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Glacier Express - From St. Moritz to the Matterhorn

April 20, 2022

A trip on the Glacier Express is one of the world’s best-known railway journeys. For nearly 90 years, traveling on the "world’s slowest express train" has been one of the most thrilling - and comfortable - ways to discover the Alps.

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The journey begins in chic St. Moritz, birthplace of the Alpine winter vacation - in winter, of course. Here, Hans Peter Danuser gives us a blast on his "alphorn,” a famed local instrument. In the 1980s, the former spa director of St. Moritz used this very horn to promote the Glacier Express in New York. 
After pulling out of St. Moritz, the train travels through the Albula Tunnel. On the other side, the train rumbles down to Thusis on the Albula Line, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Harmoniously embedded in the landscape, the route is considered the showpiece of the railway era. 
Several spiral tunnels help the train manage the 1,000-meter hike in altitude. On the way up to Bergün, passengers might even start feeling a bit dizzy! Finally, the train passes the "most beautiful place in Switzerland”, the Lai de Palpuogna mountain lake. 
The Glacier Express then makes its way slowly towards Chur, via Switzerland’s most famous railway bridge, the Landwasser Viaduct. The spa town is a great place to learn about the meaning of the word "Waschweib” - literally, "washerwoman”, colloquially, "gossip”.

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Exciting stories, a wide variety of topics, fascinating pictures: every day, half or three-quarters of an hour of carefully researched background reports from the worlds of politics, business, science, culture, nature, history, lifestyle and sport.