Today we travelled from Kandersteg to Zermatt via Brig. Kandersteg is a very pretty little place, about 25 minutes by train from Brig, which is a main terminus. So we have to travel to Brig before going anywhere else.
There is a huge tunnel through the mountains to get out of Kandersteg, which sits in an almost circular bowl surrounded by high peaks. It takes 7 or 8 minutes to get through the tunnel, then you are high above the U- shaped valley, looking down at untidy little settlements in the valley below. The train continues along the side of the long valley, gradually descending to the valley floor, and soon you are in Brig.
The departure platform for Zermatt is on the main street of the Brig, with big hotels overlooking the line.
We caught the train to Zermatt, with a rack and pinion engine at the front, because some of the slopes the train tackled were very steep indeed.
We travelled for over an hour, at times ascending or descending very steeply, and sometimes traversing very narrow canyons.
This was one of the narrow canyons, with the river flowing along the bottom.
At other times we were high up the side of the mountain, sometimes looking down on villages far below. Some of the villages were also quite high up the mountain.
This one had a rather fascinating tower.
I took the opportunity of photographing the bit of the rack and pinion system that you can see. This shows the centre rail quite clearly.
The are cog wheels under the engine and under the carriages, and these can be made to engage with the centre rail, preventing the train from sliding backwards on steep ascents - or sliding forwards on steep descents. It is engaged as required, but you usually know when it's engaged because the clanking noise starts, and then the train starts travelling up or down an unusually steep slope.
As we approached Zermatt, we got a vague view of the Matterhorn, but it was very misty so we knew we wouldn't get a clear view and might be lucky to see anything at all. Once we had arrived in Zermatt, we got tickets up the Gornegrat, a mountain just opposite the Matterhorn. This is a rack and pinion railway, and rises to a height of just over 3000 metres.
We were soon climbing up the mountainside and looking down on Zermatt.
The train ascends very steeply indeed in places, in fact it sometimes feels more like a funicular railway.
As we climbed higher, we could barely see the valleys below.
The journey takes about 40 minutes. Well before the end you are above the tree line and in the bare alpine meadows.
This shows part of the route of the train up the hillside. Towards the foot of the photo, you can see the walking path. Some people choose to go up on the railway and walk down; in the train from Brig, we met a Swiss man who was travelling up with his mountain bike, intending to bike down. It is very steep in places though, so I wouldn't care to try it.
Eventually I managed to get a view of sorts of the Matterhorn, when the clouds thinned for a short time.
This wasn't a particularly close view, but for most of our time up the mountain, we could see very little as the clouds were so thick.
At the top, we had a very good view of all the glaciers.
This was the longest glacier, clearly flowing down the mountain, a river of ice.
It was bitterly cold at 3000 metres, and there was snow and ice on the ground. There is a very smart hotel at the summit, as well as a shopping mall, a restaurant and a self-service café, so we were able to warm up and have something to eat after viewing the bare rocky peaks, the ice and snow and all the glaciers flowing down from the peaks opposite.
After lunch, we found more of the mist had closed in and we didn't have such good views as we had enjoyed before.
Once down in Zermatt, we had time for a quick wander through the town. Zermatt is far smaller than I had previously thought, and has some delightfully old fashioned looking buildings.
By 3.30, it was time to catch the train back to Brig, and then our connection to Kanderstag.
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