Traveling in Switzerland
In fact, Zermatt is an ecological village. Most of the vehicles operating in this village are powered by electric drives, but there are also trucks and tractors with conventional diesel engines. These trucks and tractors are used in construction. Zermatt is one of the popular ski resorts, with several no less famous peaks, the height of which reaches and exceeds the mark of 4 thousand meters. The famous four-thousander Alps – Matterhorn is located right there. It can be easily seen in the form of an emblem on the cover of Toblerone chocolates of any supermarket.
Loved the interesting architecture of the village. Most houses here are at least half wooden. They are special in that for the construction of such houses not logs or bars were used, but rectangular carriages. Also, the first floor of the houses and their piers are built of stone or brick and plastered. The roofs are covered with pieces of slate of about 80 * 80 cm, and 3 cm in thickness.
They also drew attention to completely exceptional buildings, which are, apparently, household one-story blocks. The buildings are as follows: in the corners of the building are wooden poles, on top of which lay laminated stones, and on the stones themselves a fire carriage. The wooden and stone parts are separated by a half-meter gap, of course, there are also shutters. Such semi-stone semi-wooden buildings are found throughout Switzerland. Most of all, the color scheme of these buildings is aesthetically unusual for the eye. The tree blackens from time to time and this seems gloomy.
There are many more cowsheds lined up in the meadows. All of them are also wooden. The first floor is a barn and it is made tightly of a carriage, and the second floor is built with cracks and rises above the first low upwards of about four meters, used to store hay. Most of these cowsheds are abandoned.
Out of many old wooden drinking bowls for livestock, flower beds and fountains are made in the village. Zermatt is really an expensive ski resort, and there isn’t much to look at, so we went further on the Ice Express to St. Moritz. In just eight hours they covered 200 kilometers.
I advise all tourists to buy a first-class carriage, we also rode in the first. Differences from the second are that the chairs are in two rows on one side, and in one row on the other. From this it turns out that the seats themselves are slightly wider and the aisles, respectively. Armchairs are located facing each other, between them there is a table. Of course, driving in a cramped second-class carriage will be much harder than in the first.
We also ordered two dishes from the menu, for me beef stroganoff with vegetables and rice, and for my wife it’s similarly hot, the salad is quite modest and you could choose tiramisu or cheese for the third. They give hot with the additive, so passengers will not definitely go hungry. We paid 30 francs for my order, and 43 for my wife’s order. The only thing is that you will have to pay separately for coffee and tea. Let me mention such a detail, vegetables for rice and beef stroganoff mean boiled carrots and cauliflower, which I really did not like, because I do not eat boiled carrots at all. A little later a girl with a couple of bottles walked along the wagon, offering to drink a stack of something stronger for a fee.
We also bought a souvenir on the express – a snow globe, there is something to choose from, by the way, the souvenir brought us a lot of problems during inspection when leaving at the airport. Its volume was much more than 100 ml, which was clearly visible, and it was impossible to carry it into the salon, but we were still allowed into the salon, on our honest word, they promised that we won’t do it anymore.
You should definitely ride the express train, the views from it are simply amazing. Gorgeous green slopes and snow-capped mountain peaks, countless magnificent waterfalls, beautiful villages, grazing cows with bells tied to their necks. To see all this is worth it. Many interesting bridges, not far from St. Moritz, are the most famous, arched, and quite high.
He didn’t make such a strong impression, as they describe him, from the windows of the train, but still I advise you to see him. We also passed one “medieval” valley, in which there are a lot of ancient castles, ancient churches and towers. Nature contrasts very sharply at every height. The lower the height, the higher the forest stands, for example, drill timber grows at heights of 600 meters, there are large meadows and plowed fields, in some places even vineyards. But the heights in the region of 1,000 meters above the sea are much less frequent – the meadows here are not so bright green, there are fewer cows, and there are also fewer human settlements. After heights of 1,500 meters above sea level, you’ll almost never see any of the above, we were at an altitude of 2,000 m. It is noteworthy that the gear train helps to overcome such a height. There is an additional rail with teeth between the express rails, respectively, the express itself is equipped with the necessary gear.
