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Europe 2024: Toblerone
posted : Saturday, January 18, 2025
Day 6 and this is one of the few days with convoluted travel plans I ended up, this time due to train track damages as a result of a mid-Sept storm.
Was supposed to be a two train (i.e change train once) ride to Zermatt, but one section of the track was damaged so the second leg became a train-bus-train trip (bus to replace the section of the ride that has track damage) which meant a lot of time watching to make sure we can catch the connecting trains/bus. I guess this is also where I take some time to appreciate the SBB app which was very detailed and precise. And for this day trip I bought a saver day pass instead which entitled us to unlimited rides on the network so I think that gives us a bit of flexibility if we needed and still cheaper than buying a regular return ticket.  Starting day early again but at least we ate breakfast properly  Passing by Lake Thun  Stopping at Spiez for the first change! About a 15minute wait so nipped out to take in some views  Spiez station  Bit of a rush while changing to a bus at Visp so no photos..was a bit concerned there will not be enough seats given the amount of people but we scrambled up and managed to get seats together. I suppose they have enough buses on hand la. But this was along the way on a bus, can see signs of mountain alr  Then to our last change at Tasch (I don’t know what’s with all this mono syllable names) At this point I also wanted to point out the oddity that I was wide awake for all my train and bus rides throughout the trip. Literally don’t feel any sleepiness even though I haven’t been clocking long hours of sleep (6hours max maybe) at night (though I must say I still slept well). And I have much to do on the rides - scenery watching, catching up on IG story postings, telegram chats etc. Contrast with the sister whom mostly slept through it all lolol and she also was the one that KO early at night at least an hour before me so I don’t know what kind of epic sleep debt was she repaying. Anyway back to the trip. Arrived at Zermatt! And yes it’s another clear day with blue skies (and I think after a bit of workout we find it warm even and walked around without jackets too). Gornegartbahn and Matterhorn Glacier were closed (sigh, but it’s ok, reading through the things to do at these two and they sounded awfully like Jungfrau so I guess we aren’t missing too much) so plan was just to go to the nice viewpoints in the town, explore the town, and do a shortened version of the Five Lakes hike.  Outside Zermatt station  Zermatt is famous for being a car free town! So there’s only all these electric buggies ferrying people to their hotels and resorts up the mountains  Matterhorn saying hi to us at every turn  This was near our ill fated foray to the funicular station  Hi again. On the way to Murini  Quaint traditional houses.  Uphill to Murini where there are many home stays and airbnbs lining the path. We did see one property agent shop and hey property in Switzerland is much cheaper than in SG haha Pretty quiet place as somehow not many tourists come this way yet - we do have to contend with a Korean couple who spent a fair bit of time with their photos. Guess it could be worse. But the views. The views!  See what I mean (but I still wish I was here in winter)  I don’t think I did this right but whatever, probably the wrong bar of Toblerone  It’s when I realized the zoom on my phone is actually not too bad  Korean couple finally vacated this bench after an hour and we snooped in. It’s actually really warm at this point, the workout to get uphill didn’t help and so I actually didn’t even need a jacket and was rolling up my sleeves even Off to lunch at restaurant Du Pont. Fondue was roundly recommended and so that’s our second one in as many days. At this point we are about 3 hours from sunset and we decided to just hang around till then - so after exploring the town a bit (and looking at more watches) we popped into a cafe and just chilled there, only heading back out at around 430 ish.  Water fountain! Yay to water  Raclette cheese, also our first attempt and it is usually served with potatoes  Also our first rosti! It was perfectly crispy and unlike Marche which was apparently not the traditional way Swiss people eat…it’s with ham and eggs.  And cheese fondue, we got the alcoholic version this time and I must say I very much prefer the non alcoholic one. And more potatoes, I think we didn’t finish them.  This screams Switzerland  Interior of the place  Duly recommended!  Matterhorn makes for a nice backdrop  Heading back down the village proper, we didn’t come by this way. Stopping by some shops and watch boutiques as usual  Grindelwald looked like this too, paragliders included  Chilled at a cafe. Saw this Singaporean couple which we also saw at Jungfraujoch  Chocolate orange yes! And the wait was very very much worth it. Actually half contemplated hiking back up to Murini to catch it but the sister gave me a death stare so nope, this will do.  Headed back to Du Pont coz I remembered the view was great there. And this sunset view…will remain in my mind for a very long time.  Nightfall along the village Another 2 hour 4 leg journey back to Interlaken and again after a whole day out, kept dinner simple again and called it a day  Boarding bus at Tasch, this was how it looked like  And waiting at Visp for the train back to Spiez  More Movenpick before we run out of time, and I really liked this Coop sandwich which we had multiple times this trip. |
