One of the highlights of my time in Switzerland was the day we travelled to Gornergrat on the highest cog railway in Europe. We hiked down part of the mountain, enjoying a progressive lunch at three hotels.

(Just incase you are wondering what a cog railway is – it’s an additional track providing more traction, stopping the train from slipping backwards on steep gradients).

At an altitude of 3089 metres we should’ve been able to see at least 20, 4,000 metre peaks but unfortunately the weather closed in so the star attraction was the Gornergrat Glacier.

Not to be deterred by the weather, we turned our focus to the historic hotels and food.

The Kulm Hotel, just above the Gornergrat station is the highest hotel in the Swiss Alps at 3120 metres. It opened in 1898, two years before the completion of the Gornergrat  railway. What a walk!

The traditional Swiss food at the Kulm Hotel was delicious.

Our next stop was the Riffelberg Hotel, built in 1854, many years before the railway was completed.

More fabulous Swiss food.

Our final destination was the Riffelalp Hotel, a beautiful five-star resort where we feasted on apple strudel and the house specialty coffee.

We didn’t hike as far as we had hoped because of the weather but we did hike the last part of our descent through beautiful pine forests.