The Glacier Express (2/5/1983)

Saturday, February 5, 1983

This morning there was an amazing magenta pink sun rising above the mountains through the fog.

Train day pass

Marsha C and I went to the train station. The sidewalks at the hospital were icy, but they were clear in town. We caught the 8:34 train to Bern, arriving late at 9:10, changing to the 9:21 train to Brig. There was also the 9:16 train, but both promised to be crowded with all the people on their ski vacations. Our train left at 9:30 or so, and Marsha and I had to find separate seats. As we approached the Alps, the tops were covered with clouds. There was snow everywhere. We passed a farmer and his cows, with one cow chasing a dark brown deer around the paddock! A couple of the snow-covered fields were darkened by a layer of manure. I was sitting with a couple on their way to a week in Zermatt. Their son and his three friends were across the aisle. We arrived 20 minutes late at 11:20 in Brig, and joined the crush of people towards the ticket windows. Bought our half-price one-way tickets to Disentis. For some reason the man gave us one round trip and one one-way, but charged only for two one-way tickets, a total of 14 CHF/$7.

Brig to Disentis train ticket

We waited in the cold for the 11:44 Glacier Express with lots of skiers. We were at the wrong end of the train when it pulled in and hurried to the other end to get seats in a car reserved for a school. Suddenly the train pulled out of the station in the opposite direction than I expected! It apparently went around Brig before heading east. We began steadily climbing. Marsha and I had aisle seats and could not see the scenery that well. Even with window seats, it would have been difficult, since it was snowing outside. So we missed the Rhône stream cleft and the large isolated Baroque chapel of Hohen Fluhen. A buffet service cart came through the train, and the two ladies next to us ordered coffee. The man handed me and one lady a small packet. I pointed to the other lady to indicate she was getting the second coffee, but the man also handed Marsha and the other lady the same packets. Turned out to be a free sample of an herbal bonbon. It seemed to also have a slight chocolate taste, and it felt good to me as I had a scratchy throat. The man then handed out plastic cups to everyone, then poured in a third cupful of a caramel-colored soda, like cream soda. A little extra on the Glacier Express!

Bonbon wrapper

All too soon we stopped at Mörel where you could see the Riederalp-Greicheralp ski lifts. Normally the train would not make any stops until Oberwald, but because of the ski season it would make several stops today. We passed through the substantial village of Bettmeralp with more ski lifts and cross country trails alongside the train tracks. The cloudy sky blended with the white of the mountain tops. It was like looking out at a blizzard with occasional glimpses of rocky mountainsides or stands of pine trees. We began seeing scattered raccards/small dark wood barns half covered with snow. The snow was too deep to see if the barns were set on posts or not. We could not see any gorges, passes, mountain peaks, etc. Just snow! We missed seeing the village of Mühlebach where Cardinal Matthäus Schiner was born. Cardinal Schiner was a pioneer of the confederacy who enjoyed the protection of the Popes, and is credited for the tradition of the Papal Swiss Guards. The Goms/Conches valley opened up before us and was fairly wide and flat with cross country ski routes and scattered raccards, as well as villages with dark blackish wood buildings. The train stopped in Reckingen and we could see the large Baroque Pfarrkirche Geburt Mariens/ Parish Church of the Nativity of Mary set among these old wooden buildings. We missed seeing the village of Münster with its church with the candle snuffer spire. At the Oberwald stop, we did not see the little church with the stone avalanche screen. From Oberwald, the train plunged into a long tunnel under the Furka Pass, built in 1982 with a length of 15.4 km/9.6 mi. We were on the narrow-gauge Furka-Oberalp-Bahn/railway (FOB). We arrived at Andermatt to let off most of the skiers. The train jerked about a bit as cars were removed and added. As we left Andermatt, we could see avalanche barriers galore above the town. It was still snowing as we zigzagged up a mountain. At one point we saw skiers coming out of a tunnel on a hillside! Then we saw the other end where they skied in! The train seemed to climb and climb. The snow was really deep, piled higher than the train itself at points, usually up to its windows. Our view was generally all-white anyway. We could see rooftops of buried buildings, and tips of poles along now impassable snow-covered roads. We seemed to be following a stream that could occasionally be glimpsed between snow-covered rocks. There was no sign of the lake that covers Oberalp Pass, nor of vertical silos for early harvested grain! Just snow-covered raccards, old wooden houses, and a few cross country skiers, some with dogs for company. We arrived in Disentis for more coupling of cars, making thee train double in length. Disentis had a nice station with carved wood and painted designs on the posts holding up the overhanging roof. As the train pulled out of Disentis, we saw the yellow-painted abbey, from which the town gets its Romansch name of Mustér. The Benedictine abbey dates from the 8C and the adjoining Baroque church had a painted facade and looked like those in Ticino. We strated down a narrow steep valley covered with snow-tipped evergreens. Every little village had its church, and we saw the bulbous belfry of Somvix. The train stopped in Trun, but of course we didn’t recognize the maple tree grown from a seedling of the great maple tree of Trun under which a pact was made. Nor did we see the large building Cuort Ligia Grischa with black and white shutters, the former residence of abbots. The next stop was Ilanz, the former capital of the Grisons/Gray League. All in all, I guess winter time is not the time to ride the Glacier Express for the views.

We were to arrive in Chur at 16:03, but arrived at 16:30. We thought we had missed the 16:24 to Zürich, but it was waiting for us! We had to stand in the vestibule with smokers, and I was glad when after a couple stops we were able to find seats in no-smoking. We arrived in Zürich 20 minutes late at 18:10, but the 18:04 train to Biel was waiting for us! Arrived in Biel at 19:45 and it was raining.

Sunday, February 6, 1983

Went to an organ concert at the Stadtkirche/City Church.

Thursday, February 10, 1983

Hans-Rüdi S picked me up at 20:20 and drove carefully through the snow to their house. They showed me their newly built hearth and then Brigitte and I started our French lesson. We had a Belgian ham sandwich. Then I helped Brigitte write a letter in English. Hans-Rüdi drove me home by 23:30.