Last night we had dinner in a little restaurant chosen from about 20 scattered through the centre of Brig. We went for a walk afterwards up to the 17th C Marienkirche and down to the noisy rushing stream that was heading for the aaaaaaaaarhone River. This is a truly romantic town. We adopted a motto when we were at Fuschl am See: "The world needs more Fuschls". After disappointments at Chur we were glad to admit we had found another Fuschl in Brig. This is the fairytale building we faced from our hotel window:
In Brig this is just another building. Looking down from our window we can see the Cultur cafe where we had dinner the previous night and which is our buffet breakfast site:
We loved the way they kept the cars out of the city square area:
When a bus or other authorised vehicle needed to enter the square the driver used a remote control to lower these bollards and drive in. Brilliant to watch. At the station we took one last picture of ...
another sculpture associated with transport:
the centr tracks are the cogwheel ones used on the steepest lines. Once again it was sad to leave this town and the lovely people running the hotel; we originally planned 4 days here but had to cancel one to get a seat on the Glacier Express. Nevertheless we are looking forward to Vienna, City of Dreams.
Today was a long day in the saddle, travelling on fast trains from 7.49 till 18.45. We passed through Bern and Zurich but had very little impression of anything there except the now distant Alps which shone brightly on this cloudless day. Goodbye Swiss Alps - we will miss you. Goodbye Switzerland - we are grateful for the great experiences you have given us.
Once again we seemed to cut through a corner of Liechenstein on ou way into Austria and once again we stopped for 2 minutes and saw nothing but the station. The trip from Salzburg to Austria was fast, hitting 200kmh quite frequently. We arrived in our hotel room by 7.15 and are quite pleased to have a brand new hotel a few minutes walk from the station. We worry about the number of people smoking and dropping butts. They are making slower progress here than in Australia in this regard, but once again in Austria we saw thousands of solar panels. We were impressed with Switzerland's record of 60% electricity from hydro, and 90% recycling rates for paper, glass, metals.
What a marvellous time you are having will you ever settle back in Killcare deb
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