On Vox: Express Glaciers
(Sun 28th June)
Chilled
With rucksacks on our backs, we set off to move on again.
But this is a Ffestiniog Travel tour, and no boring transfer days here! Instead we were cruising in style, with first class reservations on the Glacier Express.
It can be quite amusing looking like backpacking students and heading for first class carriages. At Chur station we were neatly and politely fielded as we sped up the platform past the service car between the two classes, and asked what carriage we were looking for.
We were only travelling on the middle part of the route, though we had already covered the loops and spirals of the first leg three times where it overlaps with the Bernina Express and with our own explorations. This part of the route takes a more direct approach to the gradient, as we soon changed engines to one equipped with a cog wheel (as all the carriages were). As we started up the next alpine pass there was the thunk as these engaged with the first of the racks, climbing these like ladders where normal trains would slip to a stand. Although we are on a tourist special, this metre gauge route is well served by regular trains, all taking this steepness as the norm.
Although the mountain scenery was pretty special, ironically we saw less glaciers from the glacier express than on the days before and after. There are plenty in the vicinity, but tantalizingly out of sight unless as distant snowy peaks. The Rhone glacier it once passed closely below is now bypassed in a long tunnel. Something to do with wanting to run service trains for more than four months of the year!
There is now a tourist line up part of this pass, which once had a viaduct that was put away every autumn in kit form and rebuilt each summer. They are enthusiastically attempting to restore the whole route, and looking at the retreat of the yesterday's glacier, I wonder if the winter closure would be necessary any more.
At Brig we left the express to continue its way up towards the glaciers around Zermatt, and headed for our next base, Wilderswill, near Interlaken.
Originally posted on planetprent.vox.com
Chilled
With rucksacks on our backs, we set off to move on again.
But this is a Ffestiniog Travel tour, and no boring transfer days here! Instead we were cruising in style, with first class reservations on the Glacier Express.
It can be quite amusing looking like backpacking students and heading for first class carriages. At Chur station we were neatly and politely fielded as we sped up the platform past the service car between the two classes, and asked what carriage we were looking for.
We were only travelling on the middle part of the route, though we had already covered the loops and spirals of the first leg three times where it overlaps with the Bernina Express and with our own explorations. This part of the route takes a more direct approach to the gradient, as we soon changed engines to one equipped with a cog wheel (as all the carriages were). As we started up the next alpine pass there was the thunk as these engaged with the first of the racks, climbing these like ladders where normal trains would slip to a stand. Although we are on a tourist special, this metre gauge route is well served by regular trains, all taking this steepness as the norm.
Although the mountain scenery was pretty special, ironically we saw less glaciers from the glacier express than on the days before and after. There are plenty in the vicinity, but tantalizingly out of sight unless as distant snowy peaks. The Rhone glacier it once passed closely below is now bypassed in a long tunnel. Something to do with wanting to run service trains for more than four months of the year!
There is now a tourist line up part of this pass, which once had a viaduct that was put away every autumn in kit form and rebuilt each summer. They are enthusiastically attempting to restore the whole route, and looking at the retreat of the yesterday's glacier, I wonder if the winter closure would be necessary any more.
At Brig we left the express to continue its way up towards the glaciers around Zermatt, and headed for our next base, Wilderswill, near Interlaken.
Originally posted on planetprent.vox.com