One of great things about living in Geneva is that it is so easy to take a train up into the mountains. For me the hardest part is just deciding which mountain to visit. This time, we made the right decision.

A few weeks ago Jessica and I woke up nice and early on Saturday morning to catch a 7:30 train to Montreux. Jessica was not happy to be up that early on a Saturday, but as we walked to the train station, I felt my usual excitement about starting out on a journey.

Our train arrived in Montreux an hour later (Jessica slept the whole time), and then we switched  to the Golden Pass train to Zweisimmen. Many of the Golden Pass departures are on modern panoramic cars, but the reason we woke up so early is that we wanted to indulge Jessica’s love of old trains by riding the Golden Pass Classic.

 

 

We shared the entire compartment with only a couple of other people, which allowed us to keep switching seats depending on which side had a better view during the winding journey. As the train rose up from the lake into the mountains, we were treated to some beautiful views.

After arriving in Zweisimmen,  we had half an hour to kill while waiting for a bus to take us further up into the mountains. Zweisimmen  is a pretty tiny town, but we found a bakery where we had the most delicious jelly doughnut I have ever eaten. I regret not immediately buying a second one.

There was a full size bus parked at the bus stop, but instead a mini-bus came to pick us up, which did manage to fit everyone at the stop. Soon after the bus stopped again to pick up some snowshoers. There were not enough seats on the bus, but people still crammed in. Now we have experienced this before in many other countries, but were surprised it was allowed in rule-obsessed Switzerland!

At the top, Sparenmoos, there is a hotel/restaurant where you can rent snow shoes, skis and sleds. We had initially planned to rent snow shoes, but the guy convinced us that we should just walk, since the path had recently been prepared. This made Jessica happy, because she had the blisters from our previous snowshoeing trip fresh in her mind.

We chose to do the 9km trail, and the entire route was beautiful. We only saw a handful of other walkers/snowshoes. It was nice and sunny, and not too cold. Thankfully the guy at the sled rental place gave us some sunscreen which we did not think of (although we both still got a little burnt).

After the walk, we stopped for a quick lunch of sausage, soup and bread. I also treated myself to a delicious local beer.

Then it was time for the sledding.

Growing up in Canada, I have spent many an afternoon tobogganing. I even just went tobogganing down sand dunes in Prince Edward Island in January. I had seen sledding advertised a few places online in Switzerland, and I was convinced that we needed to try it, since it looked different from anything I had ever done in Canada.

The route we took from Sparenmoos to Heimchueweid was 4km (and sometimes you can continue for another 2.5km to Zweisimmen, but there wasn’t enough snow this year).

 

Some parts were relatively flat, and you could steer your sled by tapping your foot on the snow. Some sections were actually quite steep, and the sled went really fast. Both us spent a lot of time screaming as we descended, with both our feet on the ground trying to slow us down before we crashed into a snow bank (although that still happened a couple of times).

At one point, Jessica decided that the hill was too steep and that she was going to walk down. As she was walking, she decided it would be easier if she just let go of her sled, and it then raced down the hill. Realizing her mistake, she tried to chase it before quickly giving up. Thankfully the sled didn’t make it too far down before ending up in a little creek.

At the end of the run, we got picked up by the minibus which brought us down the final few kilometres (and this time, I was the one who got to stand in the bus). We arrived in Zweisimmen two minutes before the Golden Pass Classic was about to leave. We ran to the platform and got on the train, and then it started pulling out of the station before we could even sit down. Catching the train felt great, but I wouldn’t have minded having to wait for another one if we would have had time to get another doughnout!

In the end, it was a glorious day, and a great reminder of the joys of living in such a beautiful country with great train connections!