Long Train Running

Munich, apparently.
Anyway, yesteday started off in (the) Brig and advanced with more train changes than at which a stick can be shaken. Brig to Montreux and then onto the Golden Pass train. From there, Zweisimmen to Interlaken Ost, on to Bern, then Zurich and finally the long run to Innsbruck. Phew. This morning I'm back in Munich!

The obvious thing to mention is the Golden Pass (apart from that it was a moderately mundane day). The Centovalli was steep and twisty, the Bernina Express was raw and magnificent and the Golden Pass is beautiful and genteel. The gently rolling 'Heidi' hills have these monstrous rock formations towering above them and the grey-brown cows really do have those big bells round their necks like the Vache Qui Rit of legend, or the Milka chocolate bars. These were the classic images of Switzerland, that I didn't know weren't just the fevered imaginings of the tourist board. There were still crazy bridges and steep climbs, but I really wasn't in a position to take pictures. Use your imagination to paint these green fields, green as a computer test colour, but completely right and natural, with a dazzling sun lighting one wall and the floor of the valley, while shark-fin mountaintops cast deep shadows as the light gathers almost solid form, picking up on the slight miasma to make halos across the ridge. Something like that.

I should also mention how pleasant Brig was. The Schloss (palace) was impressive. I'll put some piccies on later.