OtR: Kandersteg to Täsch to Zermatt

Woke up to no rain today! Of course, the weather was clearing now that we were leaving Kandersteg!!!

The dining room at the Belle Epoque Hotel Victoria opened @ 7:00a this morning. No hot food at that hour. OK by us. An earlier than planned breakfast meant that we were on the move by 8:15a … heading to the Lötschberg Tunnel car train even earlier than we had anticipated.

Car trains are a convenient way of crossing Switzerland’s mountainous regions and avoid long drives on the curvy roads in the mountain passes. There are apparently five of these trains that traverse the Alps. The road here ends just beyond Kandersteg. To travel further south, one must take the train. Or drive all the way back to Interlaken and then around to the Furka Pass … a scenic drive, but making for a very long day. So, the car train it would be for us.

When we arrived in Kandersteg on the 25th, we drove by an incredibly long queue of cars at a standstill … stretching quite a distance out of town. It was the line-up for the vehicles that were waiting to board the car train. When we went out later that day to check on the logistics for embarking the train, the line was still very long. That led us to pre-purchase our ticket online … good for any departure within a year. This would allow us to by-pass the line at the ticket kiosk and go through a different lane to queue-up for the train.

Turns out that having advance tickets was unnecessary this morning. When we arrived at 8:27a, there was absolutely no vehicles in sight. Having our ticket in hand, however, we were able to use the self-service gate to check in and board the 8:36a train that was minutes away from departing. Ticket scanned, we simply drove down to the train, entered the lane indicated by the handler, and drove up a ramp and onto the train … continuing forward through several empty carriages until our forward progress was blocked by a parked vehicle. We then turned off the engine, rolled down the windows, and settled in for the 18-minute ride to Goppenstein at the other end.

The ride was interesting. Part of it was in the open … with views; part of it went through the Lötschberg Tunnel, construction for which started in 1906. The tunnel has been in regular service since 1913. At the highest point of the 9-mile (14.6 km) track, we reached 4,070 ft (1,240 m) above sea level. Soon enough, we were de-training in Goppenstein.

Our drive after de-training took us through a series of short tunnels that seemed like they were built primarily to protect vehicles from avalanches. It was a pleasant enough drive … partly cloudy skies with intermittent sunshine and blue skies … passing by and through many villages. A more industrial ambiance overall. There was nowhere to pullover to enjoy the scenery, so I had to make do with drive-by photography.

Around 9:45a, we arrived in Täsch … where the road dead ends. Finding the Matterhorn Terminal was easy. Because we had reserved our parking space here in advance a few days ago, the scanner at the entrance read the license plate and the barrier opened automatically. As it turns out, we could have arrived sans reservation today. There were plenty of open spaces and we found one easily enough on level -3. Securing the car, we went up to level -1 to purchase our R/T tickets using our SHFC for the train that was about to leave. By 10:10 we were seated. By 10:16 the train was rolling. By 10:28, the 12-minute ride was over … the highlight being the glimpse we caught of the Matterhorn from our starboard side seats.

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*** SHFC Reconciliation (PER PERSON): CHF 120 outlay … we added to our credit balance with the CHF 8.60 R/T Zermatt Shuttle ticket purchase. We are now ahead of the game by CHF 48.30/person.Læs mere