Thu, Aug 9: Glacier Express train to Zermatt, Switzerland

Hotel (5 nights):  Schweizerhof

We took the Glacier Express train to Zermatt.  Some of the best train scenery anywhere.  Part of the trip re-traced the route we took earlier from Chur to Samedan, in the opposite direction.  The route went through what the Swiss call the Grand Canyon of the Swiss Alps.  Don't blink or you'll miss it.   
 

We left Samedan at about 9:00 am, and arrived in Chur at around 10:00 am.  We left Chur at 10:27 am and arrived in Zermatt at 5:00 pm.

We brought lunch to eat on board. They did serve lunch, but very expensive. And the guide book I read said you had to order in advance, but you did not.

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Zermatt seems to be mostly expensive hotels, expensive restaurants, and expensive shops.  And, of course, the Matterhorn.  But it also has gondolas, trains, etc. to mountain tops for beautiful, panoramic views.  And lots of trails. 

And Zermatt is a quite nice town to walk around in, and it also has an old town section that had a lot of old buildings.  Some of the old buildings were for storing grain, and were built on pillars with large rock slats on the pillars to keep the mice out.  The old buildings have stone tile roofs, to handle the weather.

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