It was snowing on the Matterhorn when we arrived. Rain and 50 degrees in Zurich -- a welcome change from the high 90s we had escaped when we left Boston.
We intermittently napped and gazed at the verdant Swiss countryside as the intercity train carried us across the plain and through the new Lötschberg Base Tunnel to Visp, where the Vispa River cascades down from the Matterhown. As we emerged from the 21.5 mile tunnel (the world's longest, completed in 2007 at a cost of some 5.3 billion Swiss francs), the sun emerged, and bathed the hillside vineyards in an almost-Mediterranean light.
We intermittently napped and gazed at the verdant Swiss countryside as the intercity train carried us across the plain and through the new Lötschberg Base Tunnel to Visp, where the Vispa River cascades down from the Matterhown. As we emerged from the 21.5 mile tunnel (the world's longest, completed in 2007 at a cost of some 5.3 billion Swiss francs), the sun emerged, and bathed the hillside vineyards in an almost-Mediterranean light.
You know you're back in the Valais when you board the five-car Matterhorn-St. Gotthardbahn in Visp. There were once 13 separate cog sections to pull the train from Visp (alt. 1200 m. -- or 4000 ft.) to Zermatt (alt. 1620 -- 5300 ft.) in a matter of 19 miles. The tracks have recently been updated, with occasional waiting sections where trains can shunt aside to accommodate the steady flow of upward- and downward-bound passenger and freight transports that ply the valley each day.
The rails snake alongside the riverbed -- straining in the steepest sections, then hurling across the flatter sections near the villages of Stalden (where you transfer if you're going to Sass-Fee); St. Niklaus (which has carved a tourist industry from the patron saint of Christmas); Randa (site of a memorable landslide that caused a flood of the Visp River in the early 1990s); and finally Täsch, where all tourists must leave their cars and board the train for the final climb to the Zermatt bahnhof.
As the hillsides steepened, Jack could see traces of last night's snow melting on the hilltops. Ahead, the highest mountains wove in and out of view as the train continued its hourlong ascent. And sure enough, when the Matterhorn came into sight, the peak was engulfed in a cloud of snow and fog. Overnight we had left behind the summer heat and climbed into a crisp new universe -- a magic mountain for refreshment and renewal.
As the hillsides steepened, Jack could see traces of last night's snow melting on the hilltops. Ahead, the highest mountains wove in and out of view as the train continued its hourlong ascent. And sure enough, when the Matterhorn came into sight, the peak was engulfed in a cloud of snow and fog. Overnight we had left behind the summer heat and climbed into a crisp new universe -- a magic mountain for refreshment and renewal.
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