I'm Sensitive

I do not like mountains. I don’t like traveling around hairpin curves, being in vehicles close to the edge of a precipice or even being able to see the bottom of a valley if I am in motion. In the USA, Chris and I have added hours to some road trips so we could avoid crossing the Rocky Mountains.

I have an intense reaction to heights. So, it’s not just mountains I dislike. I don’t like going over long bridges, I will not climb to the top of any lighthouse, church tower or rock formation to admire the view, and I lose my sense of uprightness on especially long or open escalators.

This Washington DC Metro escalator at Wheaton station is the longest single span escalator in the Western Hemisphere. It is 237 feet long, has a vertical rise of 115 feet and takes almost 3 minutes to ride. Riding it is like taking a single escalator up 11 stories. Chris and I had to ride that escalator in April BECAUSE THE ELEVATOR AT THE STATION WAS OUT OF ORDER!! I probably spent close to 15 minutes verifying that I had no other option and preparing myself to step on without having a panic attack. Chris is diligent about helping me in these situations and positioning himself to best block my view. Photo by Bohemian Baltimore.

I don’t call this reaction a FEAR of heights. Rather, it’s a SENSITIVITY to the pull of gravity when there is less than 10 feet of horizonal surface between me and any drop-off. You know how mediums or spiritualists claim they can communicate with the deceased because they are “sensitive” to energies and emotions, even from non-living entities. Well, I have a “sensitivity” to gravity.

I believe this sensitivity is inherited – four of my siblings also have anxiety from heights. And I believe it has been exacerbated by being raised on the Midwestern Plains, where I was conditioned by flat views across cornfields with only an occasional obstruction from a grain elevator.

What does this have to do with our current travel adventure?

Well, last week I very willingly chose to spend 10 hours traveling 180 miles through the Swill Alps, the highest and largest mountain range in Europe. Chris and I crossed 291 bridges and a pass at nearly 7,000 feet elevation. Our trip was on the Glacier Express scenic train. It was beautiful and I was comfortable for 98 percent of the journey. 

The Glacier Express travels deliberately slow at an average 24 miles per hour so passengers can fully enjoy the views. And it is my experience that the pull of gravity is weaker when traveling at slower speeds and/or on a train so that made the journey very comfortable. You are kind of connected to the earth by the tracks so gravity’s power is weakened. And there is no swaying and leaning into the door going around a curve – that lean gives gravity a head start on pulling you over the edge!! 

All aboard!

The scenery through the Alps in June is just as you would imagine. Fields of delicate wildflowers. Chalet homes with exposed wood, decorative carvings and pitched roofs made of moss covered slate. Swiss brown cows, Tyrolean Mountain Goats and black and white Alpine sheep grazing in steeply sloped pastures. Rushing streams. Waterfalls that seem to magically appear from the side of a mountain. Hardy gray-haired hikers with walking sticks. Distant snow covered peaks... It was a lovely day.

The beginning of the route is through the Rhine Gorge or “Grand Canyon of Switzerland”.

We lost count of all the waterfalls.

Heidi would still feel right at home in the Alps.

The streams appear gray because they carry "rock flour", which is a fine, silt-sized sediment caused by glaciers grinding against the bedrock.

We changed our original schedule, went 300 miles out of our way and spent quite a bit of money to ride the Glacier Express. (You can actually see all of the same scenery by taking a variety of regional and local trains, but you would have to figure all that out and you would not have the same viewing and photo opportunities from the slow pace, the panoramic windows and the announcements about upcoming sights.)

Chris with our First Class two-course lunch. We brought along our own wine and Swiss chocolate for dessert. 

Every day, year round, four to six Glacier Express trains, each with six or seven passenger cars, operate between two mountain resort towns, St. Moritz and Zermatt, Switzerland. You can choose Excellent, First or Second Class, with the difference being the size of your seats and how much food you get. Everyone gets the same views.

You don't actually pass any glaciers on the Glacier Express. But the closest glacier to the train's route is the Aletsch Glacier, which is the largest in the Alps. For hundreds of years, villagers near the Aletsch prayed and held annual processions to keep the glacier from advancing or causing avalanches or floods. The glacier is now receding so, about 15 years ago, the locals successfully petitioned the pope to change the prayer to ask for the glacier's growth and preservation of water resources.  

We had 20 passengers in our nearly full First Class car, and the biggest surprise was the number of them who paid very little attention to the sights. I noticed that Chris and I and three others watched the scenery diligently. Everyone else spent most of the day watching their phones, reading, playing cards or napping. ???

We boarded the Express in Zermatt, a mountain resort town at the base of the Matterhorn. I expected a sleepy little railroad stop, but Zermatt is a popular resort with boutiques, restaurants, chocolate shops, 114 hotels and only small electric vehicles or horse-drawn carts. No gas fueled vehicles are allowed. It's got three main streets and was a vigorous (read "uphill") 20 minute walk with our luggage from the train station to the hotel. We had reserved a room at a much closer hotel, but were notified that it had overbooked and we were moved to another location at the outskirts of town. The consolation (besides free breakfast) was that the alternate hotel had a fantastic view of the Matterhorn. 

I won’t say our hotel was fabulous, but we did have a wonderful view of the Matterhorn while we enjoyed our own happy hour on our balcony. The Matterhorn is one of the most photographed mountains in the Alps and is the image you see on the Toblerone candy package.

Our downhill walk back to the train station was much more comfortable than our initial trek up from the station to the hotel.

Public fountains in Zermatt carry drinkable water from natural springs. I tried out this fountain depicting marmots, an animal similar to the beaver and often seen in Zermatt.

Summer is a busy season in Zermatt, when mountain climbing, hiking, biking and relaxing are popular activities. The Matterhorn was one of the last alpine mountains to be summitted, and the first expedition that reached the top in 1865 started from Zermatt. That expedition ended tragically when four of the seven climbers were killed on their descent.

The Mountaineers' Cemetery in central Zermatt contains the graves of about 50 climbers who died over the last 190 years in falls, avalanches and other accidents while attempting to summit the Matterhorn and other, nearby peaks.

We ended the day at St. Moritz, which is a luxury Alpine resort. And we had an even steeper climb from the train station to our hotel. Our Google maps route displayed stairways and twisty, cobblestone streets but did not display the town’s escalator and elevator that help visitors climb the 250 feet elevation from the station to the town center. We discovered those later on our own.

The next day we made our way back to the train station, via the escalator (which was manageable because it was broken into three sections) and elevator, and onto our next adventure - an all day train journey to get us to the Netherlands (which is very flat) where we start a week long boat and barge tour. 

Again, we had a nice view as we started that journey.

Chris and I saying goodbye to the Alps.