Up and off to our free breakfast then finished packing and took a taxi over to the train station. Bought our tickets for the Glacier Express as I forgot to do that yesterday (reserved seats ages ago but not the actual tickets) whoops.

On the train now and apart from about 6 of us the entire carriage is occupied by an Asian tour group .

There's also a couple with a baby and a 3 year old. The 3 year old is not well disciplined at all. That plus tour group = carriage full of shouting people!

Ran into my friend from the Bernina Express and he said his carriage is nice and quiet. Bragger.

Stopped at Chur to put the engine at the other end of the train. On the platform there was a group of musicians playing oompah music. People were getting right into it, dancing around and bopping along. Bev had a huge grin and was one of the boppers.

Back on the train and the Asian ladies had discovered the baby and were swarming it, shrieking and ooohing and ahhhhhing over it every time it did anything, like stick it's tongue out, gurgle or pass wind. Then they were having photos with it and giving it kisses etc. And all of this was happening at top decibel of course. They just go nuts over kids. It was like a feeding frenzy!

Looking out the window the scenery is really pretty, particularly just before Andermatt as there is heaps of snow around. Even though you get a great view from the carriages, there are no windows anywhere you can open so any photos you take have reflections in them. From that point of view the Bernina Express was much better.

It's funny how this is an "express" considering how slowly it goes . As they say "welcome to the world's slowest express train". It doesn't matter too much though as the scenery is always nice to look at.

At Andermatt the Asian tour group got off the train (yay!) so now we have the carriage almost entirely to ourselves and we can move from seat to seat as we please depending on which side the view is on. So of course we all promptly fall asleep.

Now about 2 hours away from Zermatt. Passing green meadows filled with yellow and white and pink and purple flowers. Horses and cows and goats and even a couple of llamas have been seen grazing in the fields. Heidi houses dot the valley sides up to the bottom of the snow line. Tongues of snow snake down in gullies towards the green meadows. And of course there are pine trees everywhere. Some have bright green tips on the end of each branch as though they're growing their own fairy lights. Very, very pretty.

Interesting facts.
Fact 1: The alps rise approximately 1cm per year. This is partly due to ice melting so the "weight" on the mountains reduces and partly due to the African tectonic plate moving northwards pushing the alps further up.

Fact 2: The Glacier Express trains are currently 80% powered by hydro generated energy with a plan to increase this to 100% by 2050.

Fact 3: During the cholera epidemics people weren't allowed to exchange food stuffs for fear the cholera would spread . Necessity is the mother of invention and all that and so ingenious locals fashioned a type of pastry out of potatoes, onions, leeks and apples which they then cooked in the oven. "Best served with a glass of red wine" said our audio guide. To wash the taste down most likely we think!

Fact 4: Toblerone chocolate is fashioned in the shape of the Matterhorn.

Our train arrived in Zermatt right on time and we bundled out to spy our first glimpse of the Matterhorn... which of course was covered in cloud. Bother

Grabbed a few maps and brochures from the tourist office and then jumped into one of the cute little electric "taxis" for the short ride across the river and up the hill to our chalet. Zermatt is a no car zone which makes it really nice to walk around - plus then you have the cute little electric cars tootling along like something out of the Magic Roundabout.

We all unpacked a little and poked around to check out our little chalet. The best bit - two windows in the roof above the mezzanine have views directly to the Matterhorn! That will be super when the clouds go away.

We all walked back down to the train station just before my sister Jill arrived from Geneva. Haven't seen her in nearly a year as she moved to Cairo in Egypt to start and run a horse charity. So good to see her and it's like we've never been apart. She also didn't bring ringworm with her - added bonus!

Shared a couple of yummy pizzas at a nice Italian restaurant then we wheeled Jill's case back to the chalet, having a good old gab fest all the way.

Settled Jill into the best bed in the apartment (a mattress on the floor in the living room), then we all went to bed. The last I heard was the strangled call of a misplaced Cairo butt frog...