Glacier Express, 9/17/1994 Is A Train Through The Top Of Europe

From Snow To
Palm Trees

By Bob Van Leer

(COMO, ITALY, Sept. 17, 1994) - We arrived in Italy this evening after a day's travel that included three separate trains. We started on the Glacier Express. The Glacier Express demonstrates you can build a railroad anywhere if you really want to. It covers a distance of 500 kilometers (a kilomete is .62 miles making this a 310 mile railway) not long as railroads go, but it goes up to 7300 feet elevation and tremendous grades. Our trip today took us over more than a third of the total mileage of the Glacier Express from Zermatt to Andermatt.

  The grades are overcome with a cog wheel in the drive mechanism which locks into the toothed rack mounted between the rails. On descent trips, the rack-rail system also helps brake the train. Half of the coaches are also equipped with a cog wheel.

  Much or our trip was northeast on the Rhone River. Near the end of our trip on the Glacier Express, we went through the Furka tunnel, the longest one-meter gauge tunnel anywhere. It is 15.4 meters long and was completed in 1982 after almost 10 years of construction. The tunnel goes under the divide between the Rhone and Rhine rivers and is the division between north and south Europe. Another tunnel on this route makes a full-circle turn inside the rock to gain altitude.

  At Andermatt, it was spitting snow and a cold wind was blowing through the station. From Andermatt we wanted to go south but had to go north for 3.75 miles dropping 1100 feet in elevation. This positions us to turn south through the Gotthard tunnel which runs underneath Andermatt.

  We were now off the Glacier Express and losing altitude. A hundred kilometers of travel took us to Lugano. We left the train and took a bus tour around Lugano and its lake. American influence is noted around the world. Here at Lugano I noticed a restaurant, "Ristorante Burger King". We continued on the bus to our destination for the evening, Como.

  We crossed the Swiss border into Italy about five miles from Como which is located on a huge lake. Here, palm trees are growing and it is shirt-sleeve weather.

  Our hotel for the next two nights is the Villa D'Este, built in 1568 by a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church as a villa. It was renewed in 1798 and used by two royal families. Finally, in 1873 it was turned into a hotel by a group of business people who added a wing.

  Our room is in the oldest building, called the "Cardinal Building". We have a huge suite done in elegant style. The hotel is open only from March through October. It has 158 room and management says no two are alike. The hotel was used as a hospital by the Germans in World War II and reopened in 1947 as a hotel.

  An elegant dinner was served us in the evening and Betty, myself and daughter and husband, Scott and Sherry Wills, were joined by Anthony Bay, our tour director for this Abercrombie & Kent tour.

  Anthony is a story by himself. Outwardly, the impression of Anthony is that he is the classic product of the British upper class. However, he has a Persian grandfather which, in the rigid class system of Great Britain, makes him a not-quite-full member of the club. Anthony lives in Paris. He free-lances as a tour guide, mostly for Abercrombie & Kent. His reputation is such that some on our tour signed up because he was the director.

  Tomorrow will be a day of relaxation with the only planned activity a boat ride on the lake in the afternoon.
-----<>----