Glacier Express from Zermatt to Zurich

Our lonely planet guidebook lists 'The Glacier Express' train ride as the top experience in Switzerland.  "It's one of the most mythical train rides... savor shot after cinematic shot of green peaks, glistening Alpine lakes, glacial ravines and other hallucinatory natural landscapes.  ... The glacier express traverses 91 tunnels and 291 bridges on its famous journey."

Sounds pretty awesome, right?

We decided to use this amazing sounding train to help get us from Zermatt back to Zurich.  There were only first class tickets left, and we prayed that our children would be appropriate in first class on a fancy scenic tourist train.

The kids did very well.  We didn't even get any dirty looks when we pulled out our PB&J for lunch time!

 Most of the pictures we took had reflections of the windows.  We had seen most of this type of scenery and been on many train rides already.  Plus, I think we were pretty tired and ready to get home at this point.  So the train ride from Zermatt to Andermatt didn't live up to its reputation for us.

From Andermatt, we had to get a short train ride to another station to catch the next train to Zurich.  In Andermatt, there was a great playground near the train station and each of us (including Grandma and including Ava in my carrier) rode a little fun playground zip line.  

The tunnels, bridges, and engineering in the whole country to make train travel work was unbelievable.  We wish North America would do this!

Tired on our way to Zurich.

We made it to the Zurich train station and then had some difficulty figuring out the best way to get to our hostel.  We wanted to walk as little as possible and Jason did awesome figuring it out.  However, Rachel lost it near the end of the tram ride and had a meltdown at our last bus stop.

Bus in city of Zurich.  Ava tired and pulling on my hair.

 We finally made it to the hostel and checked in.  We opted to have dinner at the hostel because it was raining outside and because we were all pretty tired.  Thankfully, the dinner was awesome and much better value than the hostel dinner we had in Lucerne.

Our hostel room was 2 bunk beds and then Ava had her own little bed.  She loved playing in the lockers.

After we put the girls to bed, Jason and I went out for a run in the pouring rain to see some of the city.

The next morning we got back on the bus/tram/train and headed to the airport.  After some duty free chocolate shopping, we boarded our flight to Iceland.  Grandma raced through to connect to her DC flight, and we left shortly after.

Zurich train station.  Rachel rides on rolling suitcase.

Snack before boarding our flight to Iceland.

Looking out over Iceland.

About to board the longest flight of our lives.

Our flight home (7.5 hours) from there was very long.  Ava barely slept and needed lots of entertainment and snuggles to stop from screaming, so we took turns trying to bounce/walk/cuddle/sing to her.  Rachel slept for the last few hours.

We were thrilled to see our friend on the other side of customs at DIA and drive us home to our own house and our own bed.

We woke up the next few mornings at 2:30am, 3am, 3:30am... and then we were sorted out again.

Home sweet home.