Castles and Climbers

After the usual delightful Swiss breakfast and a short talk about "The Simplon Pass" which connects northern and southern Europe, we followed the duck literally next door to Stockalper Castle. 

View of Stockalper Castle from our hotel

Constructed between 1658 and 1678 by Kaspar Stockalper, the structure was the largest example of private construction in Switzerland at the time.

Internal courtyards

At the time, castles and wayside inns provided shelter, food and a trade route to those travelers along the mountain pass (Simplon) connecting Italy and the Mediterranean with the rest of Europe. Stockalper, a silk merchant, took full advantage of his position on the Simplon pass to control and profit from any traffic across the route, and became one of the wealthiest men in the area because of it.

Later, Napoleon even constructed a military base, "Alte Kaserne," along the route not only to protect this national road, but to provide a resting place for merchants traveling this often difficult pathway. Fortunes were made and cities, like Brig, began to flourish as improvements made passage possible even during some winter months.

Stockalper Castle is a fine display of the wealth and life during those times with ornate wrought iron gates, courtyards, an ornately decorated chapel, and city administration rooms heated by tiled stoves which could be stoked from an adjoining hallway without disturbing the business of the day being conducted inside. Art, hand-painted wallpaper and solid hand-crafted wood furniture adorns the castle rooms still in use by city officials today.

Chapel Altar Highlighted with Silver

Hand Painted Wallpaper 

Peggy really liked the wallpaper!

Mid-morning, the duck once again led us to the Bahnhof for the train to Zermatt at the base of the Matterhorn. Small wonder (no pun intended) that Disney chose this breathtaking peak and surrounds as the basis for his commercial enterprise. The cog train we rode made its way higher and higher through the valley alongside flowing waters, stands of trees, dottings of houses and pastures. 

Arrival at Zermatt started a "short walk, slightly uphill" past shops and restaurants to a most beautiful "Kirche" (church) 

which also holds a graveyard for climbers who died attempting to reach the summit of the Matterhorn. Often, bodies had to wait to be buried until the Spring thaw came.

The flowers are Edelweiss

Walking through the village paths, we stopped for a lunch of local dishes at Cafe Fuchs and readied ourselves for the underground railroad trip to Sunnegga, with its view of the Matterhorn. 

The oldest structure in Zermatt

Cars are not permitted in Zermatt

Our lunch of salad and cholera

This train is not really a train at all. Think of an incline funicular like the gentle ones in Pittsburgh, PA that take you up the hillsides to view the city from its heights. Now throw that image out of your mind completely.

Funiculars use gravity to propel two cars past each other up and down a hillside. The same is true for the inclined railway taking you to Sunnegga - only more like something built at Cape Canaveral. Starting at 1620 meters in Zermatt, the duck leads you through a tunnel inside the mountainside to a waiting set of seats inside the car reached by climbing concrete stairs. Each car holds three seated and two or three standing passengers. Looking up the stairway, you see nothing but rails and lights disappearing at an absurd angle to somewhere up there at 2288 meters. It's the ride of your life and once underway, you reach the top in just 90 seconds.

That's 5259.61 feet to we Americans!

Going Up!

The view from the top of the car to the bottom

Catching our breath and wondering if we left vital organs somewhere down below, we are greeted by bright sunshine, blue skies, puffy clouds and a chalet with seats and tables with a most spectacular view. From Sunnegga, ski lifts and hiking paths lead off to higher climes. We had a perfect day to shoot photos, get sunburned if we weren't careful, and enjoy a brief aperitif and the scenery.

And now, we are going to post a ridiculous number of pictures of the Matterhorn. It's just too beautiful to choose just a few:

Can you see the tiny weather station all the way at the top?

Sometimes you just need to take a LOT of pictures. This was one of those times.

We ALL had the same need to take pictures

We took pictures of each other too!

The trip back was a letdown - only in a small literal sense as we "dove back down" to Zermatt in 90 seconds and took the train back to Brig descending through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It's hard for both your brain and your eyes to take it all in. 

On arrival back at Brig, we boarded a small tourist train on tires for a guided tour of Naters and Brig pointing out various historical sites and ending up, thankfully, just a few yards from our hotel. The weather up in Zermatt had been perfect, but Brig, in the southern part of Switzerland, was experiencing a record-setting heat wave, with temperatures above 90 degrees!

OK... one more picture of the Matterhorn

Our evening was capped off with another group dinner of local fare at Restaurant Schlosskeller. An evening talk on legends of the Valais area was given by our local guide, Mrs. Beatrice Wust. Tomorrow: ITALY.

The following video of Zermatt and the Matterhorn is beautiful...

Mt. Rigi, Swiss Cows and Dinner on Lake Lucerne

When you set out to visit Switzerland, you think first of the Alps--the mountains. (Well, maybe chocolate. Cheese. Swiss Army knives.) Since arriving in Lucerne, we had taken every opportunity to stand on our hotel balcony and look at the mountains: Mt. Pilatus to our right, and Mt. Rigi on our left. We took endless pictures of the mountains.

Mt. Pilatus

Today, we would visit Mt. Rigi and finally get "up close and personal" with a Swiss mountain. Finishing our lunch on the Ruess, we walk to the train station, and take a train to Arth-Goldau, and then transfer to the Rigi Bahn, the oldest cog railway in Europe (1871). Stopping just short of the top, we get off the train to take an easy hike through the fields and countryside before re-connecting with a separate line going down the backside of the mountain, taking us along a different route and to Vitznau on Lake Lucerne.




The center "rail" is for the cog on the
 railcars which prevents gravity from taking over on the steep climb and descent.

We start our hike

The weather was perfect. Clear, warm but not hot. The view was everything we'd imagined. As the path wound around, we heard them before we saw them: The cow bells! 

As Swiss dairy farmers send their cattle up to higher pastures in the summer, they use the bells to help keep track of the cows. But they are also symbolic. In Alpine cow culture, the best cows get the biggest, most impressive bells. Some of the bells are enormous! And the gentle sound of 15 or 20 bells all ringing in harmony has to be heard to be appreciated. We will never forget it.

Along our walk, we came to a field where we were able to come very close to the cows, and take these photos and video. We concluded that this must be "the most famous cow in the world" as she has ended up in thousands of tourists' photo albums! She seemed quite content to let us add her to ours too!

Of course, we brought home a souvenir cow bell to remind us of the beautiful music made by Swiss cows!

After our leisurely hike, we came to the train station where we would ride the cog railway back down Mt. Rigi on our way to the lakeside and Vitznau. While we waited for the train, we had the chance to visit a lovely little chapel tucked into a grotto in the rock. The spring outside the entrance is said to have healing powers.

We caught our first glimpse of para-gliders soaring and drifting in the updrafts. David was ready to sign up; Peggy wasn't so sure! You will see them more clearly in the embedded video below.

In Vitznau, we were able to see the cars on the roundhouse turntable getting ready to turn around and head back up the mountain.

But it was time now to board a paddlewheel boat to return to Lucerne. The boat, which is actually a side-wheeler, is over 100 years old and well maintained. We enjoyed our catered dinner of fresh fish and salad aboard and had time to see the other activity on Lake Lucerne as we made our way back to downtown.

It had been a LONG day, and we had now only to grab the bus, and then take our "easy walk--10 minutes--no problem" up the switchback hill to Hotel Royal.

We had to pack up and get ready for our first transfer, as we were headed to Interlaken the next morning!

Today's trip: Lucerne to Mt. Rigi to Vitznau and then across the lake back to Lucerne.

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