travelling Standard Premier Class, with a light meal included). There was supposed to be a coach transfer from Paris Nord to Paris Est but it was a tight connection and an easy walk so Stephen decided it would be quicker simply to walk between the stations rather than find the coach, load the luggage, struggle through traffic and unload the luggage again, so we had a little exercise between stations in Paris before continuing by TGV to Colmar.

At Colmar the weather was almost as hot and sunny as on our previous visit, but we had both the evening and the following morning to enjoy this delightful little city, well worth seeing. And I am pleased to say that the Grand Hotel Bristol, conveniently opposite the station, was much improved on our previous visit.

We left Colmar earlier than planned so as to travel on a TGV straight through to Basel where we changed trains for Interlaken. Because we had started early we had a couple of hours at Basel and as well as enjoying coffee under the trees at a pleasant pavement café also had a walk though the city centre to a river bridge, a bakery supplying our needs for lunch.

From Basel we took a train through to Interlaken where we connected to a mountain railway train to Grindelwald, at the foot of the Eiger. We stayed with the rest of the group (forty including the manager, the biggest group with which we’d ever travelled) at the Romantik Hotel Schweizerhof, and I would recommend it to anyone. Our room was huge and stylish, reminiscent of a James Bond film set! We had a view of the Eiger through our patio window, a walk-in wardrobe, double bath (!) and separate shower and a control panel for lighting and window shutter that took a few minutes to learn! We were going to be there for a week so we unpacked and made ourselves at home.

Unlike any previous Great Rail Journeys tour we had done, we were supplied with a packed lunch each day by the hotel, so days out did not have to include a search for lunch; and after dinner, sleep and breakfast we picked up our little paper carrier bags and made our way through the village centre to the cable car station for first exciting excursion, to Grindelwald First. For me this was a bit of a test run: the planned trip to Schilthorn would involve several cable cars, many of them very high above the ground and very long, so this little trip to First would reveal how comfortable I would be with cable car travel. Fortunately it was fine, although in terms of the experience itself it was disappointing that there was dense fog - or cloud if you prefer - nearly all the way up. There was not a lot to see from the peak, either, but we did do the Cliff Walk around it even though the scenery was nowhere to be seen, and we enjoyed coffee before travelling back down to the village, eating our lunch in the cable car on the way. In the afternoon we discovered the local church and the local museum and browsed around these. Dinner at the hotel and bed, ready for the first Big Day tomorrow!

Approaching Schilthorn by cable car

"Tomorrow" was Day 4, Friday, the first of two free days, and we had planned that if the weather was suitable we would visit Schilthorn, one of the highest peaks in the region and from which great views could be had (in suitable weather) and which appeared as "Piz Gloria" in the James Bond film, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." After taking invaluable advice from our Tour Manager we set off for Grindelwald station and bought our travel tickets for the day, out via Kleine Scheidegg and Stechelberg and return via Mürren and the short route via Zweilütschinen. All we needed was three tickets, all of which we were able to buy at the station using our half-fare passes supplied as part of our holiday package.

The view from the terrace

We set off on the next train to Kleine Scheidegg and changed trains there for Lauterbrunnen. We had been this way five years ago in winter and it was interesting to see it in June: not much different, really! Once we had climbed out of the valley from Grindelwald there was still plenty of snow until we descended the other side through Wengen to Lauterbrunnen, where we caught the connecting bus to the cable car terminal at Stechelberg. Here we started the long climb to Schilthorn. There were three changes of cable car on the way and each time we just had a few minutes walk, with a huge crowd of other people, and then continued onto the next stage. One change was at Mürren where would be leaving the cable car on our way back. The views on the climb were great, but nothing compared with what awaited us at the top. From Schilthorn it seemed that we could see most of Switzerland! We could certainly see the Jura mountains in the northwest (which we had visited twice on other occasions), and Mont Blanc in France to the southwest, and the huge stretch of the midlands plain looking north and east. The great bulk of the Eiger and Jungfrau hid the southeast from our view. It was said that you could see the Matterhorn from here but that did elude me. It was a very slightly misty day, but not far from perfect for the panoramic view.

Looking down on the 007 walk of discovery - a bit
snowbound for us

We ventured into the revolving restaurant which had been the set for Blofeld's base in the film, but we did not eat there, having our packed lunch from the hotel. Beneath was a number of 007-related displays which we visited but which were not the reason for our visit - although without the finance from the film the restaurant might never have been completed and the cable cars would not have survived so we would never have been able to visit at all! I am a bit of a fan of the film, actually, as it is one of those which fairly closely follows the book (apart from having Bond drive an Aston Martin instead of his Bentley).

Going back down we were bogged down in the crowds and twice had to wait half-an-hour for cable cars, but this cannot be helped if we visit a popular place on one of the the few days with good weather! We left the cable car at Mürren and walked through this cliff-top village to the rail station at the other end. On the way we visited a gift shop where we bought our souvenir (a gift for ourselves!) for the holiday, a fondue set - quite reasonable prices, unusual for Swiss resorts. We boarded the train and travelled to the other end of the line at Grutschalp where a waiting cable car took us down the cliff to Lauterbrunnen. From there we returned to Grindelwald by the shortest rail route for a shower, change of clothes and dinner with the rest of the group. I was hailed by one of the men, "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond:" four of the group had been behind us in the cable car queue on the way down, but we had not spotted them!

The train stops at a viewpoint on its way up
through the Eiger

On the Saturday was the inclusive trip to Jungfraujoch on the famous Jungfrau railway which actually climbs up through the Mönch and (the north face of!) the Eiger, to the highest railway station in Europe. Again there were lots of people (and we actually met a young couple who had been beside us in a cable-car queue the day before!) but this time we had group reservations on the trains so there was no problem with travel. We began with the train to Kleine Scheidegg again and this time crossed to the Jungfraujoch platform to the dedicated group travel area from where we were escorted to our carriage. Only the first part of the journey is in the open air, and all of it climbs steeply; soon were we in the tunnel and then the train stopped at an intermediate station for five minutes, the sole purpose of which was for us all to leave the train and look out through windows cut into the rock of the mountainside. (If you look at the north face when the sun is low and shining in an appropriate direction you can see the light glinting off these windows).

The view from the terrace of the
High Alpine Research Station

Back on the train we climbed up to the underground station at the "Top of Europe" and made our way through the pedestrian tunnels into a large sunlit space with a gift shop, coffee bar and the start of a suggested tour through all that the Jungfraujoch had to offer. Unfortunately a panorama viewpoint was closed for improvement work (indeed the station was full of contractor's plant as well, so we did not have the best introduction as we left our train, but there is not much space up there!). There were active things to do outside, but for me the main point was the view across Switzerland once again. We tried to see the Schilthorn where we had been the previous day, but cloud kept intervening and we never did see it. The view down over the Aletsch Glacier, still covered in snow, was breathtaking.

Aletsch Glacier

Speaking of which, we had to move slowly and carefully at these altitudes with thin air! No rushing about possible. There was an "ice palace" with sculptures made of ice - incredibly difficult to photograph - and much else to occupy our time until it was time to gather and make our way slowly to our train back down. Only in Switzerland have I ever experienced altitude ear-popping on a slow train!

From Kleine Scheidegg we went back to Grindelwald and dinner. Day 5 had come to an end, and with it the sunny weather. The rest of our time was to be murky and damp, but still exciting and rewarding.

The locomotives on the Brienz-Rothorn line are angled to
keep their boilers horizontal on the steep gradient

Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost and was a public holiday along with the Monday after it, but the tourist attractions were still open, although many shops were closed. Yet another mountain ascent awaited us, although this time the train itself was part of the attraction, for it was steam-powered and climber steeply up from its terminus opposite the main station at Brienz to the top of the Rothorn. We had to travel to Brienz via a change of train at Interlaken, following the coast of Lake Brienz. After a short wait we took our reserved seats on the Brienz-Rothorn train and were pushed up the steep gradient by a powerful little locomotive that made a great deal of noise with each exhaust blast. I had experienced nothing quite like it in all my years of train travel (going back to the days when steam trains were normal).

Again we climbed up to where there was still snow. The snow was staying longer this year than usual and many normally-open walking routes were still closed - this is June - and some mountain railways only started operation this week. From the peak we could look down on the line and see other little trains making this way up and down. It was cold and damp and many of us went down on an earlier train than the one booked because walking was limited and the views restricted by the mist and rain.

We were among the "advance party" on an early train back and so had an hour to spare in Brienz, where we walked along the promenade on the lakeside, then up through the town and past the shops - grateful that it was a Sunday and we could not spend any money! Amazingly both the greengrocer and a hardware shop had wares on display outside with no worry about theft. This is an amazingly honest part of the world. The town was preparing for a yodelling festival, but we would be long gone before it began.

The day out ended with a cruise along Lake Brienz from the mooring by the rail station in the town where we met those who had stayed the course at the mountain-top. Our Tour Manager had been given a free upgrade to First Class for us all on the lake steamer, and so we sat on the upper deck (under cover!) and enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine - pushing the boat out, as they say, at Swiss prices - as we travelled in style back to Interlaken Ost for the train home to Grindelwald. It had been a really great day out in spite of the cold and rain at the mountain-top. I would not have wanted to miss the train ride up there nor the views when we could see them, and it was not so cold or wet down by the lake.

The train at its mountain terminus

 On the Monday came our last mountain railway of the holiday. I don't think I've ever travelled on so many, or such odd, railways in one holiday before. We began by travelling towards Interlaken again but this time leaving the train at Wilderswil, just outside Interlaken, to take the mountain railway to Schynige Platte. Like the train to Rothorn, this one had trains of just two coaches pushed up the hill by a locomotive in the rear, but this time they were electric locomotives and considerably quieter. They were antiques nonetheless and the ride was amazing.

The Alpine Garden

Schynige Platte is worth visiting for itself, as well as for the views from the top. We could only see well for the first ten minutes after leaving the train, and this was the first time I had been able to study the territory in which we had been staying for a week and which I had visited five year before on a day trip. We could see the valleys of the two branches of the river which come together at Zweilütschinen, each with a high cliff along each side. On the high plain between them sat Kleine Scheidegg and Manlichen and on the west clifftop was Mürren; beyond the cliffs on either side and in the distance beyond the plain were the enormous mountains that surround the whole Jungfrau region which we had been exploring on this fantastic holiday.

Looking back up the valley

There are many walks available from the station around the mountain top, but again with little to see and a cold rain we decided not to wander far and spent our time looking at the Alpine Garden and its little exhibition before going back down on an earlier train and then travelling back to Grindelwald the long way round via Lauterbrunnen and Kleine Scheidegg, back in time for dinner. It was so misty that at Kleine Scheidegg as we changed trains we could not see the Eiger!

A Neuchâtelois farmhouse at Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg

The next day, Tuesday, was our last complete day in Switzerland and was a free day. We had no agenda for the day when we set off from England, but while in Brienz we had found out about an open-air museum not far away at Ballenberg which had a collection of about a hundred historic buildings re-erected there from various parts of the country when their removal was required. The two areas we are most interested in, Neuchâtel and and Graubünden Cantons, were not well represented, but it still sounded like and interesting place to visit and so in the morning we set off once more for Grindelwald station. Again, they were able to sell us tickets for the whole day, including vouchers for entry to the museum at a reduced price for train travellers; the travel tickets included the bus from Brienz to Ballenberg and back and well as the train to Brienz via the change at Interlaken Ost. It is all so much simpler in Switzerland than at home: even though a variety of public and private bodies provide the transport it operates as one system so changing to bus or cable car is exactly like changing trains, with through tickets available.

Although a free day, the hotel still provided the packed lunch again and we ate ours during our time at the museum, which was like a long country walk punctuated by visiting the old buildings, some of which were just as they had come, some restored extensively, and some re-purposed to display artefacts or bygone ways of life, crafts etc.. The rain came and went, but we had a great day before taking the bus back to Brienz then the trains "home" in time to shower and change before our last dinner at the hotel. Back to our splendid room to pack ready for the morning's (fairly) early start, for we were returning to London in one day.

International trains at Paris Nord

LNER "Azuma" at London Kings Cross

The trip back via Paris went well apart from a twenty-minute delay to our Eurostar to London: it came in late and left late, and the carriage numbers were wrong, too, so staff had to redirect us to the right part of the train - chaos but once aboard it was a good trip with the usual light meal. We had booked a hotel room in London for the night just in case we were late and could not get the last train to connect for Stamford at Peterborough, but on reflection it would have been cheaper to take a taxi from Peterborough than to stay overnight in London! However, staying did mean that we had an opportunity to visit family in London for a good part of the day before travelling home at our own convenience, having the flexible tickets which Great Rail Journeys had provided for us. Icing on the cake was that our train to Peterborough was one of LNER's new class 800 "Azuma" sets which it was nice to try; our first class 800 ride.

Summer Alpine Adventure 5: Sunshine and Rain

When I began writing up this tour, I expected it to need three episodes to take all that we had packed into the eleven days without (a) taking an age to write before I publish the first bit and (b) boring my readers, and myself. However, it was so action-packed that one of the other customers on the tour asked the tour manager on about the third day, "Do we get a holiday at some point?" and so after four episodes I find myself writing a fifth. I really must get on with this, because I've since been on another holiday - a rather interesting one which I am raring to write up - and a day out which is worth a few words.

So, where was I? Yes, the day trip to Italy! A reasonably early start was required from Zermatt because before we could go anywhere else we had to travel back down the valley to the main line at Brig. Here we had a few minutes to spare before our international main-line train to Domodossala and we had a little wander around this place where we had stayed for three nights on our last visit to the Swiss Alps. Little had changed and it was great to see it all again. Our train was a regional one, nothing very special, and although we were in First Class accommodation it was fairly spartan and not air-conditioned, although the windows did open very wide. Off we set and before long were in the Simplon Tunnel on our way to Italy. The train was signal-checked in the tunnel, tantalisingly close to the end but very dark and very hot, but eventually we were on our way. This is still mountain territory and although we were on a standard-gauge main line there was still a spiral tunnel, although you do not really notice it; so many tunnels and this is just another one. We arrived in a baking hot Domodossala and made our way to the bus station across the road where a coach waited to take the whole party to Stresa on the western shore of Lake Maggiore. I had been disappointed that we had to take road transport on this trip but it was a very smooth and comfortable coach and got us to Stresa reasonably quickly, and straight to the quayside for the boats to the various islands on the lake.

The brochure had described the boat trip as a "cruise" but in truth this was large motor boat providing a fast ferry to Isola Piscatore, a small island consisting almost entirely of restaurants, clearly intended for foreign visitors at mealtimes, just like us. We had brought a packed lunch, however, bought from a bakery at Brig station during the train change, and sat eating it watching the boats on the lake. It was warm hot and sunny and an almost idyllic place to sit.  We set off on a walk around the island (a few moments), visited the church and the market stalls along the lake shore (carefully watching our bags and pockets) and met the rest of the tour for the ferry back to Stresa. Some of the party had used the restaurants for a rather more substantial lunch than ours and perhaps when presented with a wide selection of Italian restaurants that is a reasonable course of action, but we prefer not to have too many huge meals per day. We'd had a great day out, but it was the one thing on the trip that looked like a mass-produced experience: it stood out amidst the very high standard of the rest of the tour.


Back in Stresa we had an hour or so before the coach back to our return train and we enjoyed a walk around the town and bought some souvenirs to take home for friends and family, and, of course, an Italian ice-cream!

At Domodossola station we boarded the train to find our empty takeaway cups exactly as we had left them on the tables when we arrived that morning: not only had the train patently not been cleaned (not a big deal: it had only been a short trip), but had not been used by anyone else either. It must have stood there, in the heat, at the platform, all day! We were soon back in Brig and on our metre-gauge cog-railway train back to Zermatt, and an evening meal in the comfort of our wonderful hotel.

The following day was a free day and we had been planning to go back to Domodossala to take the Centovalli railway across to Locarno on the north-east shore of Lake Maggiore. We had done it before in poor weather and wanted to see it in sunshine. A day like the one we had just enjoyed at Stresa would be really great, and Locarno would be in holiday season with everything open and available to enjoy. The weather forecast was not wonderful but we went to bed hoping that all would turn out well ... but no, the forecast in the morning was no better and the day was already murky. Given that even with our half-fare cards it was quite an expensive trip and that the visibility may be little or no better than last time, we decided not to go to Locarno and spend the day exploring on foot around Zermatt instead.

We walked out past the cable-car terminals which were taking some tourists high up into the mountains: one route went to a ski resort where it was possible to ski even in summer, and another went over the border to Italy. These cable-car routes work just like bus or tram routes and there are interchange points up in the hills where it is possible to change cars for other destinations. We were not tempted to pay the fares and see the world from even higher, but it was fascinating watching the cars coming and going as we walked along the roads and footpaths were the village was being expanded and more and more homes were being built. The road on which we eventually found ourselves walking uphill is a toboggan run in winter and a road when passable! Lower than that was a route for the electric bus service to and from Zermatt village centre.

After a good walk we repaired to a bar-restaurant for a drink (hotel breakfast - minimal requirement for lunch!) and sat outside in the sun looking across at the Matterhorn. From our table we could see the trains of the Gornergratbahn making their way up and down the mountain, crossing the valley in which we sat. Mental note made that this looks a great place to eat, too, and TripAdvisor seems to agree. We were just leaving, having decided our route back into town, when we felt a few spots of rain. The a few more and a heavy

shower began. There was a bus stop with a timetable, I checked and a bus was due, then I realised that the crowd standing across the road in the church porch was the bus queue! We joined it and boarded the bus. I paid the fare, forgetting in my haste and relief that we were entitled to travel free with our pass. Never mind, it was not expensive and it was dry. And an experience to travel on one of Zermatt's little electric buses! By the time we were back at our hotel a few moments later the rain had stopped and the sun was shining again ... and we were still wet! We spent the rest of the afternoon, as planned but maybe not quite so soon, in the hotel swimming pool, which was excellent, and ate our picnic "dinner" on our balcony, preparing to leave Zermatt the following day, when rather better weather was forecast.

Departure for the next stage of the tour was rather more leisurely than we had been accustomed to. There was no rush and we were able to pack at our leisure and make our way down to the station. Before then, however, there was the spectacle of the Corpus Christi procession which passed the entrance gates to the hotel. I thought how little my own parish would be noticing this important festival (although there would be a service in church) compared with the way that Zermatt people could not miss it! Almost all of us on the trip went down to watch the procession.

Our cog train took us back down the valley for the last time and we changed trains at Visp, buying provisions at the station, and bought the main line train for Basle where changed to a local stopping service into France for an overnight stop at Colmar.

Colmar is a beautiful town which looks more German than French and is well worth a visit. It was very hot when we stayed there and we were grateful for our hotel room's air conditioning. We had time to explore the town both on the evening of our arrival and briefly on the morning before we left.







Our train from Colmar was a little late, and we had one simple change of train at Strasbourg to catch the TGV for Lille were we changed for the Eurostar to London and thence home. It was the first time we had caught the Eurostar from Lille and we did have a little time to explore. Again, Lille is a place worth visiting and one day we must programme a little time there into one of our own European tours.

Climbing the Swiss Alps - part 3: Mountains and Valleys

There were several suggestions for the free Saturday and we had decided to wait and see what (a) the weather and (b) fatigue might help us choose. The weather was fine and sunny and we felt fine so we took another trip into the mountains to the famous resorts of Klosters and Davos: we took our provisions with us but kept an open mind about eating out for lunch if we saw a suitable restaurant. Again, we left Chur on a metre-gauge train which travelled slowly through the suburbs before climbing, at first slowly but later much more steeply, into the Alps: these narrow-gauge trains are much more able to take the tight curves needed to climb the hills than a standard-gauge train would be able to do. All are electric and many Swiss lines always have been, plentiful cheap hydroelectric power being widely available here, and railway-building having started relatively late. As the valley is left behind the trees grow more dense and the snow becomes more and more of a feature until we are again in entirely snow-covered landscape. There had obviously been overnight snow and the snow-ploughs, snow-blowers and brooms and shovels were hard at work clearing it away while the sun was beginning a slow thaw in places it could reach.

We left the first train at Klosters. The train was going on through the lengthy Vereina Tunnel to Tirano in Italy. We went for a stroll through Klosters: no sign of any British princes but we did bump into another member of our group who sensibly warned us not to stand under any trees as they were thawing nicely and dropping their snow in great lumps, although the temperature in the town was still a degree or so below freezing. Little attempt is made by the Swiss authorities to clear the roads and pavements of snow, reliance rather being placed on individuals to cope properly with the ice and snow. With our ice-grips on our boots we could walk quite normally on pavements covered in pack-ice and we had a very pleasant walk around Klosters before taking our next train on to Davos.

Davos was a much bigger place even higher in the mountains and from the town several cable cars, ski lifts and funicular railways took people up the surrounding mountains to ski or snowboard back down. We looked for the funicular to Schatzalp recommended by our tour manager, bought our tickets and rode up the mountain. At the top of the funicular railway was a huge hotel and a timber-built restaurant overlooking the valley with the town far below and mountain-peaks far above on the opposite side.




Those going up to ski could ride up further by ski-lift but we went to the restaurant for a delicious meal to a local recipe, a variation on the traditional rosti with cheese and ham – full of fat and calories but this altitude and these temperatures some sustenance is needed! Back down from Schatzalp we looked around the shops in Davos and returned to the station to catch a train down to Filisur and so home to Chur.






This time the weather between Filisur and Chur on the Albula Line was much sunnier and I was able to photograph some sights I had missed the evening before.

When we arrived back at Chur we had an evening stroll around the city – the oldest in Switzerland, apparently, and spent the rest of the evening in our room writing this article (!) and packing for the morning. In the morning our main cases were to be out for the porters by 7.30am for transporting to the station while we had our breakfast. By now all that was in the the cases was clothes for laundering, plus the winter boots we'd no longer be needing, for in the morning we were to leave Switzerland.

After breakfast on Sunday we all checked out and met at the agreed place to board the main line train for Zurich. Our cases awaited us on the platform and we went to our allocated seating on the top deck of a multiplex train. We soared through the Swiss countryside (for the first few minutes along the same route as we had taken on the metre-gauge train the day before) and beside two of the wonderful lakes that are as characteristic of this wonderful country as the mountains.




 In Zurich we changed trains and with half an hour more than we needed for this there was a chance to have a very quick look at the city centre while our tour manager kindly looked after our luggage on the departure platform for our onward connection. This was a through train to Cologne (Koln) where we were to spend our final night before travelling back on Eurostar to the UK.

A long journey along the Rhine Valley took us out of Switzerland and through Germany past vineyards, castles, factories and churches and the great river itself, through the former West German capital of Bonn and into Cologne with its distinctive gothic cathedral. We had brought our picnic lunch, bought from a wonderful baker's shop at Chur station, but beer from the trolley and hot chocolate in the restaurant car were also welcome as the scenery slipped by.

 Our hotel in Cologne was a short walk from the station and again there was a porterage facility to help with our cases. We went for a walk around the city and popped into the cathedral briefly (it was during the evening service so we could only stand at the back and listen to the marvellous choral music) before a buffet supper for the last evening with our new friends made on this tour.

In the morning it was an early start: we delivered our larger cases to the reception area for porterage to the station and consumed our breakfast, which this time was very similar to an English buffet breakfast. We set off to the station and awaited our through train to Brussels where we would change for London. This was a French “Thalys” high-speed train with inclusive light meal as part of the First Class offer, much like Eurostar. The interesting thing about the trip home was that we were served something to eat and drink at no extra cost on all four of the trains we used, even having a drink and a biscuit on the short hop from Peterborough to Stamford! So we needed to purchase nothing along the way, although we did have a glass of wine while we waited in Brussels: South station is well outside the city centre of Brussels and although we did go for a short stroll there is really nothing to see in the short time we had, apart from the amazing sight of taxis queuing for custom right around the entire station. The station site does include a shopping area and we looked around there and bought a thank-you card for our wonderful tour manager, in which we placed our tip for handing to him as we said farewell on the approach to London.

And so to the final stage of the organised tour, the Eurostar back to St Pancras International, with the light meal including wine, water and coffee. At St Pancras we made our way over to Kings Cross with over an hour to spare before the departure of the train on which I had reserved seats, but we decided to go for the next one to Peterborough, a Leeds departure which had plenty of room in First Class and there we had our third on-board meal of the day – a bit more substantial than the others with full-sized sandwiches, cake, crisps and wine.

At Peterborough we are now becoming used to using the new platform 7 for departures to Stamford, although building work is not yet quite complete. First Class is always at an end of the Stansted-Birmingham trains but one never knows which end, nor whether there will be three or only two coaches, but in this case First was at the front end, right where the refreshment trolley is loaded onto the train (there are no refreshment facilities between Stansted and Peterborough), so we were the first people the caterer visited and he had time to give us our included biscuits and insisted that as we didn't have time to consume a cup of tea before Stamford we take a bottle of water to take away – so we did!

Well, it was intended to be the trip of a lifetime and so far it has met that expectation. We have to go back, though, as soon as we can afford it and at a different time of the year, and I've a feeling that if we live long enough it will become one of many trips competing for that title. It is hard to specify highlights, but they have to include dining aboard the Glacier Express among snow-covered mountains and standing on Gornergrat and looking across at Matterhorn. The entire adventure was filled with exciting new experiences that were certainly not exaggerated in the tour company's advertising and will go on being a joyful memory for a long time to come.  

Climbing the Swiss Alps - part 2: Italy and the Glacier Express

Market Place at Locarno

Wednesday was a free day with no outings on the schedule, but Glyn our tour manager had prepared a list of suggestions, complete with train times and other helpful detail and we decided to visit the town of Locarno, on the shore of Lake Maggiore in the Italian-speaking area of the country. Indeed, we were to change trains at a station in Italy on our way there, adding a fifth country to the list of nations we would have visited on this trip (six if you count France through which we pass without stopping). This day turned out to be the only one on which we had rain, but the experience was still very well-worthwhile. The journey itself was interesting, which was a major part of the reason for making the trip.

The Eurocity train to Venice

 It began with the journey through the Simplon Tunnel into Italy, and the border guard on the train wanted to know where my luggage was (on a day trip) and how much money I had with me … less that €1000 did not seem to be a problem, though, and as we were staying in Switzerland I had very few Euros, just for coffee on the way there and aperitifs on the way back. Odd, but then this was a through train, probably from Berne or even Basel to Venice, so smuggling into, out of or through Italy may be a major concern. Alison did not seem to be a problem, so I wondered if they were looking for a particular man, especially as a handful of others in the group had been through the same line of questioning. All good fun – at least we knew we'd been to Italy!

Passing a Centovalli Express

At Domodossala we left the main line and downstairs found the single-platform terminus of the metre-gauge Centovalli railway, the Hundred Valleys line. Even in the drizzle this was a spectacular line. We were now well short of adjectives to describe the amazing scenery we were encountering. We happened to be on a Panoramio train formed of coaches with huge windows and had to pay a small supplement to the conductor for the privilege. The train also had a trolley refreshment service and as we were in Italy we had to have the espresso coffee, in tiny disposable cups! The train, electric like all the others we had been on, left on time and after travelling a short way through the valley in which the town was set began to climb into the hills, turning back on itself several times as it gained height. We soon found ourselves looking out on snow-covered towns, villages, hills and gorges. The architecture was totally different from what we had seen just a few kilometres away in Switzerland, and even more interesting was that when the Centovalli lines crossed the border back into Switzerland none of this changed but the flags at the stations changed from the Italian tricolour to the Swiss cross. You would never know in one of these towns that you were in Switzerland.

Lunch in Locarno

The last few kilometres of the line were underground and again we found ourselves in the basement of the station at Locarno, and emerged right in the town centre a short walk from the lakeside. It was raining but we could walk around quite well. The town was obviously a summer resort with boat trips (not operating) and outdoor dining etc (also not taking place). We sought out a decent Italian restaurant in the town centre away from the tourist area of the lake and had the most wonderful pizza and could easily imagine we were actually in Italy. We returned the way we had come but it was an ordinary train that took us back to Domodossola, so no supplement to pay but we sat on the other side of the train and still enjoyed the ride. Back through the Simplon Tunnel we were also on a regional train and not a long-distance through service, and there was no border guard looking for middle-aged men carrying luggage and lots of cash. Home to the second session of James Bond.

Thursday was to be the centrepiece of the package but it was hard to see how what we had already done could be surpassed. We packed our bags and the large cases were taken away to the station to be transported separately to Chur for the next few days of the holiday, while the group walked together after a lighter-than-usual breakfast to the street platform outside Brig station to board the famous Glacier Express.






The train actually runs from Zermatt to St Moritz, and a complete First Class panoramic dining coach had been reserved for our party, complete with tablecloths and folded napkins, glasses and cutlery all ready for lunch. Once we had sat down orders were taken for coffee or aperitifs (we had coffee: it was still not yet noon!) and we gazed out at the landscape as our train began climbing into the hills. This is another metre-gauge train and most of the time moved along smoothly like a normal train, but in a few places the rack-and-pinion system was used to take it up and over some steep climbs: it would have been used most of the way down from Zermatt before we boarded. Each of us had a pair of earphones which could be plugged into a socket on the seat to listen to commentary at selected points of interest along the journey, announced by an audible alert and a speaker icon on the information display, and we each had a map showing the location of these points of interest. So much to take in: the meal, the scenery, the route map and the commentary.

Lunch was wonderful when it came, and was enjoyed among deep snow-covered landscapes just as we had imagined. A highlight was the serving of Grappa after the meal, served by pouring from a great height to aerate the drink, into a glass just a couple of centimetres in diameter, on a moving train! I think several people only bought the Grappa to photograph it being served. We were climbing out of the Rhone Valley and about to descend into the Rhine Valley for the second half of the holiday. Once the lunch was cleared away we enjoyed the last part of the journey along “Switzerland's Grand Canyon”, a deep flat-bottomed gorge of one of the Rhine tributaries. Arriving in Chur we were taken to our hotel (on foot this time) and welcomed by the owner with a glass of wine. The cases soon arrived, dinner was consumed and we reflected on yet another fantastic day. What would this new stage in the tour bring tomorrow?

The hotel in Brig had been modern and fairly small: this one in Chur was huge and old-fashioned, with dining rooms all over the place. Breakfast was in a room that looked like it might have once been a Masonic temple, and dinner in a panelled dining room. Waiting staff were in traditional costume and every effort was made to help us feel that we were truly in Switzerland. From here we would explore the eastern Alps. Some of the more “connected” older members of the group were horrified to discover that the wireless internet at this hotel was not free-of-charge and we all adapted to a few days offline!

The Landwasser Viaduct on the Albula Line

Friday we started with the Bernina Express, the metre-gauge train into Italy, as far as Poschiavo just short of the border. The train travels along the WorldHeritage line in the Albula valley with its spectacular engineering including winding tunnels in solid rock and many curved viaducts by means of which the train climbs over the mountains without the use of rack-and-pinion. It was lunchtime when we arrived at Poschiavo but a short walk around the town revealed that most places which might sell suitable food were closed for lunch, so we settled for a snack back at the station: we can recommend the Kiosk chain of rail station shops for their refreshments if you are ever in Switzerland.

While waiting for our train onwards to St Moritz we saw a snow plough brought out of its shed and all its equipment tried by the staff after their lunch break. It looked brand-new and we could imagine them working through the handbook and trying everything out, or they may simply have been checking it over before the forecast snow later in the afternoon - snow which began on our way back to Chur from St Moritz.






After an hour in Poschiavo we boarded the train which climbed its way to StMoritz. Again we had about an hour there and were able to see the frozen lake on which had been created a horse racing circuit with stands and all the usual paraphernalia. The contrast between the cold and snow at St Moritz and the sunshine and relative warmth of Poschiavo, just a short distance away but much lower, was striking. Our train back to Chur from St Moritz soon rejoined the line by which we had come and we experienced the same winding track again. It is really confusing to pass the same landmarks twice on the same side, or on opposite sides, or both, sometimes several times. By now it was snowing and really atmospheric: difficult for photography but great to experience. The following day was another “free” day and on arrival at Chur we shopped for food for the day: we were not sure what we might do but we'd need a snack either at lunchtime or in the evening.

At dinner each day Glyn gave us our briefing for the next day and because we would not be dining together on the free days we had the briefing for the following day, too, in this case the day we were to start travelling back via Germany. By now we had travelled, in sections, all the route of the Glacier Express between Zermatt and St Moritz and he was able to hand out to us a certificate to show that we had achieved this.