Part 2 - Switzerland - April 2019

We took an early morning train to the cutest, quaintest, smallest car-free town of Zermatt. Our best meal through the trip was lunch at an organic restaurant here, where we had the tastiest healthy sandwiches made from bread that was freshly baked by a family run bakery in town.

We spent 5 hours outdoors walking around, getting drenched in the rain, and riding the underground funicular up the canton of Valais, to see the beautiful Sunnegga lookout. It was snowing hard up there and was freezing cold – it was like silent rain and felt so serene. We spent a night in Zermatt so we could take the early morning Glacier Express to St. Moritz – most expensive tourist spot in Switzerland.

Glacier Express - The 9 hour ride through the Alps gave us the most spectacular views – of lakes, meadows, quaint villages, snow capped mountains, valleys, and several tunnels and bridges. Parts of the tracks in some valleys were cleared off snow just a few minutes before the train passed, giving us a beautiful snow path view.

St. Moritz welcomed us with a strong drizzle and light snow. But, this didn’t deter us, we checked in and immediately went on a long walk on the banks of the River Staz. The river was frozen solid, but not safe enough for ice skaters, so it was empty but for the runners and dog walkers around its bank. We then found our way to Devil’s Place, a bar that houses 2,500 different kinds of whiskies. We needed the stiff drink, and the boys enjoyed a yummy mugs of hot chocolate after the cold tiring walk.

It snowed all night, and the morning view from the hotel room was a heavily snow covered city. Since our plans to do another funicular ride up the Alps could not happen, we did the next best thing on a mini-blizzard day. We went for a 2.5 hour tennis session to an indoor academy and enjoyed ourselves.

                                     

We waited at the lobby of the hotel the next morning, before the high-ways were cleared off the avalanches. We then picked up our car from the beautiful village of Samedhan. We drove through mountains covered with snow into green green Austria. We checked into an Airbnb place in the cute little town of Igls in Innsbruck.