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Day 4 Sun 26 Mar 2006
Up at 7am (made worse due to the daylight savings time change!) and found that I can see the Matterhorn from my bedroom window. There was too much cloud to see it yesterday. A quick breakfast and then down to the cog railway, I caught the 8am train with all the workers. That got me to Gornergrat in 40 minutes. I had the place to myself and took loads of photos, but the Matterhorn had clouded up by the time I arrived. Oh Well!
I got my photo taken by a couple of Chinese girls, they were very excited by the views, and said I was very brave to be travelling on my own. Back down on the 9:31 train which arrived at 10:15, back up to the hotel, checked out and then off to the railway station to catch the 10:30 to Brigg.
Changed trains at Brigg onto the main line and headed off the Bern. I had no plans to visit Bern, but I spotted it on the train map, and a Capital city is a Capital city!
Bern is a very pleasant city, I had two hours to have a look around before I had to catch my next train, so I did a walk suggested by the tourist board in bright sunshine. It's a city of wide roads, old town houses and fountains. All the nicer since I dumped my bag in the lockers at the train station for 6 francs!
I'm now on the 15:30 to Zurich. The landscape has changed completely. The mountains have gone, and have been replaced by flatness. 1hr to Zurich. I nodded off on the train, and only the PA woke me up in time! Bundled off the train and made it over to the National Museum just before it shut. Got to see the coin collection, some of them were huge. Two of them would fill your pocket.
Running low on CHF, so decided not to dump my stuff in the locker. Stupid call, but hey! Even with just my small bag, I'm not going to bring so much with me again (I know I say that every time!)
Zurich is a bit busier than Bern, all the locals seem to be out walking around their city, taking in the sun and the sights. Found a pizza joint under the railway station, so I going to fill up before I get on the train, and get some snacks just in case I get hungry during the night! Zurich claims to have the largest clock face in Europe.
I've got just over two hours before I can board the sleeper train. There's no two ways about it, I've packed a lot into the last few days!
I'm now on the sleeper train to Utrecht, my upstairs neighbour is an American Doctor on his first sleeper train - we had a good old chat. The train is quite modern and has an upstairs and downstairs. My downstairs room is quite small, but has everything required. My American friend is upstairs, and has a room about twice the size with his own toilet and shower!
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