Switzerland By Rail

Hello Once Again My Dear Readers

Warning! If reading blogs where people yammer on about how lovely their holiday was, makes you want to kick a puppy across the street, look away now. This is an unapologetic holiday album post. Completely and utterly indulgent. And there are a heck of a lot of photos I'm going to be sharing too. So either click the close button now or grab a cup of something warm to keep you going to the end.

Recently, as I've already mentioned in a previous post, I've been to Switzerland. We came back with thousands of photos, so it's taken until now to share them as I've spent many an hour going through and editing them. You may think there's a lot of photos coming up but that's nothing compared to how many there are in total, sitting on our computers.

First up, this is all I took for the whole eight days, a fleece jacket, a rucsac for clothes and a bag containing my books, music and camera

Our first night was spent in Cologne, Germany, after a train journey which took us beside the glorious views of the River Rhine. This is a shot of us on the steps of its cathedral. The ghostly images to the left are because of the long camera exposure. We were trying out a new tripod.

The Bernina Pass was one of the highlights of the trip, taking us deep into the mountains and snow.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather for all our sightseeing trips. Blue, cloudless skies were the perfect backdrop to the glorious white, snow-covered mountains. It may not look like it in this photo but I'm actually standing in the middle of a frozen lake.

The above photos I'm sharing for my crafty readers especially the knitters among you. On a day trip to Arosa, we noticed that they covered everything that stood still, in bright knitwear. Handrails, lamp posts, shutters and even trees.

Saw these in a shop window, about the size of a large football. They look like a cross between a sea urchin and a tribble from Star Trek. I sooo wanted to take one home but I'd need to re-mortgage my home to afford one. Everything they say about Switzerland being expensive is true. Think about what you night imagine something could cost, treble it and you'll be close.

 A holiday can't go by without a picture of me stood outside a chocolate shop.

Train-wise, this was the other highlight, riding on the Glacier Express into stunning snow-covered mountains and frozen lakes towards our next destination.

My iPod & my Kindle. I took them everywhere with me. Oh yes and my reading glasses! (cos I'm an Old Git)

Our hotel in Kandersteg. It was like stepping into a Christmas card here. Fresh snow greeted us each morning, as did the snow ploughs moments later.

I hadn't realised when booking the holiday that there would be an excursion to Zermett and an opportunity to go see the Matterhorn. Again, we were very lucky with the weather. Bright sun and blue skies. In fact, I came away a tad red with sunburn. Only problem was that to take a photo of us with the Matterhorn in the background, we had to squint directly into the sun, hence the pained expressions.

My favourite moment of the whole holiday, sat on a balcony, with a spectacular view of the mountains, a hot chocolate in my hand and the sun blasting down. A moment to treasure.

On our final day, we took ourselves off to the capital, Bern. This is just a section of the longest shopping arcade in Europe (and probably the most expensive too).

Once more, we had great weather. We climbed up high to the City's rose garden where we sat on a wall and took in the panoramic view. Don't know why but I wanted to show my feet in the shot too.

Bern is known for the ornamental fountains along its streets. This one particularly grabbed my attention. An ogre with a child in it's mouth and a queue of youngsters around him, ready to be gobbled up. Delightfully grotesque and at the same time heart-warming lol.

Food!!! Apart from chocolate, we came across these moorish discs. A Frisbee of sweet batter, coated in icing sugar. Like a large crisp tasting of doughnut.

And finally, I couldn't resist these oh-so-cute biscuits found in all the bakeries here. Very reminiscent of Jammy Dodgers.

Phew!!! That's the lot. We packed a bucket load into only a few days. It was exhausting but worth it. I've come home with incredible memories and an itch to return someday.

Bring on the next holiday!