Category Archives: UNESCO sites

Springtime ride on the Glacier Express

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Post by Lauren

You may recall from the blog we took the Glacier Express to St. Moritz this winter.   When we took it while Gabe’s family was here, it was equally as beautiful only half covered in snow.

This time, instead of St. Moritz, we headed to winter sports capital, Davos.  We passed through in route to Klosters, which was the choice vacation getaway for Princess Di and family.  You see, I figured I’d class up the selection and provide us the lodging of royalty.  Just kidding, it was the only hotel in the entire region left since it was still ski season.  And I can promise you that they didn’t stay in the Swiss Sport Lodge, although it was fine for our tastes 🙂

You can see a pictorial recap of our journey below:

Starting out in Zermatt and heading to Brig. Not much snow at all this time!  We love watching the wonder on everyone’s faces!

Continuing on through Fiesch, Reckingen, Muster, Fulka and the canton of Ori.
Everyone in awe in Andermatt. It’s my favorite on the ride, too!

Cutting through the Rhine Gorge, passing through Davos and reaching our destination of Klosters.

Enjoying their first Swiss fondue and raclette in Klosters. Since the raclette was Type 2 and served without meat, the group favorite was the mushroom fondue. We were the only ones in the restaurant with an exclusively German-speaking owner.   It was a really awkward fun experience!

We stayed at the Swiss Sport hotel in Klosters. We found Klosters to be small and tranquil – not a place for late night action.  We had to create our own!  The evening was fun of laughter and fun.  Don’t let The French Cougar tell you that is water in her hand – we believe its wine!   Also don’t even ask why Dunkel and Sweet Wine have those amused looks on their faces.  What happens in Klosters stays in Klosters!

A bonus is that The Gladiator and Mama Mia celebrated their wedding anniversary on this stint of the trip.   We are so glad we got to spend it with them!

Lavaux Wine Tasting

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Post by Lauren

The Lavaux wine region is definitely a place you should see in your lifetime. On our first trip to Switzerland we took a day trip to Montreux, and I remember driving through this area with my mouth wide open in awe.

 

This particular time was in the winter, but is truly beautiful any time of year. See the Schwingen in Switzerland blog for a recount on spending a summer day in Lavaux. I had the pleasure of hiking* in the Fall as well and it was gorgeous:

 

 

 

When The Captain and Swiss Miss were here, they had wanted to hike in Lavaux; however, the Geneva record low temperatures prevented us from doing so. Nonetheless, we still took the train from Geneva to Rivaz to check out the wine cellar, Vinorama.

Vinorama is cut into the side of the Lavaux countryside. It offers “dégustations” (tastings in French) of different Lavaux varieties. It also has a wine store offering hundreds of Lavaux bottles .

Vinorama

 

During our visit, they showed us a short film about the region’s wine production. It was incredibly well done, depicting the ups and downs of a local farmer throughout the year. This helped to bring personality to this special region and to understand how hard it is to farm the land.

The primary reason Lavaux is special are its terraces. They are steep, staggered, and require a lot of maneuvering on the part of the wine workers. I have seen similar ones in Cinque Terre in Italy, but no where else in the world have I seen anything like it. It takes incredibly hard work to farm that land – both in the upkeep on a slanted slope and transportation of the grapes in the harvest. And they have been doing it since the 11th Century.

The film explained that it is the terrace that affects the taste of the wine. The heat from its walls warms the earth underneath the vines. This as well as the sun’s reflection off of Lake Geneva bodes well for the grapes.

Vinorama offers tastings in white, red and combinations. The tasting that we did included the following:

Epesses – La braise d’enfer
Vilette – Clos du roches
Domaine Moulin la Vignette Lutry
Lettres des Noblesse (malbec/cab) st saphorin
Epesses plant robez blaise duboux

My favorite was hands down the Lettres des Noblesse. However at 40 CHF per bottle, it didn’t make it into our cellar on that particular day.

A few days after our trip, my French tutor and I were discussing the Lavaux region. She is French and advised that of course, any agriculture product in Switzerland is very expensive. I totally agree with that statement. The terraced type of farming and harder labor can’t lend to an economical product. However, with the magic that can be found here in Lavaux, I’d also say that their wine is certainly worth it.

 

*For hiking: we got off the train at St. Saphorin and walked to the Lutry station. It was four hours and we had magnificent views every step of the way. This of course could be shortened or you could do the wine stop as we did.

All Aboard the Glacier Express!

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Post by Lauren

When The Captain and Swiss Miss were visiting, we took the Glacier Express. No, this isn’t the train to Santa’s house….it goes to St. Moritz. Which is sort of like the North Pole, if you think about it, full of wonder, make-believe and furry suits.

The Glacier express is a very nice excursion to do if you are visiting a short time, since it covers a large part of the country of Switzerland. It travels the path in red, below.

Photo credit: The Glacier Express

In its entirety, The Glacier express travels through 91 tunnels and 291 bridges. At altitudes of up to 6500 feet, it cuts through breathtaking mountain passes, glaciers, and by rushing mountain streams. From its windows you can experience a part of nature that has remained untouched. In fact, there is a certain part of the railway that has a UNESCO designation as a World Heritage Site, the Rhaetian Railway from Thusis towards Bergun. This was given due to its role in developing access to remote areas in the Swiss Alps as well as how the civil engineering blends seamlessly with the nature surrounding it.

The Glacier Express

The Glacier Express started in 1930, a remarkable feat considering the economic crisis that was happening during that time. It experienced a slow down as well in WW2 as it didn’t run between 1943 and 1946, during the war.

Up until 1982, it could only run during the summer months because the Oberalpass became impassable in winter with snow. In the 1980s, they made improvements in tunnels, allowing it to operate. Since that time, they have upgraded the cars to be equipped with panoramic windows* for tourist’s photo taking and comfort.

One of the many tunnels the Glacier Express travels through

While the Glacier Express isn’t really an express at all (average speed is 20 km/hour), I appreciated the extra time it took to get to our destination due to the beauty of the landscape it traversed.

We would recommend this to those visiting Switzerland. We also hope to check out some of the other scenic trains such as the Golden Pass, or Bernina Express during our time here.

What you should know :
–If you are interested in taking a scenic train, Rick Steves has some great descriptions about the differences on his site.
–If you are visiting, you can take the scenic trains on a Swiss pass or Swiss Flexi pass. Same goes for residents with a day card. For the Glacier express, you must get a reservation for 13 CHF in the winter or 33 CHF in the summer for a seat.
–They serve great meals on the Glacier Express; however picnics are also allowed. We brought an assortment as well as two bottles of wine.

*The large windows created a magnificent view. We were blessed with a lot of sunshine on our journey which was great for us, but made our photos a little worse because of the glare. Sorry.

Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

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Post by Lauren

As we mentioned in the previous post, we were shocked how many ruins there were in the Angkor region….about a thousand! That was such a surprise for us as we were thinking it would just be the one…Angkor Wat.

However, Angkor Thom ( Angkor = “city” and Thom = “big” ) had so many amazing sites within its four walls. Not to mention, its four walls were adorned with detail, 2 miles each. Crazy! There were also a lot of sites just outside the deep moat surrounding the walled city.

To top it off, the most magnificent, Angkor Wat, was constructed during the height of the Khmer empire and is said to be the world’s largest single religious monument.

One of the other takeaways we had was how the temples “changed hands” throughout history. They changed back and forth from Hindu to Buddhist depending on the king at that time.

Here is a chronological recap of our three day journey:

Preah Khan, just outside Angkor Thom

 

Neak Pean - where all the healing took place

Ta Phrohm - where Lara Croft Tomb Raider was filmed

 

Banteay Srei - incredible detail work by the artisans

 

Pre Rup

 

Angkor Wat