|
Originally published 21 December 2015
We have arrived in Tasch, Switzerland!
I sit in the lobby of our alpine hotel, making my blog entry. While Laurie has a fancy schmancy tablet with all the bells and whistles (and an advanced wifi antenna) which works fine, I have a lowly netbook which won't give me proper internet in the room. So I am toughing it out and sitting on the big leather couch in the lobby by the fire.
We woke this morning to rain. We went downstairs and had breakfast which is included in the room price in most hotels in Europe. It consists of cold cuts, cheeses, fresh bread, yogurt, boiled eggs, coffee, juice, and fresh fruit. Most of the breakfasts in Europe are quite good and this was no exception. It's simple, but filling.
The Goldenpass train
After breakfast, we picked up our packs and headed to the train station. We made a decision on the fly to take the long way to Tasch, chosing to take the Golden Pass scenic train. It was covered by our rail pass so we figured we would check it out.
The weather didn't cooperate and we didn't get most of the spectacular views we hoped for.....but that's okay. We saw a few and will be coming this way again on our way from Tasch. Even though the scenic train didn't really work out....you have to remind yourself that you are on a train in SWITZERLAND! We did see a few cool views and enjoyed the trip.
The interior on the Goldenpass Train
At the end of our scenic rail trip, we got off the train in some town that started with a "Z" and had about 30 letters in it and boarded another train to take us to Spiez. We transferred in Spiez and again in Visp. In Visp, we boarded a narrow gauge cog wheel railroad that went up the mountain at grades I have never seen a train go up before. All of the trains were very comfortable......MUCH more so than air travel. Trains are our favorite by far.
We rose up through very narrow valleys with mountains soaring straight up on either side. It would be impossible to go up them without mountaineering equipment. The mountains around home are sloping, and even where they are what we consider steep we can still walk up them. While our mountains may be steep enough to be diffficult, there is nothing like the Alps in the eastern U.S. There aren't any glaciers in the eastern U.S. either.....we saw one of those too.
The view up the valley, Tasch Switzerland
We arrived in Tasch, walked across the street to our hotel, checked in and dumped our stuff. We wandered about in Tasch while it was still light. We saw barns with farm animals right in the middle of this small town, cool Swiss style chalets, old churches, grocery stores, and all other things one would find in a small town.
We stopped for dinner and I had pizza while Laurie had ravioli. Dinner was excellent. We shopped for snacks in the local grocery, to put in our day packs for our travels tomorrow. With some luck, we will have good weather and good views. We shall go much higher than the 4800 feet of elevation where our hotel is......onward and upward tomorrow!
A Tasch Switzerland slide show!
0 Comments
|
I'm Bill. My wife Laurie and I love to travel and share our stories. We especially love it when we have been able to motivate our readers to start traveling on their own, and making their own stories. 
Click on any post below to go directly to that day. All posts are in chronological order. |