The MOB cheese train – a different kind of experience

Off to Montreux

The weath­er gods aren’t entire­ly on our side this Wednes­day morn­ing. But the good thing is that we’ll be spend­ing most of our jour­ney on the train. We, Kat­ri­na (some of you may already know me) and Ricar­da, set off towards Spiez and our des­ti­na­tion is Mon­treux.

In Spiez, we board the GPX , a world first among trains. This train has only been in oper­a­tion since the timetable change in 2022 and is the first train in the world able to switch from metre to stan­dard gauge.

A world first awaits us

Mani tells us exact­ly how this works. He joins us on board in Zweisim­men and has been with MOB for 43 years. If any­one knows about these trains, it’s him. Zweisim­men is the rail­way sta­tion where the rail width becomes nar­row­er and this new tech­nol­o­gy comes into play. Besides Mani, we’re joined by Céline, MOB’s social media man­ag­er.
We have the hon­our of trav­el­ling in Pres­tige Class – first class is noth­ing in com­par­i­son.

We’re on the Gold­en­Pass Line and have the plea­sure of test­ing the cheese train, an expe­ri­ence that was cre­at­ed over 30 years ago and is still very pop­u­lar with young and old today – and right­ly so.
((Infobox)) The expe­ri­ence can be booked from 4 Jan­u­ary to 29 Octo­ber and takes place every Wednes­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. You can either start from Mon­treux or Inter­lak­en.
After Mani explains how this new tech­nol­o­gy works, the train starts mov­ing and in a few sec­onds the train lifts up and we’re on the metre gauge. AMAZING!!!
In the past, all pas­sen­gers trav­el­ling on the Gold­en­Pass Line from Inter­lak­en to Mon­treux had to change in Zweisim­men. Thanks to this inven­tion, this time is draw­ing to a close.

Those trav­el­ling in Pres­tige Class receive a small plate fea­tur­ing var­i­ous meats and cheeses from the region as well as a drink of their choice. It’s impor­tant to reserve your seat in advance. Of course, you can also trav­el in 1st or 2nd class – where you don’t need a reser­va­tion and your GA Trav­el­card is valid.

Next stop: Chateau d’Oex – fondue chalet

We pass forests, mead­ows and moun­tains – fan­tas­tic views and quin­tes­sen­tial Switzer­land. The train stops in Chateau d’Oex – home to one of the Swiss Youth Hos­tels’ group hos­tels. But we have oth­er plans. We’re on the cheese train after all. As soon as we get off the train, we notice the quaint train sta­tion.

We learn that this is the most beau­ti­ful trans­fer point in Switzer­land. The town has received a spe­cial prize for this – it’s amaz­ing what prizes are award­ed. We all agree that the sta­tion def­i­nite­ly deserves the award.
We walk a bit to a small chalet, which is thank­ful­ly warm, as we’re now wet due to some rain

When we enter the chalet, we’re aston­ished to see a man stir­ring milk in a giant ket­tle – you must all assume that he is mak­ing cheese. He explains his craft to us, and we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to give it a whirl our­selves – stir­ring the ket­tle can be quite stren­u­ous. It’s almost time for some food – and what else could it be? A fine cheese fon­due.

Ricar­da and I were sur­prised when they put the bread on the table. It’s slices and not cubes. I ask Mani if they were too lazy to cut it into cubes or if we can expect a sal­ad to go along: He laughs and explains that we Ger­man-speak­ing Swiss are lazy. In French-speak­ing Switzer­land, it’s nor­mal for bread to be sliced with fon­due. The fon­due is excel­lent and we’re all glad it isn’t 30 degrees Cel­sius. If you wish, you can stock up on region­al cheese in the small shop, which is also part of the chalet.

A visit to the Musée du Pays‑d’Enhaut, steeped in history

Our jour­ney con­tin­ues. In addi­tion to the chalet, a vis­it to the muse­um is part of the expe­ri­ence. You can choose between the two muse­ums “Espace Bal­lon” and “Musée du Pays‑d’Enhaut.” As the one of them is being ren­o­vat­ed, we’re left with Musée du Pays‑d’Enhaut.
Did you know that paper cut­ting was invent­ed in Chateau d’Oex? No? Nei­ther did we, but now we do and are fas­ci­nat­ed by this del­i­cate craft. Besides beau­ti­ful sil­hou­ettes, there’s a lot of talk about the town and the craft of yes­ter­year. We’re in luck – Mani is a great guide, telling us excit­ing sto­ries about his grand­par­ents and him­self.

Mystical train journey along Lake Geneva

After the his­to­ry les­son, it’s time to set forth on our jour­ney. Our des­ti­na­tion is Mon­treux after all. The jour­ney con­tin­ues through the beau­ti­ful coun­try­side past cows. We pass the «Rösti­graben» — the German/French lan­guage bor­der — and are now in French-speak­ing Switzer­land.

Thanks to our trav­el com­pan­ion, we always know when to pull out our cam­era to take the best shots of Lake Gene­va. Even though the weath­er doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly coop­er­ate, and it looks a lit­tle mys­ti­cal, it’s an impres­sive ride. The train winds its way down towards Mon­treux and the lake switch­es sides sev­er­al times, allow­ing all pas­sen­gers to mar­vel at the beau­ti­ful and impres­sive views.

Once in Mon­treux, we say good­bye to the two guides and board the bus, which stops not far from our youth hos­tel after eight min­utes. Hos­tel Man­ag­er Lucas and XY wel­come us to the hos­tel.
As you may know, I was already here two years ago. How­ev­er, the build­ing has now under­gone ren­o­va­tions and is shin­ing in new splen­dour. I’m impressed.

We check into our room and head towards town. We end the evening with a nice pas­ta dish and fall into bed tired but hap­py. Our jour­ney isn’t over yet. Tomor­row, our next train adven­ture awaits us.