SWITZERLAND | Glacier Express & Zurich

We arrived in St Moritz by train from Salzburg, Austria. We stayed one night before taking the Glacier Express to Zermatt. St Mortiz is a luxury alpine resort and has hosted the winter olympics twice. A relatively small town with tad of boutiques stores such as Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, Chopard, Breitling and many more. 
The train station was located at the bottom of the city. You need to do a short walk upslope to reach the city center. It can get quite tiring if you're lugging more than a piece of luggage. We booked our accommodation with Airbnb. It was a decent place and the host was nice. We quickly settled our stuff and headed down to a nearby restaurant to grab a quick bite. The town was a little quiet.

We walked around the city and grab a quick bite at the Hauser Restaurant. We ordered a Rosti with Sausage together with some pie cake and hot chocolate. I think it costs us around 25+ CHF. The food was good but I felt it was a tad pricey. I mean we're here in St Moritz, what can we expect? Tsk 

We headed near the lake for a relaxing walk. The weather was a little chilly and then it started to snow. With the mountain view as a backdrop and crystal clear lake, the snowfall kinda makes the entire scene slightly dramatic...We drop by Läderach chocolate shop to do a quick shopping and then headed back to our accoms to prepare a simple sandwich for dinner. 

We woke up quite early as he train towards Zermatt leaves at 830 AM. We had a quick breakfast and proceeded to the train station to grab our tickets. The glacier express is one of the popular experiences among tourist due to the stunning views of Swiss alps while traversing from St Moritz to Zermatt. The carriage had a panoramic view which is exclusive to Glacier Express trains. The journey is about 7.5 hours and you will get to see scenic mountain views along the way. One challenge taking pictures inside the cabin is due to the reflective nature of the glass. You will some stray images so I would suggest to spend equal amount of time absorbing the experience instead of clicking the shutter during the journey.

You can find out more about Glacier Express here

After a grueling train ride of 7.5 hours - we have finally arrive in Zermatt, home to the magnificent Matterhorn! I have known Matterhorn since young from geography books and I cannot describe the feeling to be able to visit Matterhon in person. Also known to some as the Toblerone mountain, the Matterhorn stands out among other alps due to its near symmetrical pyramidal peak. Once you're in Zermatt, you can easily recognise the summit without any introduction or guidance!

We booked a place at Haus Astral. It had a fully equipped kitchen, queen size bed and private bathroom. The place was very clean. We made a trip to Spar, a grocery chain to stock up our fridge and whipped a simple meal for dinner. If you hadn't notice, we actually prepared our dinner in most of our trips and avoid eating out. 

I liked the overall setting and layout of the infrastructure in Zermatt. It gave a really cosy vibe. Most of the economy is driven by tourism and combustion engine transport were not allowed in order to prevent air pollution. The vehicles were power by battery and were almost silent. Only emergency or construction vehicles with special permit were allowed into Zermatt with combustible engines. 

We have decided to give the glacier palace a miss and decide to go a short hike. The hike took us close to 4 hours round trip and was a definitely quite a good workout! There were many fellow hikers and everyone seems to have the culture of saying 'Hi' to whomever passes you in the opposite direction. I lost count of how many people I nodded to. 

The train from Zermatt to Zurich took us around 3 hours. We booked a single room for 2 via Airbnb as we are only staying there for a night. Zurich has been ranked consistently throughout the years as the top city in Europe for having high quality of living standard. Stoked to be able to spend some time here before heading back to Stockholm. 

We quickly unpacked and left the house since we only have less than 48 hours to make the best of our time in Zurich. The public transport was very easy to understand. In addition, Google Maps worked pretty well so if you have a data plan and smartphone, you could practically explore the city with minimal guidance. We headed down to Im Viadukt - which is a popular shopping street with all types of shops. From grocery, design, bakery, fashion and great outdoor field, you should be able to spend a couple of hours hanging out at the hipster street. 

Along the way, we saw Freitag's Flagship Store and felt the exterior of the shop was very creative! The concept of Freitag is they use recycled materials to produce unique bags, clothes, wallets and accessories. If you're a sucker for sustainability and would like to try out something new, i am sure you can find something there as they have tonnes of design and bags sizes to suit your needs. Personally i'm a leather person so yeah. We also headed to their red cross thrift store for a walk as we have developed a liking to scavenge pre-loved items. 

We took a tram to City Center and stroll along the river. Visited the GanyMed Statue before moving on to find a decent place for lunch. We stopped by some ice cream shop for a break and then continue walking around the shopping streets.

We went to the old town and walked their shopping streets. Some of the buildings looked a tad old

We woke up early the next day and decided to check out the flea markets in Zurich. Our first stop was to Bürkliplatz Flea Market located near the city center. The scale was OK, pretty much were selling clothes and some antiques. The next flea market at Rosenhof was a tad disappointing. There were nothing much to see, most of the stalls were selling accessories - rings, necklaces, bracelet etc. It was a small tentage with maybe 10 stalls. We headed to Kanzlei flea market as our last stop. I liked this place the most perhaps due to larger scale and wider variety of items. We bought used typewriter and lego pieces. We had to leave early to catch our flight back home.

Switzerland has been great, a pity we couldn't spare time to visit some of the beautiful places - lucerne, interlaken, bern and others to say. It's definitely one of the most beautiful places I have visited.