Switzerland
Day 15 - Wednesday, 14 June 2000
We were up at 6:00 AM this morning so we could do some last minute packing and straighten up the apartment before Erika arrived at 7:30 to take us to the train station. It was nice to ride up the hill instead making that steep climb on foot.
After bidding our farewells and offering our gratitude for such a home-like setting at the apartment we boarded the 8:05 AM train to Brig.
The Glacier Express approaches a village.
In Brig we transferred to the famous Glacier Express train that took us to the charming, very old town of Chur where we spent our last night in Switzerland. The trip from Brig to Chur took about 4 ½ hours.
The landscape along the way, especially as we got closer to Chur, is somewhat different from that in the Oberland region. The houses and other buildings looked less like the typical Swiss chalet. There were fewer flowers in window boxes and gardens.
This photo was taken from the Glacier Express somewhere
between Brig and Chur.
There are many, many churches along the way. Many are of the baroque style, some dating back to the 10-12th centuries. The oldest is probably the monastery in Disentis which dates back to 765. The church, attached to the monastery, also baroque, was built from 1685 to 1709.
There are many tunnels along the way; the longest is the 15.4 km Furka tunnel. It was opened in 1982 after a 10-year construction period.
We arrived in Chur at 2:30 PM and walked from the train station to the Hotel Fredrick. After getting checked and settled in our rooms we took a walk around Chur. We ate our last Swiss dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was as wonderful as we had come to expect in Swiss restaurants.