The Alps by Bernina Express

We had a fantastic ride through the Swiss Alps full of oohs and aahs despite the overcast and showery weather.  The scenery was spectacular and the weather made the mountains rise out of the mist with an ethereal magic. 

The Bernina Express starts in Tirano in the Italian Alps.  Although on the map Tirano is just about 175 km north of Verona, by train we had to go west to Milan, change trains then north east to Tirano.  This turned out to be a treat as the train went along Lake Como, a beautiful area that would be great for a walking holiday.

Lake Como in the mist

 

At Tirano we had a few hours lay over which gave us the opportunity to treat ourselves to a very nice lunch at a restaurant in this quaint village.  While savouring my steak and glass of wine, the heavens opened up with a spectacular thunder storm that ended just as we had to catch our train.  Perfect timing. 

Tirano railway station

The Bernina Express

Comfy seats and huge windows

Brochures and maps

The carriages on the Bernina Express are especially made for the sight seer having large windows and comfy seats.  Bob had never been to Switzerland and I hadn’t been since 1978 so we were both quite excited and settled in for an enjoyable 4 hour trip.

 

 

 

Despite the weather the towns and alpine meadows were truly picture postcard perfect.  I really do not know how the Swiss manage to make alpine meadows as well manicured as golf greens.  Nothing was out of place.  Corn fields were sown in absolutely perfect 90 degree rectangles and every row was faultlessly straight.  Not a blade of grass was out of place.  

Our journey was suppose to end in Chur going through an area of castles clinging to the hillsides but there was some problem with the track and we were diverted to Davos (site of the World Economic Forum meetings) and then Lindergast where we caught another train to Zurich to spend the night. Sadly I couldn't get any good pictures of the big meeting centre as the train traveled through the town but it looked like a space station and was quite at of place in the bucolic setting of the alps.

Zurich reminded me a bit of Brussels as it had lots of modern buildings devoted to finance and government.  We arrived about 8 pm and had booked an apartment not too far from the train station as we had an early start the next day.  There was no reception.  We were sent an email with a code which we entered into a box at the door.  This gave us our key and we found our way to the allotted room; absolutely no human contact, very strange.  The flat itself was quite comfortable and at first I thought it a shame we weren’t going to stay longer, but then the night fell.  It turns out we found ourselves in the tenderloin district.  There was no air conditioning in the flat so we had to have the windows open and spent the night listening to rows between pimps, prostitutes and clients and the general noise of heavy drinkers.  Around 5 am things quieted down but we had to be up at 6 to catch the train to Paris.  Oh well, the joys of travel.