Switzerland

We counted about eleven pre-dawn risers, the expressions on our faces mercifully veiled in the thick fog that enveloped us, rendering each other and our surroundings almost invisible. Only the eerie tinkle of cow bells emanating from behind the wall of bone-chilling mist convinced us that, beyond where we huddled, peaks and valleys lay, their ‘mighty panorama’ cloaked beyond any hope of visibility. […]

I may have enjoyed the 21st century luxury of being whisked here by cable car rather than on foot along the potentially treacherous path of the Gemmi Pass as my celebrated predecessors had done, but the magnitude of what lay before me was the same one that had spread before their eyes 150 years ago. […]

150 years ago this month, a young woman named Jemima Morrell undertook a journey to the Swiss Alps under the auspices of a Mr Thomas Cook. It was effectively the first package holiday tour to Switzerland. […]