Sunday, June 13, 2010

Switzerland; Glacier express June 8th(ish?)

The Glacier Express is a panoramic train through the Swiss alps. It costs about 110 euro/ 120 franks, and it starts in Zermott or Briggs and winds it's way to St. Martin (??) or Davos, a tiny nowhereville. The ride is roughly 7 hours, and if you don't get a car where the heating is broken, then you'll have a pleasant view out of the fully panoramic windows. If, like us, your car has no air conditioning, you will fry like a piece of bacon. Air said I turned into a little shrimp, small and bright pink. She was a lobster, bright red from the sun, and C was... we couldn't decide because he was grumpy from being so sick and the heat wasn't helping. We sat in hell for about four hours, and were ecstatic to get off the train at the stops along the way.
We ate lunch outside while they changed engines (the grade becomes too steep at times and they have to have special engines to get the train up the mountains, which means fairly frequent stops for changes) and enjoyed the scenery. Lunch was fresh bread torn from a loaf, appples and water. it felt like true mountaineering style, and was probably the best lunch we've had in terms of place and enjoyment.
There were, as I said, several stops, and we got off to not only breathe but to take some spectuacular photos of the countryside. After the last stopover where the St Mrtinez group had to switch trains, we switched compartments to an empty one with air, and it was still hot, but bearable. The sun beats down in a non-stop heating on one side of the train, so we moved to the shaded side and just relaxed into happier boiled seafood. When we got of in Davos it turned out to be one of those tiny nowherevilles that is only busy in high skiing season, so there was nothing open after 5-6pm and nowhere to go when our train left at 9pm.
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Now, we were coming out off Briggs, remember, and none of us had really slept at all since Milan, and we were really trying to stay awake for the 7 hour ride through the alps, and by the time we got to Davos were just absolutely ready to get somewhere and sleep. We had some caffeine, played some hackeysack and tried to relax a bit while we waited for the train. We had two changeovers before the sleeper rail, so we couldn't even really think of more than nodding a little on the connectors. The sleeper went from 11:30 to 4:30, when it got to Salzburg, and we were so tired that when we finally found an empty compartment, we all just pulled the couches out (in the daytime these compartments seat 6, at night they pull out into 3 couch-beds) and passed out, only waking for the ticket lady.
We made it out of the train on time and found ourself waiting till it was a little lighter out, and then set off for the hostel knowing full well we couldn't check in until after 11. We figured we would drop the bags and if we had to go find food and a park to sleep in for a while. The guy was nice though, and pointed out that the lounge was empty and would be relatively quiet from 5:30 to about 7, we could try to catch a quick nap if we wanted. So we did. We dropped the bags at the luggage drop, carried our small packs and laid out on the most uncomfortable benches I've ever encountered. We legitimately passed out until after 9, backs and necks and shoulders on fire, we endured the laughs and comments. It was the best, worst sleep we'd had, and it was fantastic.

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