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