Switzerland
September 10-20, 2023
Mike and Judy Henderson
As this page starts, we're in Zermatt. It will follow our travels from there.
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9/12/2023 (Tuesday) We take the cog railway to Gornergrat today. We both slept through the night and were up about 6am. It's always difficult making the "time change" for the first few days on a trip.
An early morning walk gave me a much better view of the Matterhorn. The sun was shining on the part of the mountain facing us, so the picture is much clearer.
The Matterhorn is not the highest mountain in the area, or in Europe. The Matterhorn is only about 14,692 feet. There are other peaks that are over 15,000 feet. The highest is Mont Blanc at 15,774 feet.
The challenge of the Matterhorn has to do with its shape - the steep faces make it a challenge to climb. The first successful ascent of the Matterhorn was by Edward Whymper in 1865. The story of the ascent, and the events afterwards, especially for the guide, Peter Taugwalder, is quite interesting and can be found here and here.
Mount Whitney in California is 14,505 feet, only about 200 feel less than the Matterhorn, but you can hike to the top of it, and hundreds of people do so each year. I hiked to the top of Mt. Whitney in 1978 when I was 34 years old.
But, back to today. After breakfast in the hotel, we met Carrie in the area of the train station at 9:40. Here she is with the tickets in her hand.
We had priority boarding tickets so we were able to get good seats. Priority boarding gives you a two-minute head start before the regular ticket people are allowed to board the train. We took a lot of pictures on the ride, but we were shooting through the window of the train, and there are a lot of reflections in most of the pictures. I left my Fujifilm camera and only brought my iPhone. In looking at the pictures, I can see that the Fujifilm produces better telephoto pictures, but is not as convenient to carry as the iPhone.
Here's the Matterhorn, seen from the train through the window. It seems to be a good cloud-catcher.
About 25 minutes later we reached Gornergrat. Gornergrat is south-west of Zermatt. The Matterhorn is just to the Swiss side of the Italy/Switzerland border.
This diagram shows the mountains and peaks that you can see from Gornergrat. Look at all the cable cars going up to the ski area. That peak labeled "Matterhorn Glacier Paradise" is not the Matterhorn - the Matterhorn is in the lower right in the picture. This picture is from a Swiss ski website. Take a look at the link for a better view.
The border between Italy and Switzerland is shown on the right side of this picture. Look how it just touches the base of the Matterhorn.
A couple of views of the snow-covered mountains around Gornergrat.
One of the glaciers making its trail down the valley.
Judy and Jean against the snow-covered mountains.
And me and Judy.
There's a hotel and observatory in Gornergrat. The first floor (US numbering) has various stores and restrooms, and the second floor has a restaurant, both available to anyone.
We walked up to the hotel area and looked back towards the Matterhorn. That's the train station in the center of the picture. It's the end of the line.
A closer view of the Matterhorn.
We hiked up to a slightly higher spot and took more pictures. From this viewpoint several famous peaks can be seen.
I have an altitude app on my iPhone. This is how high we were.
A few people were gathered at this higher point.
Judy walking back from the higher point. Judy has had two hip replacements, so I worry about her falling and hurting herself.
A view of the rear of the hotel, as we were walking down.
We went into the restaurant and had a cup of coffee, and then decided to return to Zermatt. We had good seats, but it started raining as the train was going down, and many people at the intermediate stops got on to avoid the rain. The train became very crowded.
When we got to Zermatt, Judy and Jean were hungry for lunch so we went to the bratwurst stand and got a beer and bratwurst.
The guy running it had a good business. There was always a line at his place when I went by.
After that, I came back to our hotel room and worked on this blog. For dinner, we went to one of the local restaurants and had a good meal.
Judy and Jean went for a walk after dinner and I continued working this report. That was the end of our day.
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9/13/2023 (Wednesday) We woke up this morning to a wet city. It had rained during the night and looked like it was going to continue during the day. Bag pull was at 6:30 this morning and breakfast started at the same time.
When we left to walk to the train station, the streets were wet and generally empty.
It was a short walk to the train station and the train to Täsch was on time. It started raining while we were on the train to Täsch (and continued, off and on, all day).
When we arrived in Täsch, our bus, and Peter, our driver, was waiting for us.
We're heading to Stresa, in Italy, this morning, through the Simplon Pass.
Carrie announced the moment when we reached the highest point in the pass, and I quickly opened the altitude app on my iPhone. The official altitude is 6,581 feet so my app is fairly accurate, or I was a bit slow in getting it open.
On the way down from the pass, about where the blue dot is on the map, above, we stopped at a the Bakery & Tea Room Arnold for coffee and pastry.
Inside, they had all kinds of wonderful pastries. Tauck treated each one of us to a coffee and pastry, and I took this picture after everyone had received their choice of pastry, so the display case is somewhat empty.
Some of our group with their coffee and pastry. In this picture are Kelly, Ken, Julia and Jean. Julia and Jean are identical twins, traveling together. Ken is a long-distance runner and has run 23 marathons. I ran six marathons much earlier in my life. I couldn't walk one today.
After we left the bakery, it started raining quite hard. I took this picture through the window of the bus, just to show the rain.
Along the way to Stresa, we passed into Italy, but there were no passport checks because of the Schengen agreement. While many of the countries who are parties to the agreement are part of the European Union, some are not members of the EU. The agreement permits citizens of the countries who are participants to travel to other countries who are part of the agreement, without visas.
[Added note: Stresa was one of the cable car stations of a terrible cable car crash.]
It was a long drive to Stresa but we arrived in time for lunch at Lo Stornello.
Here's some of our group at lunch. The proprietor is discussing a dish.
After lunch, we took a boat to Isola Bella, one of the islands in Lake Maggiore, and site of Palazzo Borromeo. The Borromeos were a powerful family in Milan from the 14th to the 18th centuries. Perhaps the most famous Borromeo was Charles, who was named a saint (canonized) in 1610 by the Catholic Church.
This boat is similar to the one we took.
Some of our group on the boat.
This aerial view of the island is a picture from Wikipedia. The Palazzo is to the upper left.
When we got to the island, we found a long line to enter the Palazzo. Carrie said she had never seen it this busy.
We eventually entered and met our guide, Arnaldo. Carrie is getting him set up on the VOX unit.
The Palazzo, the summer home of the Borromeo family, is big and filled with paintings and other treasures. It's not something I have a lot of interest in, but I'll include a few pictures.
A wall of art.
The opposite wall.
A throne, built for a visit by the Spanish King.
A wide angle view of the Great Room.
A few "display rooms" representing things that were active when the Palazzo was in use. A stable.
The music room.
Some more art.
Outside, this was the separation between the Palazzo and the garden area of the island.
That ended our visit. We took a boat back to the mainland about 3:30pm and boarded the bus for our two-hour drive to Lugano.
We arrived at the Hotel Splendide Royal about 5:30pm.
It's an elegant hotel. Our room faced the lake.
A panoramic view of the lake from our balcony.
While there are many good things about the room, there were two issues. First, the bathroom does not have a walk-in shower, just a tub shower (which I dislike). The more serious issue is the lack of electrical outlets, especially in the area of the nightstands by the bed. I always charge my iPhone and watch on the nightstand so that I can see what time it is when I wake up in the middle of the night. That was impossible here because I had to charge things at an outlet somewhere else in the room.
We had a 6pm reservation at the hotel restaurant so we quickly dressed and went to dinner.
After dinner, it was to bed. Judy and I both slept the whole night through - so I guess we're getting time-adjusted.
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9/14/2023 (Thursday) I woke up at first light and took a picture of the sunrise across the lake. It promised a beautiful day.
We gathered in the lobby at 9am for a walking tour of Lugano, and met our local guide. She managed to talk continuously for two hours. While its her job, I'm afraid I checked out somewhere along the line. I just can't absorb that much.
One of the places we visited was the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
It's known for its frescos, painted by Bernardino Luini.
There's a version of the Last Supper in the church, also painted by Bernardino Luini. The cat at the feet of Judas symbolizes unfaithfulness.
As we were finishing the walking tour, we passed this statue of William Tell, a 14th Century folk hero of Switzerland. The legend is too long and involved to describe here, but follow the link if you'd like to know more.
About 11am we went to the dock area to board a boat, where we would have a wine tasting, a short tour of Lake Lugano, and a trip to a grotto for lunch.
Here's Jean and Judy on the boat, prior to starting the wine tasting.
I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I don't think anyone raved about the wine. Around noon, we arrived at Grotto San Rocco, the restaurant where we'll have lunch.
Our outdoor seating was very comfortable, under a large tree, and the weather was perfect.
Lunch was unhurried and we returned to the hotel a bit after 2pm. Judy and Jean went walking in the city while I, your faithful scribe, returned to the hotel to work on this blog.
For dinner, we went to a pizza restaurant near the hotel.
That was the end of our day. We leave Lugano tomorrow, heading to St. Moritz.