Switzerland: Transportation Vacation

In the second half of September, we spent 11 days traveling around Switzerland. This vacation was very unusual for us: we didn't even rent a car and relied completely on public transportation. Which, inside Switzerland, is excellent - traveling to and from Zurich by Swiss Air is quite another story, but I do not want to talk about unpleasant things... so I will concentrate on our adventures inside the country.

This kind of vacation requires certain preparation: 

• We bought Swiss Pass, which covers all trains, boats, cable cars, buses, trams, trolleys - any and all means of public transportation in Switzerland (and even into and out of neighboring countries, like Italy and France - details later). Two Swiss Passes, one for each of us. We splurged for 1st Class, which was totally worth it. 
• We packed very carefully into one backpack and one carry-on suitcase each, mindful of the fact that we'll have to carry our luggage everywhere. No option to lock our suitcases in the trunk of the car while we explore on foot... Given that we planned to be on the move all the time, we had to think carefully about what to do with suitcases in each situation. Baggage lockers at the train station helped us out several times. When renting hotels for the trip, I was also mindful of the distance from the train station and of how easy it would be to get to it with the luggage.

It all worked out beautifully! In total, we took 29 trains, 4 boats, 4 cable cars (and countless metro trips, trolleys, even a funicular). We visited 9 towns and 3 mountain summits, including the highest elevation in Europe - Jungfrau, at 3,463 m (11,362 ft) above sea level. We also traveled over the Bernina Pass - a scenic train ride through the Swiss Alps, 144 km long, through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges.

Here is a series of short reports on each part of our journey:

• Zurich
• Bernina Pass, to Tirano and back
• Lucerne
• Mount Rigi
• Mount Pilatus
• Interlaken
• Jungfrau
• Montreux
• Lausanne
• Evian
• Geneva
• Bern

Zurich

We had a direct flight from Boston to Zurich, arrived right on schedule - before noon - but then had to spend 2 hours in line at the airport. They do not accept US passports as biometric - only the EU ones - so everybody else had to queue up in one very long line. All the cross-Atlantic flights arrive at about the same time in the morning, so you can imagine the line, and they have only a couple of booths open, because they don't care. That's a direct quote, because on the way back - same system, the two entry booths are now wide open, no line, but a loooong line to exit the country - we saw two women run up to a closed booth, which had a clerk inside, and frantically beg him to take their passports and let them through, their plane is leaving! - and he just said: "I don't care." So keep in mind, if you have a misfortune to fly out of Switzerland, come to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

Anyway, by the time we finally got processed and walked to our hotel (15 minutes by foot from the train station), it was 2pm and the room was fortunately ready. (Normally, check-in time is at 3 pm, but if the room is ready, they let you go right away - and if not, they are willing to store your luggage.) We freshened up, left everything but the camera, and went out again to explore the city. And eat. Breakfast on the plane was very pathetic and a very long time ago by now.

Zurich is a very nice city situated along a river, which flows into a lake. So first we walked along the river, stopping to eat and enjoy the sights.

The two-headed cathedral in the distance is called Grossmünster. We didn't go inside.

University of Zurich, where Churchill gave his famous “Let Europe arise!” speech in 1946 (with a memorial plaque on the pavement in front)...

... and this is the close-up view of the plaque.

Another iconic Zurich church, Fraumünster. Here we did go inside, because it has stained-glass windows by Chagall.

There are 5 total. This is the first, leftmost one...

... then there are three together on the far wall...

... and the final, fifth, one on the right.

We didn't take pictures during lunch, because we were very hungry and stopped at the first place that offered food on the river bank - some unmemorable ravioli, nothing special. But then we treated ourselves to coffee and cake further down along the Limmat river.

We walked all the way down to the lake and along the shore a little bit. 

There is a pretty fountain, but once we realized it is in the lake - so we won't be able to come close to it anyway, we decided to turn back. By then, we were pretty tired. We walked back to our hotel, rested a bit, and then went out to dinner.

For dinner, we picked Rooftop, an Asian fusion restaurant. We didn't get a table outside - the place was packed, we were lucky to get a table inside - it still had a nice view. Here are the cocktails...

... here is the food...

... this is the view down from the terrace...

... and this is the sunset.

Overall, a very successful first day. We spent the night in Zurich, and early the next morning left to take a series of trains to Tirano, Italy, across the Swiss Alps.

> Bernina Pass, to Tirano and back

Bernina Pass, to Tirano and back

Bernina Pass is a scenic train ride through the Swiss Alps, 144 km long, through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges. If we planned our trip differently, we could have started by flying to Milan (rather than Zurich), taking a train to Tirano from there, and traveling through the Bernina Pass only once... But because we started by booking round-trip tickets Boston-Zurich, our only option was to do the Bernina Pass both ways. We took a series of regular trains, from Zurich to Landquart to St. Moritz to Tirano, spent the night in Tirano, and early the next morning took the famous Bernina Express back.

Here is a railroad map detailing our adventures (right on the little table in the train carriage).

The highlighted portion is the "scenic route", but don't believe them: all the other portions are scenic as well. In fact, even though I worried about getting bored on a 6-hour train ride, I shouldn't have - the scenery is so beautiful, you can keep looking out the window for hours and hours... Here are just a few views on the way there.

We changed trains in Landquart, then stopped for lunch in St. Moritz, in Caffè Spettacolo near the train station. After lunch, we had a bit of time before our next train, so we took the escalators up to the observation deck over the lake (Terrasse Panoramique) and ventured into the town a little bit. We were slightly hampered by having to roll out suitcases along - it wasn't a problem on the escalators or the observation deck, but the cobblestone streets of the town proved to be an issue. Still, I feel we saw enough of it to form an impression.

The final train brought us to Tirano around 5pm. I rented an apartment (with a balcony) near the station and checked out the location of the nearest grocery store in advance (open until 7pm). We only needed groceries for breakfast the next morning - because, after finding ourselves in Italy, of course we had to have dinner there!

We also walked around the town a little bit in the evening...

 ... and then enjoyed a glorious sunrise the next morning from our balcony.

Our train, Bernina Express, was leaving at 8 am, so we had to get up very early, have breakfast, and get to the station on time. Here we are watching the rest of the sunrise from the train...

And this photo clearly shows the difference between Bernina Express (panoramic train with extra-large curved windows) and a regular train next to us.

I already mentioned how our train went through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges. Here is a photo of the front of our train, as it starts to climb a 360 circular ramp...

... and here is a look back at this circular ramp, after we passed it.

Bernina Express makes one 10-minute stop, in the most picturesque spot. This is it. First, Alik next to Bernina Express...

... then, view of the station...

... view of the mountains and lake...

... and our selfie amidst it all.

Finally, a couple of the view of the glacier from Bernina Express.

We rode the Bernina Express to Chur, then changed trains twice - to get first to Zurich, and then to Lucerne. This brought out total train count at the moment to seven: train from the airport to Zurich HB (main station) on the first day (Friday), then three trains to get from Zurich to Tirano on Saturday, and three more trains on Sunday - to get from Tirano to Lucerne.

> Lucerne

Australia 2023

This is probably the most ambitious vacation we've taken so far. Here is the itinerary:

• We left Boston on Sunday, October 8, in the early afternoon. Flew to Los Angeles (6 hours) and then to Fiji (10 more hours). We arrived in Fiji very early in the morning of Tuesday, October 10. October 9 never happened - we missed it completely.
  
  
  
  
  
• Spent two nights on Fiji, at First Landing Beach Resort & Villas (with a day trip to the South Sea Island on the day in between), and then on October 12 flew to Sydney.
• Two nights in Sydney, at Adina Apartment Hotel, Darling Harbour. Spent the days just getting the feel of the city. We liked it very much.
  
  
  
  
  
• On the morning of Saturday, October 14, drove to the Blue Mountains. (We rented the car as soon as we arrived at Sydney airport; this was the first of our three car rentals.)
• First stop at the Blue Mountains: Katoomba Scenic World. Took the "train" down, walked the trails, then rode the cable car back up. Had lunch there and continued towards Jenolan Caves.
• Spent the night at the Jenolan Caves House. In the evening, took the night tour of Jenolan Caves. Walked the trails around the hotel, saw our first wallabies and other wildlife. The hotel is very nice and old-fashioned, great service.
  
  
  
  
  
• On Sunday, October 15, drove back through the Blue Mountains (stopping at the Echo Point Lookout to see the Three Sisters up close) and ended up at Bondi Beach. Took a walk along the cliffside towards Bronte Beach, where we went swimming "between the flags". Spent the night at Bondi 38 Apartments in Bondi Beach.
  
  
  
  
  
• On Monday, October 16, flew to Cairns. Rented our second car and drove to Port Douglas.
• Spent two nights in Port Douglas, at the Oaks Port Douglas Resort. Spent the day in between on a snorkeling tour of the Great Barrier Reef. 
  
  
  
  
  
• For the next three nights, moved to Trinity Beach, where we stayed in a beachfront apartment. From there, one day drove North to Daintree Village, to take a boat tour on the Daintree River, and spent another day in Kuranda. Took a train there and a cable car back. Also spent one evening exploring Cairns, which turned out to be a very nice place.
  
  
  
  
  
• On Saturday, October 21, flew to Melbourne. That day turned out to be a total loss, because they managed to forget my suitcase in Cairns (how do you even forget to load a whole cart of suitcases on a plane!? on a direct flight!) - anyway, we left Cairns early in the morning, arriving to Melbourne around 2pm, but then while we a) waited for them to locate the suitcase, b) filled out a claim, so that they could bring it to us the next day, and c) waited for the shuttle to the car rental place and got the rental car - lesson learned, check that the car rental place is actually AT the airport - anyway, by then the mansion that we planned to tour that day was already closed, plus we needed to find a store still open at that hour to get at least a raincoat (because all my clothes and both our raincoats were in my suitcase). The weather in Melbourne was 50s, plus rain promised for tomorrow, while I stood in whatever I wore in tropical Queensland, with just one sweatshirt that I took on board airplane in case it would be over-air-conditioned... We managed to find a Target in Geelong and bought me a raincoat, which came very handy the next day (Alik refused and sported a cotton shirt over a sweater, but fortunately the rain was not very strong, just a drizzle).
  
  
  
  
  
• We spent that first night, Saturday to Sunday, at Chianti Cottages in Torquay, where we basically just went to bed. Checked out in the morning and drove to Lorne, where we were staying the next two nights at Lorne Surf Apartments. (And where I reunited with my suitcase.)
• Lorne was where we saw most of the wildlife. We had a picnic on the beach, went on a long trail around Lorne (25 thousand steps), drove to Lake Elizabeth at dusk to see a platypus. The drive was about 40 minutes each way, and we managed to see a fox on the way there and an untold number of kangaroos and wallabies on the way back.
  
  
  
  
  
• Checked out from Lorne Surf Apartments on Tuesday, October 24. Drove down to Cape Otway Lighthouse, then came back to Apollo Bay, where we spent the next night at the Apollo Bay Waterfront Motor Inn. While there, also went up to the Marriners Lookout and down to the pier, where we saw a huge white Manta Ray in the water.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Great Ocean Road technically starts in Torquay and ends in Port Fairy, but its most famous stretch is the so-called "12 Apostles" (although there was never 12, and now there is only 7 or 8 remaining) and the Loch Ard Gorge area. This is the stretch we did all day of October 25 and ended in Warrnambool, at the Logans Beach Whale Nursery Apartments.
  
  
  
  
  
• On Thursday, October 26, we abandoned the rest of the Great Ocean Road and drove from Warrnambool to the Budj Bim National Park (where we got to see a real koala in the wild!) and then to Ballarat.
  
  
  
  
  
• Ballarat was the capital of the Australian Gold Rush, which took place in the middle of the XIX century. When the gold faded out, so did the city, and it is now a well-preserved example of Victorian-era architecture. We spent one night there at the Ballarat Premier Apartments, and on the morning of Friday, October 27, continued on to Yarra Valley (stopping along the way at the Kinglake National Park, to see lyrebirds - with no luck).
• Yarra Valley is their wine country, so I booked a bungalow for one night at De'Vine Escape, with three wine tastings happening within walking distance of the place. This idea didn't quite work out, but we did spend a nice time walking among the vineyards and birdwatching.
  
  
  
  
  
• The next morning, October 28, we drove down to Philip Island, also for one night. We stayed at an apartment there in the private reserve near Smith Beach. Philip Island is where they have the "Penguin Parade", but we decided against it for a variety of reasons. We had a good time exploring the island, which has beautiful views and lots of wildlife. 
  
  
  
  
  
• On Sunday, October 29, we drove to Melbourne and spent the next three nights at Adina Apartment Hotel there (not to be confused with the one where we stayed in Sydney, at the beginning of our trip). This is a local chain. They are nice, except for some reason you have to use your room key card to ride in the elevator. Very annoying.
• In Melbourne, we went to the Botanical Garden, Shrine of Remembrance, walked around the city, tried the National Gallery (there was nothing there, they were getting ready for a bicentennial or something, so the exposition was in flux), and ended up at the SkyDeck, an observation deck on the 88th floor with panoramic views of the city.
  
  
  
  
  
• On Wednesday, November 1, we flew back to Sydney, didn't rent a car, and stayed at Meriton Suites Campbell Street (on the edge of Chinatown) for two more nights. We had an "altitude suite" with a balcony and nice views, but between the two places, I would recommend staying at Darling Harbour. That place is alive!
• On Friday, November 3, we reversed our route, flying through Fiji to Los Angeles, staying overnight in a hotel near the airport, and then flying to Boston on November 4.

This is it! The whole thing took four weeks. During this vacation, we spent 48 hours just in the air. But it was so worth it!

If I ever write additional stories, I'll put the links below. Here is one so far:

• Australian Birds