Page 539 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

THE HIGH LIFE

Charming as Zermatt is, heading out of town and up to the mountains is a rush like
no other.
Europe’s highest cogwheel railway, the Gornergratbahn (www.gornergrat.ch;
Bahnhofplatz 7; one-way adult/child Sfr42/21; h7am-9.50pm), has climbed through picture-
postcard scenery to Gornergrat (3089m) – a 30-minute journey – since 1898. Sit
on the right-hand side to gawp at the Matterhorn. Tickets allow you to get on and
off en route; there are restaurants at Riffelalp (2211m) and Riffelberg (2582m).
In summer an extra train runs once a week at sunrise and sunset – the most
spectacular trips of all.
Views from Zermatt’s cable cars are all remarkable, but the Matterhorn Glacier
Paradise (www.matterhornparadise.ch; adult/child Sfr99/49.50; h8.30am-4.20pm) is the
icing on the cake. Ride Europe’s highest-altitude cable car to 3883m and marvel at
14 glaciers and 38 mountain peaks over 4000m from the Panoramic Platform (only
open in good weather). Don’t miss the Glacier Palace, an ice palace complete with SWITZERLAND 37 THE SwISS ALPS
glittering ice sculptures and an ice slide to swoosh down bum first. End with some
exhilarating snow tubing outside in the snowy surrounds.

relive movie moments in sublime natural backdrop chalets and onion-domed
a helicopter and bobsled. to the rustic village of churches (47km).
dark-timber chalets.
The Drive » When you
descend back to Stechelberg, In winter, there are TRIP HIGHLIGHT
head to Kandersteg via the road more than 50km of b Aletsch Glacier
down to Interlaken. Get on the cross-country ski trails,
A8/Rte 11, then take exit 19 including the iced-over The Aletsch Glacier is a
(direction Spiez/Kandersteg/ Oeschinensee. The seemingly never-ending,
Adelboden). The 60km trip limited 15km of downhill 23km-long swirl of ice
takes one hour. skiing is suited to begin- with deep crevasses that
ners. Kandersteg’s frozen slices past thundering
waterfalls attract ice falls, jagged spires of rock
a Kandersteg climbers and the village and pine forest. It stretch-
Turn up in Kandersteg hosts the spectacular es from Jungfrau in the
wearing anything but annual Ice Climbing Bernese Oberland to a
muddy boots and you’ll Festival (hJan). plateau above the Rhône
attract a few odd looks. and is, justly so, a Unesco
Hiking is this town’s The Drive » From Kandersteg, World Heritage site.
take the BLS Lötschberg
raison d’être, with Tunnel (www.bls.ch/e/ Picture-postcard
550km of surrounding autoverlad/tickets-goppenstein. riverside Fiesch on the
trails. An amphitheatre php), which connects with valley floor is the best
of spiky peaks studded Goppenstein (in Valais) at place to access it. From
with glaciers and jewel- regular intervals daily. The trip the village, ride the
coloured lakes such as takes 15 minutes and costs cable car (www.eggishorn.
Blausee (www.blausee.ch; from Sfr25 per car if booked ch; adult/child 6-16yr return
adult/child Sfr7/3; h9am-5pm) online. From Goppenstein, head from Fiesch Sfr57/28.50) up to
east from Rte 9. Once past
and Oeschinensee (www. Brig, the deep valley narrows Fiescheralp and continue
oeschinensee.ch; cable-car one- and the landscape switches to up to Eggishorn (2927m).
way/return Sfr18/26; hcable rugged wilderness, with a string Streaming down in a
car 8am-6pm) creates a of bucolic villages of timber broad curve around the

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