Grande Dixence dam and Verbier

So far on this holiday the weather has been fine and sunny. The forecast for today was pretty much rain, and heavy rain all day! Despite this forecast we decided that we wanted to firstly go to see the Grande Dixence dam which at 285 metres is the tallest gravity dam...in the world! It is also built at an altitude of 2400 metres! So on a wet day with cloud going up into the mountains could be pretty stupid.

As the dam is only accessible by an infrequent bus service it meant leaving Lausanne by main line train to Sion at 08 21. It was raining when we left Lausanne but as we approached Sion the weather started to clear, It was easy to find our bus in the bus station right by the railway station with very clear signs and times (fbb would give it a gold star!)

The bus ride to the dam is about 18 miles and takes around an hour. The route climbs all the way and is often winding and narrow and passes through a few villages, but all the way the views were splendid.

There is a cable car from the base of the dam where the bus stops which saves the half hour walk up to the top of the dam and we decided to save our high altitude energy for waking at the top.

The rain was holding off and the cloud was hiding the mountains above the lake, but we could see the views down the valley and across the lake.

It was pretty cold up by the lake and walking at altitude was noticeably more difficult. It was just beginning to rain as we went down in the cable car and we just had time to photograph the dam from the base before the clouds descended.

Back to Sion in the rain, but we had seen the views on the way up.

The weather had now cleared again and we decided to go to the ski resort of Verbier. So one stop on the main line to Martigny, to catch the St Bernard Express branch line to Le Chable then the cable car up to Verbier. The weather was being kind to us and we had great views as we climbed up to Verbier.

We all felt Verbier was a bit plastic and had no real character. It looked nice but that was all, More like a Disney theme park that a real village! Perhaps the snow in winter makes a difference.

Back to Lausanne in time for dinner at a posh lakeside restaurant, cost over twice as much as yesterday!

but it was worth it for the profiteroles!