[traveljet]

3 January 2024 at 12:08:30 #1042920

Part 1 Trip report with photos of Zermatt
https://www.myswissalps.com/community/thread/trip-report-zermatt-nov-2023-zurich-christmas-market/

Part 2 Trip report – Day trip to Morges/Montreux/Zermatt Hotel & Restaurants
https://www.myswissalps.com/community/thread/pt-2-trip-report-zermatt-nov-2023-zurich-christmas-mark/

Part 3 Trip report – Luggage Service & Christmas markets
https://www.myswissalps.com/community/thread/trip-report-pt-3-zermatt-nov-2023-zurich-christmas-markets/

Part 4 Trip report – Zurich FRED HOTEL WALHALLA Limmenstrasse
We arrived at the main station and took the nearest escalator up without looking for the sign to Silhquai which would bring us to the direction of our hotel.  Our train platform was on the lowest basement of the station when we got off.  So it was a big mistake not looking for the sign as we got lost in the massive station and going around in circles. Again thankfully we did not have to lug our suitcases whilst trying to find the right exit. Up and down and around we went till we finally ended up on the main concourse. Had we looked for the signs and lift, we would have found ourselves just opp the lane that led to the hotel.

I believe this hotel is featured on MySwissAlps and we highly recommend it if you want a short 5min walk to the Zurich main station. Definitely worth paying for if it’s just a short stay.  We stayed in the Junior Suite which was just nice for two of us as we read about the other rooms being rather small.

For detailed directions to the hotel, please read my review on Tripadvisor. There are photos in the review which give some idea of the directions.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g188113-d233016-r928794702-Walhalla_Hotel-Zurich.html

In conclusion, this was an exceptional amazing trip during a “low season” for us. The views we had were beyond expectation and it’s not the norm because 2023 was a very long warm autumn and suddenly the snow arrived. Hence we had two seasons back to back during our longer stat in Zermatt. We had the luxury of time to chill out and hence, very good weather coupled with some wet days.

We don’t know if we will be able to Switzerland but every visit has been an incredible one. For those who have not seen as much of the alpine scenery or taken those amazing mt rides, I would still recommend either late May (just be aware you may encounter pesky flies) or my personal preference is Late Sept going into October because all those rides are open in the Bernese Oberland and many other places.

All the best to everyone who read the reports and a Blessed New Year to all!

P.S – I forgot to attach the photos of the Museum at Morges so I will do it here. Perhaps admin can decide whether to shift them to Pt 2 of my report.

[Yolanda]

4 January 2024 at 7:30:20 #1043426

A further thank you traveljet for all the trip reports and photos. Photos transferred to Part 2 and removed from this report.

Kind regards,

Yolanda

[traveljet]

4 January 2024 at 10:19:23 #1044169

Hello Yolanda,

Many thanks for the assistance in moving the photos of the museum to Pt.2 of the trip report.😁❤️

[traveljet]

4 January 2024 at 12:20:25 #1044615

Hi Yolanda, I noticed when the headings of my 4 trip reports appeared in my email – it came out as “Trip Report Zermatt Nov 2023 &amp Zurich Christmas Markets”

1) Out of curiosity what does &amp mean?
2) is there anyway I can input “PT 1” to the heading of my first report as I realised I omitted that?

Thanks in advance.

[Yolanda]

4 January 2024 at 12:26:33 #1044754

Hi traveljet,

Yes, I can amend the title with your first report.

I do not see “&amp” when I view your subject headings. Perhaps it’s something your side?

Kind regards,

Yolanda

[traveljet]

4 January 2024 at 12:45:32 #1044965

Hi Yolanda,

Hmmm..strange that you don’t see the &amp on your side. Looks like it’s something on my email side.

Thanks for adding the Pt.1 to my heading. Hope I am not seeing it differently on my browser but now I see Pt. 1 sandwiched between Pt 4 & Pt 3 on the Trip Report forum. Is it possible to shift it down to be the 1st report?

Regards

[Yolanda]

4 January 2024 at 13:01:59 #1044966

Hi traveljet,

I don’t think we can shift the placement of the reports.  The placement order depends on the date / timing of the replies to the report.

Shall look into it and revert.

Kind regards,

Yolanda

[traveljet]

5 January 2024 at 9:54:31 #1045785

Hi Yolanda,

Noted. Thanks.

[Annika]

5 January 2024 at 11:01:44 #1045789

Hi traveljet,

Yolanda is correct. The order of threads is date-dependent. No worries though: the numbers in your trip report indicate the right order.

Thanks again for your wonderful trip report. I can’t think of a better campaign for a low-season visit to Switzerland :-). I’m happy you were so lucky with the weather. Experiencing both late autumn as well as the onset of winter is great. It makes for beautiful images, as yours clearly show. I hope you’ll be able to enjoy yet another Switzerland holiday in the future.

Thank you for your New Year’s wishes, and the same to you!

[Danielsan]

6 January 2024 at 11:23:06 #1048864

Hi Yolanda,

I just finished traveljets trip reports, and just as an FYI, I also noticed the “&amp” on the forum dated on the other attached image. I, too, didn’t know what it meant, but just happened to see it as well. Hopefully it is nothing to worry about.

Regards,

Danielsan

 

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot_20240106_051241_Email.jpg
   

2. 

   Screenshot_20240106_051415_Email.jpg
   

[traveljet]

6 January 2024 at 13:07:49 #1049708

Hi Danielsan,

How are you doing? Wishing you a Blessed New Year 2024 although we know there will be challenges ahead.

It was kind of you to drop a note with screenshots to let the moderators know you also noticed the strange “&amp”. Wonder if it’s an issue with Apple gadgets (if you are using that).

Thanks for reading my reports – I don’t think there’s really anything new there since you have covered many more places than we did around that area. It took us almost 3 weeks to really get over the jetlag and we are now able to adjust back to our regular routine back home. It is good to wake up and not think about which train or which platform or transfers to get to our destination 🤣

Wishing you all the best🔆

[Arno]

6 January 2024 at 18:36:42 #1049732

Hi Danielsan,

I also noticed “&” in some of the thread titles in the daily forum e-mails. It’s nothing to worry about. It replaces a normal ampersand (&) but it looks a bit weird. I made a note of it. Perhaps this can be fixed sometime.

[Danielsan]

17 January 2024 at 9:29:43 #1074300

Hi traveljet,

So sorry for the delay in responding. Between my siblings and I in the midst of selling our parent’s home, and the final closing, the new changes in MySwissAlps, (I was shut out for about 4 days, and I thought I had done something terribly wrong, and, again, after 4 days or so, I was able to log back on…very scary for me) and the holidays, I am finally able to respond in earnest. I’m doing well and wish you a belated Happy New Year as well. I can’t believe you spent all 18 days in Zermatt! Wow! That’s fantastic. I looked at the Coeur des Alpes, but it was a bit out of my price range. However, as you found out, it was a few minutes’ walk to the Glacier Paradise station. When I was there in September, the cable car to Furi and Trockener Steg wasn’t running. We could go to Furi, and Schwarzee, then to Trockener Steg on the continuously running gondola, and there, we switched to the larger cable car up to the Glacier Paradise. It sounds like, in your case, this wasn’t so. There are different routes, depending on the skiing season, summer hours, and such. Either way, it’s beautiful. This past September, I looked into going into Italy on the new cable car, but the gal at the valley station said it was not running that day. So that’s when I just explored the town by walking to the other end and eventually back to my hotel. I’m so glad your weather was great and the leaves were still turning, for some great scenery. Loved your photos. Did I miss it, or did you see any Christmas markets there? I’m so glad you had a great time, and I hope it’s not your last trip there, as I love reading your trip reports. I’m still looking through some of your previous reports, (and those from Mark) as I’m planning to see the Engadin region next September as well as back to Zermatt. I’ve already booked 4 nights (in Zermatt) for next September and am still planning the rest of my itinerary. Take care and stay well.

Regards,

Danielsan

[traveljet]

17 January 2024 at 14:54:21 #1075013

Hi Danielsan,

It’s so good to finally hear from you again. I feel like I have connected again with some long lost penpal🤣😀! In my haste to reply, I keyed in my password wrongly and got locked out. I was so used to my previous password before setting a new one for the new format of this website. LOL. Thanks to Arno who released me from “jail” after I emailed him. 😊

Thanks for taking the time to reply and it’s good to hear that you are well and managed to settle family matters, giving you some time to engage on this site again.

It’s nice to hear you do enjoy reading trip reports – it takes up quite a bit of time trying to summarize the details and wondering what to include or exclude. It’s always good to include tips for fellow travellers to take note as that is what I always look out for. But it does mean longer reports – the good thing is they can decide how much they want to read.

Wow, so you are planning to return this year Sept? Hope the railway constructions going on will not be an issue as I recall there will be quite a bit of railworks for 2024. The Engadine region is also lovely for walking and chilling out although I don’t recall seeing that many pubs in the area – but I could be wrong since I was not on the lookout for them.

I gave some additional tips of the area to Richard on 13 Jan with links to the 2 hotels I stayed at. Hope Richard is ok as he has not responded to any of the posts since 4 Jan. I am not sure if you saw the information I psoted on Engadine but here it is anyway:

https://www.myswissalps.com/community/thread/itinerary-help-engadine-v-additional-time-in-bernese-oberland/

The two B&Bs (Hotel Private or Hotel Maria) should definitely be more within your budge range compared to Hotel Couer.

We also stayed in Pontresina – some details here:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g198832-d529636-r625279611-Hotel_Allegra-Pontresina_Engadin_St_Moritz_Canton_of_Graubunden_Swiss_Alps.html

Have you taken a ride on the Bernina Express? I really enjoyed this and if you haven’t done it, here’s a good video with explanation. Sorry if I missed out on reading about this in your trip reports if you did ride it:

https://youtu.be/1sDPsZ9x1gw?si=6ZZR10OJ8mW4p59F

Actually after sharing the details about the Engadine area, I started to miss the place and felt so blessed to have been there before.

In answer to the christmas market in Zermatt – we were too early for it so we only visited 3 main ones in Zurich and one in Winterthur. When you return to zermatt, give the Republic Zermatt pub (the one with the burgers) a try – we thought it had a nice vibe to it or maybe because it was spacious and we liked the music they were playing (well most of it) that brought back memories of the old days when music was real music and not the monotonous techno beats we hear these days.

Re the ride up to the Glacier Matterhorn – there was quite a bit of construction at the station and I recall those of us who alighted at Furi were rather “lost” because we thought we had to wait at the gondola side to go further up. As it turned out, we had the full cable car ride all the way up which was actually what I was hoping for all the time. Marvellous views whilst sitting in our own cable car and the snow snow snow all around the slopes and peaks was so beautiful.

Maybe because the ride on the Gornergrat train was marred by 2 ear piercing screaming temper tantrum throwing toddlers in our carriage esp on the way down, that I found our “private” our cable car up the Glacier Matterhorn Paradise such a blissful ride. 😁I honestly don’t know why we ended up with the same kids on the way up and on the way down during our visit to the Gornergrat. Thankfully the views were amazing and made up for the ear splitting ride…

By the way, thanks for the tips on the luggage service that you tried. It was a breeze even though our luggage handle broke – something must have caught on to it as it was a clean break right in the centre – maybe a wire or something when they tied all the bags together. So do remember to take photos of your luggage before and after just in case. But they were most professional in addressing the issue so I would still use them again if we should return. The good news is I managed to get the handle replaced when I returned to Singapore👍🏼.

You have got quite a bit of time to plan so wish you the best! Perhaps you may want to explore the St Gallen Abbey with the gorgeous library as well as the town of Appenzell and the surrounding region. In Zurich, take a day trip to Stein am Rhein too if you like frescoes on the old buildings.

Best regards😁

[Alpenrose555]

18 January 2024 at 5:09:37 #1075022

Hi Traveljet,

I really enjoyed reading your trip reports – a real treasure trove of interesting observations and practical tips.

So glad you had such a wonderful trip!

Alpenrose

[Yolanda]

18 January 2024 at 8:35:39 #1075736

Hi traveljet,

Just fyi, Richard replied to the thread in regard to Engadine vs Bernese Oberland 🙂

Kind regards,

Yolanda