You Need a Train to Get to this Hotel

0:00 This is Gornergrat, and it has the highest hotel in Switzerland.

0:05 The only way to get here is by train, and that’s my kind of destination.

0:10 So when I noticed that there was a last minute discount at this hotel,

0:13 I knew I had to book it.

0:15 And that just left me to figure out how I was going to get there.

0:19 Thankfully one of the things I love about living in Europe is how easy it is

0:23 to travel to interesting places without spending

0:26 a lot of time and money to get there.

0:29 The places I lived in Canada, even the nicer ones,

0:32 were surrounded by car-centric urban sprawl in every direction.

0:36 And all of those beautiful outdoor places

0:39 you might associate with Canada were only

0:42 accessible with long and ludicrously expensive flights

0:46 and/or hours and hours of driving and traffic.

0:49 So I really appreciate the fact that, living in Amsterdam,

0:52 I can get to most destinations in a day,

0:55 or even better, while I sleep, by taking a night train.

1:05 [NJB Intro] My son had a week off of school,

1:06 and after booking the hotel at Gornergrat,

1:08 I started looking for a night train to Zürich.

1:11 And this brings me to one of the only

1:13 things I hate about night trains in Europe: there aren’t nearly enough of them,

1:17 so they’re almost always full when I want to travel.

1:21 There used to be a lot more night trains,

1:23 but with the rise of artificially low cost air travel in the 90s,

1:27 almost all rail carriers stopped running sleeper cars.

1:31 Don’t you love it how airlines aren’t required to charge VAT on their tickets,

1:35 and they don’t pay tax on their fuel, but the railways do charge VAT and also

1:40 need to pay tax on their fuel and electricity?

1:44 Yeah, that’s great.

1:45 But over the past few decades there has

1:47 been a huge renewed interest in night trains,

1:49 as Europeans are looking for more climate-friendly methods of travels,

1:53 Plus they’ve likely become tired of being

1:56 herded like sheep through airports and charged

1:58 for every possible part of the journey

2:00 that used to be included in the regular price.

2:03 So there have been a bunch of railways that have restarted night train service,

2:07 and even some new night-train startup companies,

2:10 but unfortunately it takes time to buy new

2:13 rolling stock and to start up new train routes,

2:15 so for now, there aren’t nearly enough night trains available to meet demand.

2:19 So long story short,

2:21 I booked the night train for the way home, but to get there,

2:24 I booked the cheapest flight to Switzerland, which turned out to be to Geneva.

2:28 Unfortunately the cost for the flight plus a hotel in Geneva

2:32 was twice as much as the night train would’ve been.

2:36 I really can’t wait for Europe to get more night trains.

2:40 Ultimately, it didn’t really matter which city we flew

2:42 into, because it’s easy to get anywhere in Switzerland by train.

2:46 The Swiss may not have the high-speed train network of Japan,

2:51 but what they do have is extremely reliable and predictable service.

2:55 The trains here consistently run on-time and they have integrated timetables so

2:59 that the average wait time for a connection is about eight minutes.

3:03 And I have a previous video about the Swiss

3:06 train network if you want to learn more details.

3:10 Our ultimate destination was Gornergrat,

3:12 which has the highest hotel in Switzerland at 3100 metres of elevation.

3:17 You might recognise this location if you watch the Nebula show Jet Lag:

3:21 the Game, where it was the end-location for Adam and Michelle in season 15.

3:26 The only way to get here is by train,

3:29 specifically, the Gornergrat railway from Zermatt.

3:31 Which is a low-car town that is also only accessible by train.

3:36 I absolutely love coming to Zermatt and I

3:38 have a previous video about it on Nebula.

3:40 I'll leave a link in the description.

3:42 But this time was a little bit different,

3:44 as the reason this hotel had a discount is

3:48 because the train to Zermatt was closed for maintenance.

3:51 We could take the train as far as Visp station,

3:53 which was, of course, uneventful and arrived right on time.

3:56 And we waited for our replacement service,

3:59 which turned out to be a pretty nice coach bus.

4:02 So our ride up to Zermatt wasn’t nearly as quick or comfortable as the train,

4:06 but this bus was about as good as it gets as an alternative.

4:10 We then had a one-stop train ride into Zermatt

4:13 And walked across the low-car street to the Gornergrat railway station.

4:18 This rail line is really interesting.

4:20 It climbs almost 1500 metres in elevation.

4:23 And there are several stops along the way

4:26 that provide access to skiing and hiking trails.

4:29 Even better was that there were new trains since the last time I was here.

4:33 These new units were put into service in 2022,

4:36 and they’re very spacious and comfortable,

4:38 With nice big windows providing a stunning

4:41 view of the countryside and mountains.

4:43 including the most famous Swiss mountain of them all… the Matterhorn.

4:48 The Gornergrat railway first opened in 1898,

4:50 and it was an electric railway right from the start.

4:53 Interestingly this railway uses three-phase power,

4:56 like what is used for long-run transmission lines.

4:59 Which means that it has two overhead lines instead of one,

5:03 with the third phase provided by the rails.

5:06 Three-phase AC induction motors were all the rage in the late 1800s,

5:11 but they’re a particularly good fit for a steep railway like this one,

5:14 because they're easy to design for regenerative braking.

5:17 These trains run their motors as generators on the way down the mountain,

5:22 and three trains going down generate enough electricity for two trains to go up.

5:27 Like many steep mountain railways in Switzerland, this is a rack railway.

5:31 Which means that there is a toothed rail in between the tracks.

5:35 There are various different types of rack railways in use around the world,

5:39 but the Gornergrat railway uses the Abt

5:41 rack system with two rows of toothed rails.

5:43 And here's a photo from wikipedia of how it works.

5:45 Pretty clever for a system that was originally designed in 1882!

5:49 At the last station there is one

5:52 of the original locomotives from the 1800s, now painted gold.

5:55 It’s so cute and little,

5:57 but I’m glad they have much larger, modern trains today.

6:01 Our hotel was also here, just a short walk or elevator ride from the station.

6:06 The hotel itself was nice enough,

6:07 And our room had a fantastic view of the Matterhorn.

6:11 The food at the restaurant was great, which is just as well,

6:14 because when we visited the Gornergrat

6:16 railway stopped running at around 5 o’clock,

6:18 so we couldn't eat dinner anywhere else!

6:21 But one of the coolest things about this hotel is that it’s also an observatory.

6:26 The observatory was originally built on top of the hotel in the 1960s,

6:30 and it was in use for scientific research until about fifteen years ago.

6:34 Today it is used by schoolchildren in Switzerland to learn about astronomy

6:38 and to take photos of astronomical objects

6:41 that they’re interested in, which is so cool!

6:44 Normally the telescope is operated remotely

6:46 and there’s no one at the observatory,

6:49 but the resident astronomer was there the week we visited,

6:52 which was half of the reason why we wanted to go here in the first place.

6:56 And while it was unfortunately too cloudy to use the telescope at night,

7:00 we were able to get a tour of it during the day,

7:03 It was great to see the equipment they use,

7:05 And to watch the observation dome open.

7:09 The other great part about Gornergrat is that it’s surrounded

7:13 by hiking trails with all different lengths and levels of difficulty.

7:17 And most of them have a stunning view of the Matterhorn while you’re hiking.

7:22 A popular route is to walk from Gorergrat towards Zermatt,

7:26 And then make your way to one of the intermediate stops on the railway,

7:31 depending on how far you want to hike.

7:33 It’s so great to have outdoor activities

7:36 that are easily accessible by public transit.

7:39 We really lucked out with the weather as well,

7:42 because the days we were hiking were cool with clear skies,

7:46 But the last day was the first snow of the season,

7:50 Which was absolutely beautiful, but the hiking trails would’ve been treacherous.

7:54 We only stayed in Gornergrat for a few days, but it was really great,

7:58 and so I’m glad we could plan a trip here at the last-minute.

8:02 When it was time to leave we took the Gorergrat railway back down to Zermatt,

8:06 And continued on to Zürich,

8:08 which was uneventful and all of our trains arrived on time,

8:11 because of course they did.

8:13 It’s Switzerland.

8:14 We spent a day touring around Zürich, And the surrounding area And riding trams,

8:19 of course, Before heading to the Hauptbahnhof to catch our night train.

8:23 Only to get to our platform right as the Nightjet train was leaving the station!

8:28 Because this was the train to Hamburg.

8:30 There were actually several night trains leaving for different cities,

8:33 which was great to see.

8:35 But about 15 minutes before departure, our night train pulled into the station.

8:39 And I was kinda disappointed to see that it was one of their old trains.

8:44 ÖBB has been rolling out newer Nightjet rolling stock,

8:48 Including these cool-looking capsule rooms,

8:50 but unfortunately I’ve never had a chance to ride in one.

8:54 Nevertheless, our room, while several decades old, was still very comfortable.

8:58 The beds were already folded out when we arrived.

8:59 Night trains in Europe leave in the evening and arrive in the early morning,

9:02 so you pretty much get on board and immediately go to sleep.

9:06 So there weren’t any lounge cars or really anything else worth visiting.

9:10 If you want to see a video about a 24 hour train ride I took in Canada,

9:14 I’ll leave a link in the description.

9:16 Our room was very typical for a European night train.

9:20 There was a seat and table.

9:22 With two more seats available after folding up the bottom bed.

9:25 It had a sink area with a mirror with some basic storage.

9:29 A coat closet.

9:30 And some space above where we could store our luggage.

9:33 And there was a detachable ladder that we could use to get to the top bunks.

9:38 There were also a couple of goodie

9:40 bags That had typical amenities like slippers,

9:43 a sleep mask, earplugs, and water.

9:46 There was no toilet in our room but there

9:48 were two shared restrooms at the end of the hall.

9:51 Back in our room, the beds had reading lights which I wish

9:54 I had noticed earlier because I would’ve laid down facing the other way.

9:58 But whatever, I wasn’t here to read, I was here to sleep,

10:02 and shortly after departure we went to bed.

10:04 And I slept really well.

10:05 The bed was comfortable and I didn’t hear

10:08 any noise from any of the other cabins.

10:10 I always sleep well on night trains, though.

10:13 Maybe it’s because of the soft rocking of the train as it

10:17 sails through the countryside In the morning

10:19 they brought our complimentary breakfast, which we had ordered the night before.

10:23 Shortly after breakfast we arrived at Amsterdam Centraal,

10:27 albeit about 15 minutes late.

10:29 And we caught a tram back home.

10:31 Night trains are such a great way to travel.

10:35 They combine transportation and a hotel, which makes them very cost-effective,

10:40 And the whole experience is so much more relaxing than dealing with airports.

10:45 I can’t wait for more night train operators

10:47 to start offering service to more destinations in Europe.

10:50 Ideally in time for my next last-minute vacation idea.

10:54 Thanks for watching.

10:56 If you’d like to learn about another great train in Switzerland,

10:59 I made a previous video about this train, the Glacier Express.

11:03 Billed as the “slowest express train in the world”,

11:06 the Glacier Express takes an eight hour scenic route from Zermatt to St.

11:11 Moritz.

11:12 And that video is available on Nebula.

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