Continuing with our road trip through the Swiss Alps (the start of the series is here) …
Our selection of music to accompany us to the second mountain pass of the day is by Max Richter and Louisa Fuller.
To get to Andermatt where we spent the first night of the road trip, we had to traverse another mountain pass – the Furkapass. We retraced our drive from Grimselpass back down to Gletsch (1759 m), cross the Rhône in town, and then zigzag up the mountain on the other side towards Hotel Belvédère.
There was a sense of anticipation on this stretch of the drive because Hotel Belvédère which is perched dramatically half-way up the mountain, is visible from all angles. It was particularly eye-catching when you looked up from the Rhône valley on approach to Gletsch.
We parked across the hair-pin turn from the hotel closed since 2016, and had our lunch at a snack bar. When I asked for a hotdog after seeing a photo of a frankfurter, the person behind the counter grunted “no” and noted they only serve the sausage with brown square bread, and not in a roll. Mustard on the side. I guess people who live in the harsh mountain environment do not smile much when they have a captive clientele.
Hotel Belvédère is used as the cover photo of the book “Accidentally Wes Anderson” by Wes Anderson which is a collection of photos of iconic architecture that caught his eyes. A great coffee table book.
I downloaded the picture below of the Rhône Glacier in 1900 from Wikipedia. The edge of the glacier was near the Grand Hotel Glacier du Rhône at Gletsch near the base of the valley. We took a picture of the same Grand Hotel (see earlier post here) and the glacier was nowhere in sight now.
In 120 years, the glacier has regressed, presumably due to climate change, upwards to a point where we took these pictures next to Hotel Belvédère.
Water from the glacier collects in a small lake which feeds a stream that runs downhill to Gletsch and beyond as river Rhône.
This is the source of the Rhône (at 2,208 m, 7,244 ft) which empties into Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). In Geneva, the Rhône enters France, continues to Lyon and then southward to Arles, and reaches eventually the Mediterannean. The length of this river is 813 km (505 miles).
A souvenir store was at the end of the parking area of Hotel Belvedere which also serves as the entrance to the Rhône Glacier Ice Grotto (Rhonegletscher Eisgrotte). Only a short walk from the store, the grotto apparently includes a chamber and a 100-meter long tunnel under/inside the glacier which is dug fresh each year. We went to one such ice cave in Chamonix and did not feel the need to see it again. Click here to see our post about that ice cave visit in Chamonix.
Furkapass
Three km up the road from Hotel Belvedere is the Furkapass (2431 m; 7969 feet). The European watershed (continental divide) runs along the pass. This is one of the snowiest regions in Switzerland.
The road was built initially for strategic military reasons and was the longest mountain pass road in Switzerland when it was opened in 1866.
Once the mountain pass was opened, coaches started services on the route bringing tourists to the area during the heyday of Alpine tourism in the 19th century.
Apparently nowadays, more than 250,000 people cross the pass each year on cycles or motorcycles, in private cars, in Alpine PostBuses or by historic steam train. We stopped at the Grand Tour of Switzerland scenic photo spot.
The Grand Tour of Switzerland is a 1,600 kilometre driving tour through the most beautiful areas of Switzerland, going over five Alpine passes, passing twelve UNESCO World Heritage sites and biospheres and running along 22 lakes. It is a great site to do research for a road trip in Switzerland (https://grandtour.myswitzerland.com/en/).
Looking down towards the valley from the pass …
This mountain pass became famous after it was used in a car “chase” location in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. One curve on the east side of the pass is even named “James Bond Strasse”. Here is the James Bond clip on Youtube.
We reached Furkapass and drove down from the east side of the pass to Realp towards Andermatt using the same stretch of road as James Bond. The road is just as narrow and curvy as it was shown in the film. As we descended to the Reuss valley, we passed a number of quaint villages with wooden houses and whitewashed churches.
We were using our own car for the trip, so the drive was comfortable as much as it was exhilarating. All these roads are closed during the winter months and their open/close status can be checked online at Alpinepasse.
Our hotel at Andermatt is a modern luxury high rise but it maintains the warm ambiance of a mountain lodge. We had a quick dinner at the hotel and promptly went to bed, after a long but enjoyable day of driving.