When I was booking my jaunt around Switzerland, I left it a little bit late to book the Glacier Express and, as a consequence, the only seat available for today was in first class! I decided that it would be nice to splurge a little and enjoy the ride, so I bought the first class ticket!
The Glacier Express is touted as the world's slowest "express" train. It's definitely one of those trains built for tourism, with large glass windows to the sides and a mostly glass roof and a beautiful view the whole way. It goes all the way from Zermatt to St Moritz, but I had decided that I wanted to go somewhere that wasn't all about skiing as Zermatt and Lauterbrunnen had been.
It was an interesting ride - passing through mountain tunnels, past pristine fields of snow and trees covered in white, over amazing bridges and past some villages built on the edges of cliffs. The highlight for me was definitely the Oberalp Pass, which was 2,033 m above sea level. We then descended into the lowest point of Chur, at 585m above sea level, where I got off.
Along the way, they had table service, where I again splurged a little and bought a little bottle of champagne and a cheeseboard. It was delicious and I felt so fancy sitting there, sipping my champagne. I took some photos on the way, but they are not great as the windows distorted the camera. There is a highlight on my Instagram page covering Switzerland with videos of this journey if you're interested! They show it a lot better than photos I think.
It took 5 hours to get from Zermatt to Chur, and I got off at my stop and wandered into a bustling city. I went to my hotel with my suitcase - annoyingly there were no lifts so I carried it upstairs - then promptly made myself a cup of tea. I hadn't dressed for cold weather, knowing that I would be on the train most of the day, so I changed as well, then head out to explore this new place. It was a bit late in the afternoon so starting to turn to evening, but it was a lovely city to wander around in.
I went back to my hotel and got ready for dinner. I couldn't be bothered going too far and the hotel I was in had a very highly-rated restaurant so I went there! I ordered a hay soup (yes, hay) that was supposed to be a specialty of the area, and duck for mains. Unfortunately, it was just OK, as I thought both were much too salty. But the wine was nice, and the walk to my accommodation short and warm!