Oh he of little faith!

Friday, June 06, 2014
St. Gervais les Bains, Rhône-Alpes, France
The day started with a fabulous breakfast, which was included in the price of 110 Swiss francs, at Hetel Alexandra in Locarno. I had muesli, yoghurt, cheese & 3 meats bread roll, kiwi fruit juices & coffee; Bryan had a coissante & no muesli - heaps to choose from. We weren't catching a train until 10 to 11, so walked around the lake. This town loves flowers and also has a fantastic park lakeside; the park has a map to show the name of the trees/plants and where they originated from. There was a callistemon near the bananas that reminded me of our garden - except ours has white flowers, not red. We were wondering how they kept the lake so clean of debris (we'd come across a pile caught in a corner), when along came the boat with the cleaner (see photo). At one stage there was lots of noise - it was a swan flying in, neck extended and flapping and hissing at another swan. This swan scared off 3 other swans and their beating wings on the water made a lot of noise. (I've never seen swans fly before - so another tick! lol)

This morning was the Centovalli train to Domodossola - a scenic train which left Locarno Fart (that's the station - it's underground next to the regular station) Switzerland and traveled through Italy . It cost 2 Swiss francs each because this train had panoramic windows. I'd read a lot about this train, and yes it was good; but not a patch on the Bernini which we did on a regular train (no extra cost) last year. But the trees were magnificent - couldn't get a photo that told the story.

Got the train to Brig (back in Switzerland) almost straightaway (arrived 12.36 and left 12.58) -this was an EC train, which meant FAST. Brig to Martigny is also described as a Scenic Route - it was nice (crops and stuff - can't remember exactly - that says it all doesn't it?) From Martigny, we were catching the Mont Blanc Express. There wasn't much at Martigny station - certainly no staff or an information desk. We found a timetable near a siding - there was construction work and we'd have to take a bus for about 28 minutes. That was okay - I'd suspected construction from someone's comments on Trip Adviser. Even though it ended up adding an extra hour to this leg of the journey, it didn't matter as we'd gained time earlier in the day .

Mont Blanc Express was fabulous!! I just planned it as a convenient way to get down to France again. Within 5 minutes (or less) of getting on the train, Bryan and I were looking at each other - we'd gone up the mountain like an escalater! Then came the hair pin bends and absolutely fabulous scenery. Fabulous. Even the time waiting for the bus at the Swiss/French border wasn't so bad, as we spoke to other passengers (some lived in the area). Then back on the train through Chamonix and past Mont Blanc to St Gervais ......

Ah - the name of this blog! In Martigny when we found the timetable, it had that the train finished at St Gervais Le Fayet. Our hotel booking was for St Gervais Les Bains. Bryan was in a tizzy (okay, possibly because last year I almost booked a hotel at Kristiansand instead of Kristiansund - the two towns being 200 miles apart - but we live and learn). I knew everything was fine - but you know how it is .... trepidation set in.   Then we arrived and the sign read
"St Gervais Les Bains Le Fayet" (spelling might be wrong). Only the French! On timetables it could be anything.

Arrived at the hotel not much after 19.00. No sightseeing here. Had dinner at the hotel.
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Comments

Rae
2014-06-08

Wow, and Wow again. Gee you could have made a packed lunch with the breakfast leftovers.
The hairpin bends sound a bit scary.
Have you seen any cats over there?

anne.nathan
2014-06-11

Rae, we saw 'statue' cats on heaps of roof tops around Freiburg. I was trying to get a photo for you, but the train went too fast. Maybe you can find out what these cats are all about and let me know - we pass through that area again next week.

2025-02-16

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