The Alps are pure magic. They are what defines Switzerland and with a good reason. Looking up to the mountains as dawn breaks, the higher peaks are like a painted backdrop against a pale, cloudless sky, and as the temperature rises and the valleys get the sun, the villages and towns start their bustle, with their sounds carry through the clear Alpine air.

The geography of Switzerland is what gives the country its sporting backbone and makes its people so outrageously outdoor-oriented. It's also how little Switzerland put itself on the map as a big tourist destination. In the 19th century, during the golden age of Alpinism, it was the Swiss Alpine peaks that proved particularly alluring to British climbers. Alfred Wills made the first ascent of the Wetterhorn (12,112 ft) above Grindelwald in 1854, which was followed by a rash of ascent up other Swiss peaks, including Edward Whymper's famous Matterhorn expedition in 1865. 

With meandering rivers, soaring Alpine mountains, towering viaducts and winding tunnels, Switzerland is perhaps one of the best European countries to journey through by train. The trains are comfortable, many with extended windows, allowing to take in large sections of the surrounding scenery, but as the saying goes, they "run like a Swiss clockwork". It's hard to find a famous mountain in Switzerland without a rack railway or cable car to the top. Some are primarily for sightseeing, some serve ordinary residents and commuters, and some are mainly ski trips that also operate in summer.

Probably the best known of the Swiss scenic trains is, the Glacier Express, sometimes called the world's slowest express train. It runs over two narrow-gauge private railways between St. Moritz and Zermatt, via Chur, Andermatt and Brig. It's an all-day trip, but many travelers do only a part of the journey. The western part of the trip, on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, is partially a rack railway on several extra steep sections. The eastern part of the trip, on the Rhaetian Railway, is strictly adhesion, but it includes some of the world's steepest adhesion grades. The most scenic part of the trip is probably the section between Chur and St. Moritz, where you travel over the often-photographed Landwasser viaduct that ends in a tunnel.