Pass The Soap

Lots of new visitors to the Anniviers Valley are a little overwhelmed by the narrow steep road from Sierre. Well, there is some good news and bad news. The good news is that this road is closed during the daytime until mid June. There are roadworks in progress.

The bad news is that all traffic must travel up via Vercorin to Mayoux, which is quite a lot narrower.
I had my doubts that the Postbus would even try to run a service using full size vehicles, would they borrow some minibuses? Make that a no!
Even delivery vans fill the road, and remember, this is 2 way.


I had been idly wondering what would happen if the Postbus I was on met something bigger, and on cue along came a really large lorry. It really does not matter how many air horns you have and which tunes they play, both these vehicles are too big for the road they are on.


In Switzerland the Postbus should have right of way, but as the the lorry had a tail of cars and vans behind it, reversing was impractical. Impasse!

The solution was found! The Postbus reversed a small way, crossed onto the opposite side of the road, allowing the lorry to pass alongside, now also on the "wrong" side.


We did this once again before we arrived in Sierre!

I know all my photos are sideways and I apologise, but it's something that Blogger does, I don't have my laptop tipped on it's edge, honestly.

The Swiss Calendar

I have recently travelled on Swiss Trains. Not an exceptional activity by itself, though I did use a Swiss Transfer Ticket, available only to foreigners, and valid for two journeys in one month.

As my first journey was the 6th of April, I filled in the travel document on the day. The form is arranged vertically, so:
Day 6
Month 4

When my ticket was inspected, I usually get a stamp, but not this time. The inspector gets out her pen. She carefully inks a 0 (zero) in front of the 6. This I can understand, perhaps I might feel I wanted another outward journey on the 16th, or maybe the 26th of the month, thereby potentially cheating Swiss Rail of some income.

She does the same on the Month line in front of the 4 (April). How many other months can you name utilising 4 in the calendar? Take your time.......

Answers on a postcard :D