[Danielsan]

2 January 2025 at 12:29:20 #2260021

Hello Forum folks,

Here is part two of my trip report.

Day 4) Trip to Gornergrat (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/gornergrat/)

Tongue-sting feeling slightly better, after breakfast I grabbed ”Bag”, and since I had no major plans on my last day in Zermatt, and the sun was shining, I decided to do some hiking from the Gornergrat. So up I went. (I believe it was CHF 38 with the STP.) A beautiful ride up, as one can see the village of Tasch way off in the distance on the way. Once up there, I took off in the direction towards the rear of the hotel and walked/hiked for a while, taking some nice photos of the two glaciers. Then I went up to the summit area where all sorts of people were milling about, taking pics, selfies, and just enjoying the gorgeous scenery. Unfortunately, though, the clouds tackled the upper part of the Matterhorn, leaving only the base visible. So after getting in some nice pics, and after my summit beer, I headed down. From the train station, I found a sigh pointing to Riffelberg. Since it became more overcast now, I decided on the 30 min hike to Riffelberg instead of the 60 min trail. Once there, I had a bowl of soup and another summit beer. Then I headed back into town. Again, I walked around the village and eventually spent some time in a nice place called Du Pont. Located kind of on the fork in the road heading away from the church and Matterhorn museum. Had some food, had a gellato just outside on my to Hexen Bar for a couple more beers, and to bid adieu to Hanse. An uneventful night ensued after repeating the pub closures.

As an aside, I happen to love it in Zermatt (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/zermatt/) . I was there in 1973 and 1975 and have kept the memories alive until 6 years ago (and last year, and this year) when I returned as an adult. It was a sleepy, little, very green village back then. Now it amazes me how densely packed, busy, and yet still charming it is. Mainly because of the view. It’s also crazy how, for a “car free village” one still has to be careful of the number of cars there are. One must be careful and not walk in the middle of any of the streets. They’re just electric and like golfcarts on steroids. If not the cars, the bikes. It’s only car free for tourists, not locals. (But I still love it there.) Anyway….

Day 5) Travel day to Celerina

After breakfast, packing, grabbing “Bag” and stuffing it into a larger work horse backpack, I grabbed my suitcase, and we all went to the train station together. (My tongue felt almost back to normal at this point….yay) I sent my suitcase on to pick it up 2 days later, and I headed to Zurich. Once there, I headed back to the same kiosk to retrieve my contact info and straighten out the mess of my wifi. (I was panicking because I had a friend meeting me in less than a week and had no way to communicate with her.) All worked out, thank goodness, and I headed for the next train towards Chur and ultimately Celerina (which is one stop before St Moritz). It was a long but very peaceful day of traveling on the Swiss railroad. The hotel was at the end of the train station, about a hundred meters after turning left. I checked in and got oriented with the hotel and went to one of the less fancy eateries for some dinner, hung out in the lounge for a couple of beers, and basically called it a night. The hotel issued me an Engadine card. It was like a credit card, and I actually got, I believe CHF 10 back upon returning it at my departure.

Day 6) Mt Diavolezza

I put the Engadin Card to work. After breakfast, I grabbed my new buddy, Bag, and headed for a ten minute walk to a nearby station to go to Diavolezza. Once again, the skies were grey and dreary. I was hoping it would be better weather and took a chance. A bit over a half hour I was at the valley station for Diavolezza. Unfortunately, no change of weather. Up I went and right into the clouds that only became more dense. They were high enough to see some scenery on the way up, but that’s where they were hanging out, up there. So, for my third day in a row, I was unable to view a glacier. I caught a glimpse of it down below in between some of the clouds’ movement. So I had my summit beer and went back down. After about a 45 min wait later, I boarded a train and took it right into St Moritz (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/st-moritz/)  . There, I crossed over the river and started my hike around the lake. After that, I was back at the station and boarded a bus to take me through Silvaplana to Mt Corvatsch (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/corvatsch/)  on basically a recon mission for when I did go two days later. Back to St Moritz and a 4 min train ride to Celerina. Dinner at Bo’s, a little restaurant adjacent to the Cresta Palace Hotel where I was staying. A couple lagers in the lounge and in for the night. More to come.      Happy New Year, everyone.

Regards,

Danielsan

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[Roger Sexton]

Reply 1 of 3 • 2 January 2025 at 14:35:42 #2260025

Happy New Year!

Day 5 is very interesting. You ignored the Gletscher Bummelzug and travelled the more civilized way via Bern and Zurich.

Best wishes

Roger

[Danielsan]

Reply 2 of 3 • 3 January 2025 at 8:39:50 #2260059

Hi Roger,

Happy New Year.

Yes, I avoided quite a bit on day 5. Several months ago, I was scoping out Sargans between Zurich and Chur on google maps. That was after missing out on the Glacier Express (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/glacier-express/)  , which was my first choice (even though I was on it 6 years ago), being the most direct. After that was filled up, I directed my attention towards the Rhine Valley through Andermatt. The ride would have taken several (about 7) hours and many stops. That’s when I started looking at Sargans between Zurich and Chur. But as it turns out, I needed to go through Zurich to get my phone situation straightened out. After that was taken care of, I just wanted to get to my next destination for reasons mentioned in my report. Thanks for the suggestions.

Regards,

Danielsan

[User]

Reply 3 of 3 • 3 January 2025 at 18:04:45 #2262042

Hi Danielsan,

Thanks for part 2.  That’s nice to hear that although Zermatt has changed a lot, it’s still worthy of a visit 🙂

Shame about the cloudy weather.  I hope Corvatsch co-operated when you visited later on.

Kind regards,

Yolanda