Flying by train
Justine Tyerman needs more surgery on her nose after travelling the Golden Pass Line in Switzerland.
The early morning cable-car from Mürren on a high plateau in the Bernese Oberland down to Stechelberg in the Lauterbrunnen Valley was full of young children setting off to kindergarten and school in the valley. They were unaccompanied by parents but I noticed the cable-car driver and other passengers knew them by name and kept a close eye on them. I recalled Birgit, our Swiss tour leader on the Bear Trek hike saying children in Switzerland are taught to be independent from a very early age. The cable-car, so novel and exciting to me, was their standard form of transport, just like an ordinary ‘school bus’.
My heart was thumping as the huge cabin cleared the station and gilded smoothly down the vertical granite rock face awash with waterfalls the area is famous for. Above, the highest peaks glowed with the first rays of sunrise; below, the Lauterbrunnen Valley was still in the gloom of early morning. The sky was so clear and the view so breath-taking, my head was on a swivel to take it all in. The children giggled at the look of wonder on my face.
I was heading for Interlaken by bus and then Montreux by train with four changes in four hours but thanks to the well-oiled Swiss Transport System, all modes of transport and stations were all perfectly synchronised and aligned.
Travelling by rail in Switzerland is like flying on a calm day, only at ground level – it’s as smooth as silk and the views from the windows take your breath away. Many passengers relaxed, read books or slept but for me there was no time to rest. After my first major train journey in Switzerland a few years ago, I needed surgery on my nose – it was pressed hard up against the window for hours.
The same applied on the Golden Pass Line. My poor nose was squashed! The scenery was quintessentially Swiss – grass so green it looked artificial, satin lakes the colour of aquamarines, rivers of milky green foam spilling from waterfalls and glaciers, a horizon bristling with mountain peaks, villages with tall church spires, tidily-stacked woodpiles.
The pastures were perfectly manicured and smooth - like iced green cake. I had often wondered if they mowed the hillsides – and indeed they do. I watched a mower operating on a steep slope alongside the train, and a man with a weed-eater neatly cutting every single blade of grass.
Higher up, the hills were ablaze with autumn finery, bright splashes of colour in the black, green forests.
We passed chalets with decorative, carved friezes around the balconies, and window boxes crammed with bright red flowers. Our Kiwi houses are so plain by comparison.
An elderly lady digging in her garden stopped to wave and smile at the passing train. A sail bobbed on a still lake, becalmed amid reflections of snow-capped peaks.
Cable-cars, gondolas and funiculars climbed to every high promontory. The Swiss have a wonderful ‘can-do’ mentality when it comes to transport – money helps too, of course. Some high alpine villages only remain viable due to the reliable transport links.
After a while, my eyes (and nose!) ached for a rest. It was an intense experience, not blinking for fear of missing the view. I needed eyes in the back of my head.
At Zweisimmen, I disembarked and the next train was right there, waiting at the adjacent platform.
My seat was reserved on this sector of the Golden Pass so I had to stay in one place. Not easy but the huge panoramic windows meant I always had a great view.
Many new chalets were under construction in the villages along the way, the honey-coloured timber and copper spouting a strong contrast to the sun-blacked old buildings with their carved wood balconies.
We passed through the ritzy resort town of Gstaad with its luxury boutiques and hotels and the region that produces the world-famous Gruyère cheese. Cows were grazing contentedly in green pastures, pausing occasionally to lick each other.
Somewhere, imperceptibly, we moved from German to French-speaking Switzerland. The road signs, station names and announcements on the train were abruptly all in French. The cows looked the same but I wondered if they mooed in French here?
Lake Geneva suddenly came into view triggering a frenzied scramble for cameras and iPhones to capture the sparkling blue water flickering through a forest of tall, slim, white-trunked trees.
As we started the steep, windy cogwheel descent towards Montreux, hotels and modern glass and steel high-rises replaced rustic alpine chalets. The lake, bathed in sunshine with the snowy alps in the distance, was breath-taking.
I met Aurélia from Montreux Riviera Tourism for lunch at Safran Restaurant overlooking the lake. We feasted on a delicious seafood concoction in a tasty bouillon. It was called ‘Marmite de la Mer’. I’m a Vegemite fan but this kind of ‘Marmite’ was sensational.
Chatting with Aurélia, I learned all about the region she loves. Switzerland is well-and-truly landlocked, about 160km from the closest sea, but that doesn’t stop the country declaring the Lake Geneva waterfront from Villeneuve to Lutry ‘the Montreux Riviera’. Surrounded by mountains and fringed with vineyards, the region has a Mediterranean chique, sophistication and climate that has attracted the rich, famous and titled for centuries.
Actors, musicians, artists and writers have long been drawn to this beautiful, tranquil place. Charlie Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life in Vevey, Freddie Mercury immortalised Lake Geneva and the peaks of Le Grammont on the cover of the album ‘Made in Heaven’, Igor Stravinsky composed ‘The Rite of Spring’ in Montreux, and Prince named a song after the terraced vineyards of Lavaux, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Jazz-lovers flock to the famous Montreux Jazz Festival, history buffs to the fairy-tale Chillon Castle, wine aficionados to the gorgeous vineyards of Lavaux, epicureans to the region’s many fine restaurants and art lovers to the Biennale de Montreux sculpture exhibition on the shores of Lake Geneva.
‘OK, so where to first?’ I asked Aurélia, as soon as I swallowed the last morsel of ‘Marmite’.
‘See that paddle steamer coming in to dock over there?’ she replied.
‘Jump aboard and cruise up the lake to Chillon Castle. Exploring Switzerland’s most famous medieval castle is the perfect way to start your visit to Montreux Riviera.’
See also Justine’s earlier stories in her series about Switzerland: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Justine Tyerman was a guest of Switzerland Tourism and Montreux Riviera Tourism, and travelled courtesy of the Swiss Travel Pass and Swiss International Air Lines.