13:37. The city walk in Brig took much longer than I expected, and I barely made it back to my train in time.
To the left are the tracks to Montreux and Geneva, as well as the new Loetschberg base tunnel. My train is taking the old Loetschberg line.
The old Loetschberg route climbs steadily on the north slope of the the Rhone valley, quickly gaining elevation. It doesn't take long and the view turns into a real life model railroad.
I know that Kandersteg is on the north side of the Loetschberg tunnel. I ask the conductor from which side I can see the tunnel portals of the Loetschberg tunnel.
"Only on the north side, from Kandersteg. You can't see anything on the other side."
Ok. It's still early in the afternoon, so I'm planning to get off in Kandersteg and explore the area a bit. We're getting close.
The view is great, but the low sun is causing lots of reflections on the glass, confusing the auto-focus on my SLR camera for any angle that isn't straight out of the window.
I experiment a little bit with the smart phone, with mixed success.
Suddenly, we veer away from the Rhone valley and follow a narrow valley in northern direction. Can't be much longer until Goppenstein.
In Goppenstein I peek out of the window and , ... WHAT THE HECK? THERE'S THE TUNNEL!!!
I grab my things, and get off the train. It turns out the conductor was wrong. The tunnel portals are visible easily only from Goppenstein, while the north portal is several kilometers away from Kandersteg.
The train had to wait for an auto train to clear the track ahead, so I took a few more photos and then hopped back on to see what the other side looked like.
Oh yeah, quite agreeable in Kandersteg. Sunshine and better scenery.
A while later I photographed a south-bound Regio to Domodossola (Italy).
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