Switzerland!

It says something about the priorities in my life this year in that I waited until Odin Dragonfly announced their tour dates before booking my holiday. In the end, with OD playing in London on the bank holiday weekend, and The Reasoning playing at The Borderline two weeks later, it’s worked out rather well, with one gig on the way out, and the other on the way back.

I’m going to Switzerland again, for the third year running, but this time I’m going the whole way by train rather than flying, breaking the journey in each direction (Luxembourg on the way out, Köln on the way back, with the return journey over old main line down the Rhine gorge). In Switzerland I’m splitting the 8 nights between Brig and Luzern, both places I’ve visited but never stayed. Should see plenty of action on the Gotthard and what’s left on the Lötchberg, and quite a bit of metre-gauge this time round on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn out of Brig, and probably the Centovalli as well.

Hopefully I’ll get the chance to ride the steam railway over the Furka pass this time. This is the section of the old Furka Oberalp line bypassed by a new base tunnel built a few years back, restored and reopened as a steam railway, one of the very few preserved lines in the country. This line passes within sight of the Rhone glacier, and gave the famous “Glacier Express” it’s name.