Home -> Europe -> Switzerland -> Travelogue 2000 -> Monday 2 October

We try to to get out of the Rhône-valley

We have a simple plan for today: a long trip, leaving the Rhône-valley at the Grimsel-pass and then maybe to Italy and back. And along the way we will take as many small roads and side valleys as we encounter.

The beginning is easy, through Sion (to the right) onto the mountainside north of Sion, towards Anzere. The roads are very good and we have a nice view on the south side of the valley.

Sion lies at the bottom of the Rhône valley but the castle is situated on the northern slopes. We don't see many traffic or tourists. In the summer and when the winter sports season starts that can be quite different.

It is a beautiful landscape, especially when you, like we do, continue on this road until Montana and there turn in the direction of Sierre.

Near Sierre we take the minor road to Leuk and then to Leukerbad; the clouds seem to return and without the sun shining the landscape can look very frightening.

When we are a long way past Brig, we are halted by a police car: a road accident has happened in the road tunnel before us and it will be closed off for the rest of the day. The Simplon-pass is closed as well (due to an accident a year before) and we are not able to reach Italy in any way.
So we decide to explore more side valleys, like Saastal, a valley which leads to Saas Fee. To the right one of the many waterfalls we see.

There are some chilling steep parts on this road and Elisabeth is glad to be back in the Rhône-valley, but then we go into the Lötschental, north of the Rhône-valley which also has some hair-raising ravines just beside the road. At Guppenstein we look at the railroad station where one can take the car train to Bern, over the Alps. We drive to the end of the valley, to Fafleralp at a height of 1700 metres.

The Lötschen-valley is one of the most beautiful valleys of the Rhône-valley in our opinion. But after that we drive through the Val d'Anniviers, a valley to the south (from Sierre) and that valley also has some splendid sceneries. On the map it looks like a short road, but it takes us two hours to drive to the end of the valley and back again.

All in all, we have driven more than 400 kilometers through Switzerland and we conclude the day with a meal in Haute Nendaz, a very touristic village that is deserted now. When you look at the overwhelming and luxurious hotels you can imagine being on any, very touristic place, Mallorca, Salou or just name another touristic hotspot. Well, we don't like it and look out for a small and cosy hotel to have dinner.

At night the temperature drops very quickly and we have to put the heater on in our apartment. But soon it becomes very pleasant in our room, accompanied by a drink and a book.

It has been a very nice day: we have seen a lot of beautiful things and driven on exciting roads. We are really mountain-lovers, we can't see enough of them. It is the majestic view that attracts us so much. Very content we fall asleep.

Travel through Europe and Africa

with Elisabeth and Teije