The Glacier Express to Zermatt

We checked out of the Reine Victoria hotel in St Moritz this morning.  I didn't say much about St Moritz or the hotel  yesterday. St Moritz is a beautiful town  but obviously  very upmarket and aimed at the super rich.  St Moritz  has been home to the  winter  Olympics  twice: in 1928 and 1948.   It has the oldest bobsleigh track in the world (opened  in 1908). It is also the only natural  ice track in the world - all the others are  artificially  iced.  For the bargain  price of 270 Swiss Francs, 2 guests can go down it in a 4 man Bob with an experienced  driver and  brake man.  There wasn't time to  do it even if I'd  had the nerve.  It has to be  booked  well in advance. 

After breakfast  we checked out of our grand old hotel  that we had been  very impressed with and boarded the Glacier Express to Zermatt.   The Glacier  Express is a very posh train with a glass roof.  Unforunately, the weather  was a bit wet and much of the journey was cloudy so we didn't have views quite as good as  yesterday.   However,  we were treated to a very nice 3 course lunch as well as tea and cookies  during the  8 hour journey.  

We arrived in Zermatt at about 6.30pm and had a snack for supper  before  walking through the picturesque old town  to a point where we could get a nice picture of the Matterhorn.  

The tour tomorrow  is a cable car trip up the Matterhorn,  but I don't do cable cars so I'm not going.  There is an 80% chance of rain  tomorrow, so the views  might not  be that good anyway.  Becky and I are going to  spend a  recovery day  exploring Zermatt at our own pace and hopefully finding a traditional Swiss restaurant for a nice meal.  Should the weather turn out nice after all then we may go  for a ride up a neighbouring peak on the Gornergrat cog railway.