Maps & Flip Flops

The Adventures of Astrid & Cecily

A Day Riding the Rails from Zermatt to Florence

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It took the better part of a day and four different trains to get from Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland. What a beautiful part of the world and a lovely adventure to get there. Though Astrid frowned on my idea – jumping roof to roof on the train cars. Spoil sport…

When we made the decision to leave Zermatt and skip the rest of Switzerland due to poor weather we were heartbroken. Bernese Overland was going to be a trip highlight but knowing they were calling for rain, ice and snow (and temps below the freezing point), well we knew that meant low cloud, little to no hiking, limited visibility on any cable cars or gondolas and we figured it just wasn’t meant to be. So, we rerouted ourselves, hopping the train back to Visp en route to our connecting high-speed train that would carry us to Florence. It was a full day of travel, but who doesn’t love to ride the rails.

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Preparing to ride the rails. Map show parts of our route.

Preparing to ride the rails. Map show parts of our route.


If you look closely you can see the snow dusted evergreen trees. A sign that it was not warm as we left Zermatt that morning.

If you look closely you can see the snow dusted evergreen trees. A sign that it was not warm as we left Zermatt that morning.

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The train ride was general uneventful. Breathtaking scenery, epic mountains, blah blah blah – we had pretty much gotten used to the fact that this is how we roll. Save for a rather undescribedly unhygienic pack of teenage boys on the ride from Zermatt to Visp and some rockin’ music from another group, we quietly enjoyed the scenery and had some downtime on iPad catching up on our HBO – Astrid glued to The Affair, me starting True Detective.

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Just feels, you know, typical...

Just feels, you know, typical…

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Matthew and Woody are freaking me out..

Matthew and Woody are freaking me out..


Chillin' out on th trail. Watching the world go by.

Chillin’ out on th trail. Watching the world go by.

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Waiting in Visp (I think) for our train connection. This was the only place - the entire trip - where we found take-away coffee. And it was decent. From something like a 7-11 meets Co-op grocery store.

Waiting in Visp (I think) for our train connection. This was the only place – the entire trip – where we found take-away coffee. And it was decent. From something like a 7-11 meets Co-op grocery store.

As I said, it was a full day of travel from Zermatt to Florence, and when we arrived, it was like a monsoon as we marched our way from the train station to our hotel about 10 minutes away. Because we had booked it from Switzerland early, I’d found us a hotel on booking.com. Much nicer than we would have needed, but options were slim at the last-minute and we got a really good rate.

We arrived in the lobby, dripping, like a pair of wet dogs that had run straight from a rainstorm outside into a formal living room. My favourite line from the hotel front desk – as I looked confused as to why the bellman was hovering well into my personal space – “Miss, he’d like to take your backpack”, because it (and I) were causing a massive puddle on their spotless, polished marble floor.

But, that’s a story for another time….stay tuned.

CKD

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