11 June 2011

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Today we are travelling to Switzerland, starting with the high speed train (ICE) to Basel. It departs Arnhem at 907, and skipping across the Germany border just over 15 minutes later. With intermediate stops at Oberhausen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf, we pull into Cologne at 1045. The train ‘reverses direction’, and pulls out of the station the way it came in. This gives rise to some consternation with some passengers, but it quickly becomes clear that we are headed southeast, not back north. After a stop at a suburb of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, the ICE picks up speed and takes off at 180 mph, hurtling through the gentle rolling hills on the eastern side of the river Rhine. The line swings back and forth through tunnels and over ridges at speed. An hour after leaving Cologne, we stop at Frankfurt Airport station, with the high-rise towerblocks of Frankfurt rearing in the distance. The weather has grown sunny and warm as we head west towards Mannheim, then south to Karlsruhe in the Rheinland. On the last stretch to Basel, south of Offenburg, we canter along at 100 mph max. Works are afoot though to facilitate high speeds. The railway now starts to move up in altitude, reaching 1000 feet near Freiburg. We pull into the Swiss station at Basel (Basel SBB) at 1445, less than six hours after leaving Holland. When we first travelled to Switzerland by train in 1979, it took nine hours.

Basel SBB station

At Basel SBB, we change from platform 10 to platform 6, and join a fast service to Bern, the Swiss capital. The mobile phone provider changes from the German E-Plus to Swisscom, which also supplies information on the cell that you’re in. This is not done in either Holland or Germany, but is a nice feature here in Switzerland. Although the mobile phone has no issues reconnecting after passing through tunnels, the GPS receiver has great difficulties, and I barely get a. We change trains again at Bern, which we reach just before 4pm, and cross the platform to the fast service to Brig.

Thunersee

This is a double-decker train. A lady across the aisle carries a mobile phone with a raucous ringtone, which she answers in a language I totally fail to even recognise. Probably one of the Slavonic languages. We smirk when she loses connection upon entering the Lötschberg Basis Tunnel at Frutigen; my mobile merrily continues to get a signal, which indicates our progression through the 22 miles of darkness. From previous journeys, I recognise the villages along the way: Kandersteg and Goppenstein. Just before 5pm, we reemerge into the daylight of the Rhone valley, just west of the town of Visp. The high mountain ranges on either side of the river rear up well in excess of 10,000 feet and make for spectacular scenery on the last stretch of the journey to Brig, which we reach at 5.10pm.

Brig

It is quite warm in that town, and we first want to have a bite to eat before phoning the proprietor of the chalet to collect us. However, the left luggage machines only accept coins, so we have to break into a banknote to get that. It costs 7 francs to deposit luggage. Then we head into the station restaurant for some pasta, sausage and salad for F16.50 (1F = £0.75). Having devoured that, Mr S. is phoned and he duly turns up in a vehicle, suitable for carrying large amounts of luggage. We are driven the five miles up to Blatten, which lies 650 metres (2200 feet) higher than Brig, up the side of a large mountain slope. After a lengthy introduction to Silvana, our chalet for the next two weeks, we settle down. I had difficulties recognising the village, which has been filled up with dozens and dozens of new edifices. Remember though, that I have not been here since 1985.

Blatten