Today was not the most spectacular day of my travel planning career, but everything turned out well in the end. But, more on that later…….
Today we are taking the Glacier Express train from Zermatt to Pontresina. The Glacier Express is billed as the “slowest express train in Europe”. It takes about 8 hours for the transit, and only covers a little over 200 miles. It is a special panoramic train, the cars have ultra large windows on the sides, and even windows along the top edge above the large side windows.
We had reserved first class tickets several weeks ago as soon as the reservation booking window opened. We had selected the two single seats only available on one side of the first class train car so we would not have to deal with seat mates for the entire eight hour duration of the trip. The other side of the first class car has two side by seats in a grouping of four total, each set of two opposing the other two, with a table in between. We had also purchased a first class supersaver day ticked as soon as they were available, and that reduced the overall cost for this journey to a mere $225.00 for the two of us. There is about a 30% premium for traveling in First Class, but it seemed worth it to have the semi-private seats.
We set a alarm for 7:00 AM this morning, but I was up early at about 6:30 AM, so I worked on the blog, had some coffee and finished a little last minute packing. I went ahead and showered before I woke up Stephanie, and soon after, we were both ready. We had some breakfast, and while I finished the last minute packing, Stephanie put together the items for our lunch for today We plan on making our sandwiches on the train from the ham and cheese and rolls we purchased yesterday. We had a half bottle of chilled wine left over from last night as well as another chilled bottle we purchased for today’s trip. We put them both in the freezer for about 30 minutes to get them as cold as possible, and then wrapped the full bottle in paper towel for insulation. We put the half full bottle in a zip lock bag with the cheese and ham in their own zip lock to try and keep them chilled until lunchtime. Without a cooler, this was the best we could do.
The Glacier Express Train
We left the apartment about 8:20 AM and headed for the train station, just a few minutes walk away. We knew they would be checking for Swiss Covid Certificates, go figure, and thought it might take a little longer to check in for the train.
The skies this morning were partly cloudy, and the forecast was for partly cloudy skies for the remainder of the day, so we were hoping for a relatively sunny journey. The train was already at the station, so we proceeded to get our Swiss Covid Certificates and ID’s checked and then we boarded Coach 22, our car, and found our seats. The train was really nice, and they provided ear buds for listening to the special narration that would happen periodically along the way. Since they required the certificates for everyone boarding, they allowed us to remove our masks for the journey.
We left right on time at 8:52 AM, and were on our way. Unfortunately, the weather had turned a little worse, it was now completely cloudy and there were a few rain showers. Luckily, the first 35 minutes of the trip was a repeat of our arrival in Zermatt from the town of Visp, we had to go back to Visp on this train before heading in the direction of Pontresina. By the time we reached Visp the clouds were breaking up, and in about another 30 minutes, we had perfectly clear and sunny skies.
They were taking orders for lunch, and after looking at the menu, we ordered a single serving of a Swiss macaroni dish topped with ground beef called G’hacktes mit Hörnli to split and have with our sandwiches.
The trip was very scenic, but the only issue we were now having was that we were on the sunny side of the train, and with the large panoramic glass windows, it was a little warm. We enjoyed every tunnel we went through, it gave us a break from the sunshine and heat. We were not sure why the air conditioning in the train was not better, it was running, but not enough for us to feel cool. Also, picture taking was really hard with all of the reflection from the glass, we got a couple of decent photos, but for the most part, we just gave up on trying.
We made quite a few stops, and picked up quite a few passengers at the stop in Brig.
Lunchtime on the Glacier Express
About 11:30 AM, they started setting up for the lunch and set up our table with one placemat and one set of silverware since we had only purchased one meal to split. It was quite a while before our meal arrived, but since other people were having the four course lunch, we had to wait until they were serving the main course before they served us our food, which was a main course item.
Scenery From The Glacier Express
Stephanie made our sandwiches once our ordered food arrived, and we opened our full bottle of wine to have with our lunch. Everything was really good, and the addition of the single order of G’hacktes mit Hörnli was just enough food for our lunch. We enjoyed the rest of the first bottle of wine after we finished our lunch.
About 2.5 hours before we were to arrive in Samedan, the ending destination for our connecting train to Pontresina, we arrived in the city of Chur. Chur is known as the starting point for the Rhine River, which flows all the way from Switzerland, through Germany and the Netherlands and empties into the North Sea near Rotterdam. We have seen it both in Germany and on a cruise to Rotterdam, and it is quite an impressive river at that point, but here, it was just a small river mainly used for kayaking and river rafting, mostly fed from melting glaciers and snow.
Special Zermatt Beers on the Glacier Express
At Chur, the train stopped for about 15 minutes and we got off to stretch our legs. The journey into Chur is a little unique, we headed into Chur, and while we were stopped there, they changed the engine to the other end of the train and we headed back out in the same direction we had entered Chur, backtracking for about 5 miles. We knew this meant one thing, we were now going to be on the shady side of the train for the remaining two hours until we arrived in Samedan. Yippie!
Engine Changed To Other End Of Train in Chur
We ordered two of their specialty Zermatt Beers after we left Chur, and they were good, although not very cold. There were some special Covid rules in effect on the train itself, so the souvenir store in the next car was closed to people going in to shop. You could order items through a QCR code that went to a web page and they would deliver it to you at your seat. We could see the display case in the car through the glass doors between coaches, but there was a Staff Only sign on the door. In addition to the souvenir car being closed, the bar car was also closed. We were not even sure if there was a bar car in the line of train cars since it was stated that it would be closed in the information we received prior to the trip.
Leaving The Glacier Express Train in Samedan
We arrived in Samedan on time and collected our luggage, and got off of the Glacier Express Train. It had been a nice ride, we were sure it would have been even more spectacular in the winter with all of the snow.
We had to wait about 15 minutes for our connecting train to Pontresina, and luckily, it was arriving on the platform right next to the one we had just gotten off onto, so we did not have to go down and up the ramps with our luggage to make a change.
Our train arrived and we boarded for the short ride into Pontresina. When we arrived in Pontresina, we got off the train and pulled up our hotel in Google Maps for directions and started the walk there. It was ALL UPHILL and although it was only supposed to take 13 minutes according to Google, we knew it was going to be longer, we were having to stop to rest, pulling our luggage was making the uphill climb even harder.
We saw a cutoff for a trail that was the shorter path to the hotel, but it looked even steeper and not luggage wheel friendly, so we decided to take the slightly longer, but flatter route on the sidewalk along the road to the hotel. We arrived at the Hotel Muller and rested for a bit outside to catch our breath before we headed in to check-in. We were both sweating, and out of breath and then when we put on our masks to go inside, they did not make anything easier.
I told the man at the reception desk that we had a reservation under the name of “Bond”. This is where everything fell apart. He said he had no reservation for us, and so I started to try and look at my phone on the Booking.com app to check on the reservation there. I was having a hard time seeing anything with my mask on, my glasses were fogging up terribly because we were so hot and breathing hard from the walk up to the hotel. Then my reading glasses broke, one side of the glasses came off, and that did not help at all. Luckily, Stephanie had my spare readers in her purse. The man at reception checked and said I had cancelled the reservation on July 21. We were shocked, and too frazzled and out of breath to think clearly.
The date of cancellation should have been a clue, but I was frantically looking through my email for verification of his information, and sure enough, I had cancelled the reservation and had a cancellation confirmation email from July 21.
What we should have done, in hindsight, was to step away to try and figure out what the problem was, but we were still trying to recover from the walk and in shock that we apparently had no place to stay for the next four nights. He said he had a room starting tomorrow, for two nights and then another room we could change to for the fourth night, but he was completely booked for tonight, it was Friday and everyone was arriving for the weekend. I knew I had cancelled two reservations right before the start of this trip to avoid cancellation fees if we were unable to go at the last minute, but those hotels were in Lucerne and Zermatt, and we had rebooked both of them. We were just baffled.
He said he would find us a room somewhere in town, and he started to make some calls. After a couple of places he first called said they were full, he finally found a hotel right down the street, the Hotel Allegra, that had a room for tonight. We thanked him and asked him to reserve the other two rooms for tomorrow night onward.
We headed to the Hotel Allegra and explained our situation, and the lady at the reception desk was the one who had talked to the man at the Hotel Muller, so she was familiar with our plight. We filled out the information for check-in and found out that the rate for this room was CHF 250.00 for the night. It was one of their overflow rooms, and located on a sort of an in between floor, just above the first floor, but under the second floor. We headed to our room and tried to calm down and check to see if we could figure out what had happened. I logged in to their internet service and looked at all of my reservations for the trip on Booking.com.
Right away, we saw what had happened. We did have a hotel reserved in Pontresina, it was just not at the Hotel Muller, it was at the Hotel Rosatsch, and was for our four nights here. I now vaguely remembered that we had changed hotels in July because I liked the Hotel Rosatsch better then the Hotel Muller. I was really embarrassed, and now we had to go back down to the reception desk here at the Allegra and explain the situation. The room at the Rosatsch was already completely paid for. Luckily, they were very nice, and since I had not given them a credit card, they could not charge us for our mistake, even though I doubt they would have anyway.
Finally At The Correct Hotel – The Hotel Rosatsch
The lady at the Hotel Allegra called the Hotel Mueller to let them know we did not need those rooms for the next three nights. We thanked them for all of their help with this embarrassing situation and left.
The Hotel Rosatsch was just a couple of blocks down the street and also down hill from the Hotel Allegra, so we headed there and they already had our reservation information ready. We checked in and headed to our room.
The room here at the Hotel Rosatsch was really nice inside and I think that was why I had changed the reservation a while back. They have an older section and a newer section of the hotel, and our room was in the older section. It was quite large and has an nice balcony looking out into some woods. We can also look to the side and see the mountains in the distance.
Our Balcony – Hotel Rosatsch
The bathroom was very large with both a shower and large bath tub. The hotel has an indoor pool and hot tub, and also a spa area with a sauna and steam rooms.
After getting situated, we headed down to see the pool and spa areas before they closed. We were given some shoe coverings by the attendant so we could go into the spa area to look it over and it was really nice inside. The only issue is that no clothing is allowed in the sauna, steam rooms, and some of the other relaxation areas.
Spa Rules – No Clothing in Sauna
We saw a pictogram that had a picture of what appeared to be swim trunks with a slash across them indicating “No Swim Trunks” in the sauna, and sure enough, there were also instructions that stated the same thing, the sauna was for nude use only. We doubted we would go, not really sure we are ready for nude sauna sessions, although we thought maybe you could still be wrapped up in a towel. Our biggest concern was that we were just not sure what other people would be doing.
The pool was indoors in a covered deck area, and that is also where the hot tub was located. We were not sure if the pool was heated, we did not go out into the pool area to check it out.
There was also a bar at the hotel and we had received a voucher in our check-in packet for a free glass of wine. We sat at a table and the bartender brought us a glass of white wine, which was quite good. After that glass, we ordered another one that was not complimentary and also some sandwiches. We were too tired to go to a restaurant. We wanted to go to the grocery, which was just a few blocks up the street, but had not made it that far yet. We asked our bartender, Bruno, from Northern Italy, if it was still open, and he said it was open until 8:00 PM.
Dinner In The Hotel Rosatsch Bar
It was just past 7:00 PM, so I walked up to the grocery store get us a couple of bottes of wine for the room while Stephanie waited in the bar for our meals. Unfortunately, the hours the store was open must have changed because the Coop was not open when I got there. Just a little more exercise for nothing. By the time I got back to the bar, the sandwiches were ready and we ordered another glass of wine.
The sandwiches were club sandwiches and mine had a chicken breast with a special sauce, and Stephanie ordered one with Humus. They were really good, and we were both hungry.
We talked with Bruno for a while and he said we were the first Americans he had met in the bar this summer. We got a glass of wine “to go” and headed back to the room to relax and take showers. It had been a long day that we had mostly enjoyed except for the hotel confusion. Chalk that up to not having planned this trip out as well right at the end as some of our other trips because of the uncertainty surrounding us even being able to go. We will now verify where we are staying from this point forward before we leave to head to another location.
We headed to sleep at about 10:15 PM. It had been a long day.