“My job is to awaken the soul into the soul realm, so you can have heaven while you’re on earth.” John-Roger, DSS.

 

St. Moritz, Switzerland | Day 6 | September 20

With a tear in our eye, it is time to say goodbye to Zermatt and the Matterhorn, we have our bags packed, breakfast is complete and onto the train for a full day ride into St. Moritz on the Glacier Express Train. The Glacier Express is an express train connecting two major mountain resorts between Zermatt and St. Moritz in the center of the Swiss Alps. The train is not so much an “express” high-speed train, but rather, in the sense that it provides a one-seat ride for an eight-hours-long journey. It has the reputation of being the slowest express train in the world.

The best feature about the Glacier Express train is the large panoramic windows.

The journey from Zermatt starts just below the Matterhorn at an elevation of 5,269 ft before it descends into the huge valley of the Valais in Brig. It traverses through the center of the Swiss Alps, over 291 bridges, through 91 tunnels, including the famous Furka Tunnel at an elevation of 4,900 ft then makes an intermediate stop at Andermatt on a secluded high Alpine valley, only to traverse its highest point at the Oberalp Pass at 6,670 ft before it descends to its lowest point at Chur of 1,919 ft. Then backtracks to higher altitudes again in order to reach the resort St. Moritz in a valley to the south.

The ride through the mountains is spectacular. The view allows for glimpses of idyllic mountain ranges, remote valleys, sheer rock faces and through the deep Rhine Gorge which is known as the Grand Canyon of Switzerland.

During our ride, we are served a gourmet lunch with many choices from the menu, all which are freshly prepared in the onboard kitchen. While riding along, every half hour or so, a gong rings in the train to alert you to put your headphones on to listen to exciting stories and interesting facts about our train journey.

We arrive in the late afternoon at the most beautiful Kempinski Grand Hotel Des Bains in St. Moritz in a breathtaking mountain setting. St. Moritz has more of a cosmopolitan flare and is one of the world’s most popular holiday destinations. St. Moritz is famous for its mineral springs, which have been known for about 3000 years. It is an ideal haven for a winter Alpine visit.

What a luxurious day of taking in breathtaking views, connecting with loved ones and sharing the joy of spirit together in oneness aboard the train with the Traveler climbing ever so higher into Spirit.

In Loving Service,
Love and Light Julie
 

Touring Videos Day 6

 
 
 

Touring Photos by David Sand

Scroll down to the bottom to read David Sand’s travelogue on Day 6.
 

 

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Participate in Planting Light columns with us. The map that shows the dates of where we will be on the tour for visualizing Light Columns.

 

From David Sand on Day 6:

I have a theory that people who design bathroom fixtures are reincarnated Nazis, or torturers from other totalitarian regimes. Wherever you travel, showers and other bathroom fixtures are completely different; water comes from unexpected directions; they’re ingeniously designed to make it as difficult as possible to test the temperature before you find out the hard way if it’s too hot or cold (that is if you can even figure out where the hot and cold are); water gets all over the rest of the bathroom, or scalds or freezes you before you can adjust it.

If you had the equivalent variation in car design you might find the gas pedal and brake were reversed, or even indistinguishable, depending on what car you got into. And the gas gauges would go from full to empty, or empty to full, in different directions from car to car, or suddenly leap from totally full to totally empty with no gradation in between.

All the bathroom surfaces are designed for both maximum slipperiness and maximum hardness, which is the way to create the maximum number of injuries per square foot of floor space. Sometimes they even put in those little emergency cords as a kind of snickering warning of what you might be in for, like when the evil genius in the movie describes how he’s going to torture the hero. Each bathroom fixture designer apparently does their work in total seclusion, taking great care to prevent the other designers from discovering their uniquely boobytrapped variations, ensuring that each bathroom will be a brand new adventure that’s impossible to prepare for.

The specialties in Europe seem to be (1) non-protection of the rest of the bathroom from the shower spray, as shower curtains are either nonexistent, or they’re panels of glass that fold in unique ways and cover a third of the tub at most, and (2) the “water from unexpected directions” ambush, with the mobile shower heads that are difficult to set in any particular direction, or that change direction depending on water pressure.

Compassion has mysteriously developed among the bidet designers, (some theorize that they are reincarnated members of the French resistance) whose work has been standardized, but they still seem to be in league with the water-from-unexpected-directions cabal, because they are limited to just one region of Europe, which ensures that their unpredictable water directions will combine with temperature unpredictability to be a shock to the more sensitive body parts of the uninitiated from other parts of the world. The cheaper the hotel, and the further you are from large cities, the bolder these sadists become. As you approach more civilized areas they seem more restricted in their deceptions. Maybe it’s just that the expensive hotels are more afraid of lawsuits, or that they take better care of their customers, or that they have more money to hire bathroom designers from places other than prisons and third world intelligence agencies.

But I digress. After our glorious train ride from west to east Switzerland on the Glacier Express, through blindingly green alpine valleys dotted by belled cows, ancient Roman viaducts, charming little villages, and tunnels through mountainsides–all saturated with eye-numbing beauty–we arrive in St. Moritz at the fanciest hotel yet, with a completely enclosed shower with a large single fixed showerhead on the ceiling…and we seem to be back at a level of civilization we haven’t seen since Geneva.

But I digress again. Actually, the hotel is bigger, and St. Moritz is in a valley that’s a bit gentler and more spread out, with some of that moneyed Monaco/southern France type of resort vibe. It’s a bit of a shock coming from the idyllic hotels of Zermatt and Chamonix, with their mastery of beauty without ostentation, and their practical care of the physical body with just the right amount of sensory indulgence to foster good health and spiritual balance. We also had a taste of moneyed Europe in Montreux a few days back, when our bus stopped for brunch at a lavish hotel buffet with a car show out in front, the Alfa Romeos and Ferraris pointing their snouts proudly at Lake Geneva. I’d rather be back in our cozier hotels but the one thing I’ve found about MSIA is that it’s a movement and you’re never allowed to sit at one end of the spectrum, or in the middle of the spectrum, or anywhere that makes distinctions between higher and lower. It’s not just a horizontal Movement, it’s vertical as well.

And about the train ride: Anytime you put a bunch of MSIA people in an enclosed space for a prolonged time they have a lot of fun. Like children, they’ll run around laughing and enjoying themselves for a while, then crash and sleep and do spiritual exercises for a while, then wake up and start all over again. You get the full gamut of human behavior, from high to low. At the end the waiters/conductors go through the train being applauded and giving high-fives, having managed to keep us fed and happy on the all-day ride.

We’re suffering through the luxury of our St. Moritz hotel now, with the Traveler energy still amplifying everything in the consciousness, including dreams, awarenesses, appetites (there were some big plates and big eyes at the buffet), and issues. There’s progressively more inner pull, and sometimes more outer pull now as well, as the newness wears off and we get more familiar with repeated mountain vistas and sensory perfection. I find that MSIA workshops, trips, etc., are microcosmic versions of real life. They pack a lot of learning into a smaller period of time. They’re a shortcut or fast track. There is a sequence of new levels of elevation and exaltation, then familiarity, then temptation to re-enter the old patterns, then choice. It’s the same battle, but there’s more grace and protection than in “real life.” Our first full day in St. Moritz is another cable car to a spectacular mountaintop. Then we have our first totally free day, until sharing in the evening. We’ll see what happens. Anyway, it’s a divine comedy because we already know who the winner of the battle is going to be. As J-R’s license plate read toward the end of his life, BLVDWON (beloved won).