The second leg of our Swiss rail adventure included visiting the pretty lake side city of Lucerne for lunch, two nights at the historic town of Chur and the trip highlight - a journey in the first class scenic carriages of the Bernina Express that took us over the Alps and across the Italian border to Tirano. Time in Italy clocked to just over two hours before we were back on the train to the resort town of St Moritz. After wandering through the quiet streets (it was off peak season), we headed back to our hotel with lasting memories of mountain scenery, snow covered peaks and meadows of lush grass and flowers.
Day 2 Lake Brienz Ferry
After spending most of the previous day sitting on trains (see separate blog post: Bern and Interlaken for our Day 1 travels); the perfect opportunity arose to try out the Ferry services included in the Swiss Rail pass.
After an early check-out from our hotel, the bus through the neighbourhoods of Interlaken eventually dropped us off at the eastern railway station - Interlaken Ost, next door to the ferry port. The ferry service crosses Lake Brienz approximately every hour and makes a number of stops at the small villages along the way before terminating at the town of Brienz.
In typical tourist fashion, as soon as boarding finished we ran to the top deck of the boat to secure a seat with the best views of the lake. Our fellow passengers headed for the restaurant where their focus was on morning tea. In our rush, we overlooked the signs pointing out that this area was restricted to 'First Class' travel. The boat attendant soon hunted us down, checked our pass and we had to return to the lower decks.
Collage of the boat and scenery on Lake Brienz
The economy decks still gave us a great view of the scenery and resort hotels that lined the lake; including the palatial Grand Hotel Giessbach that held a commanding position on the top of a hill and a private funicular and boat stop for guests to arrive.
Grand Hotel Giessbach
Stop 1 - Brienz
One of the best things about the Swiss transport system is the timeliness of connections. As the ferry docked at Brienz, the onward train service to Lucerne was already waiting at the station platform. Accompanied by about a dozen other passengers, we ran through the crossing and jumped onto the train, fearful that it would leave without us.
The ferry at Brienz
Train from Brienz to Lucerne
The train journey from Brienz to Lucerne took about one and half hours on the Brunig Line. The train hugged its way through the mountains, giving us a beautiful view of the valley and small villages, including Giswil on the bank of Lake Sarnen.
View of the lake from the train
Stop 2 - Lucerne
Lucerne is a popular tourist city on the banks of a Lake with the same name. Tourists come to see the swans in the lake and mountain views across it. Initially the time in Lucerne had been bookmarked for a visit on the world's steepest cogwheel railway to Mount Pilatus from the nearby town of Alpnachstad. However, the thick ring of cloud cover blocking out the sky put us off making the effort and we ended up exploring the laneways and markets of the Old Town along the Reuss River.
View of Lucerne
Buildings along the Reuss River
Old Town
The Old Town has a maze of laneways with pretty painted buildings and fountains - fun for exploring by foot as the area is car-free. We soon started craving lunch and stopped at Khuan Tha Restaurant for pad thai.
Pretty painted buildings
Fountains decorating the small squares
Pad Thai for lunch
Chapel Bridge
One of the famous tourist sites in Lucerne is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrucke). It is a 204m long covered wooden bridge that houses many paintings of Lucerne's history. A lot of the bridge is a replica of the 14th century structure that was destroyed in a 1993 fire.
Views of Chapel Bridge
Church of St. Leodegar
After walking around the Old Town, we headed to the iconic twin towers of the Church of St Leodegar with its pretty poppy filled flower garden. But the tranquility of the surroundings were soon interrupted by the sound of bagpipes - definitely the last thing expected on a visit to Switzerland.
The source of the bagpipes
Lion Monument (Lowendenkmal)
The last tourist activity of the afternoon involved visiting the Lion Monument - a carving of a dying lion that commemorates hundreds of Swiss Guards that were killed in 1792 during the French Revolution.
Lion Monument
Stop 3 - Chur
Next stop was Chur - capital of the canton of Graubünden and the oldest town in Switzerland. In medieval times, this town was a meeting point for merchants travelling from Italy across the mountains to other parts of Switzerland. Chur railway station is the starting point for the UNESCO listed Bernina and Albula Railways and the town is geared to cater for masses of tourists with many shops, restaurants and hotels.
Chur Railway Station
We had two nights booked at the Romantik Hotel Stern to accommodate a full day's worth of sightseeing on the Bernina Express the following day. After checking into the hotel, the next task was to explore the Old Town's monuments, medieval buildings and churches.
Sights from Chur
Dinner at Gasthaus Gansplatz
Seeking out traditional Swiss food for dinner, Olie had looked up TripAdvisor and made a booking at Gasthaus Gansplatz. We sat outside so we could enjoy the early evening sun and the lovely waitress translated every entry on the menu. The house specialties were varieties of cordon bleu - traditionally meat wrapped around cheese, breaded and deep fried (our minds had a mental picture of chicken parma). The exact menu items that we ate for dinner have now been forgotten but the photos below remind us that it was delicious.
Gasthaus Gansplatz
Our dinner in photos
Day 3 Bernina Express
The Bernina Express is a sightseeing service run by the Rhaetian Railway, specifically a set of carriages with large windows (and audio commentary) that are attached to a regular train. Seat reservations are required in the panoramic carriages and therefore an additional cost is incurred in comparison to seating in the 'normal' parts of the train (free with the Swiss Rail Pass). The train runs from Chur to Tirano (Italy), although travellers can disembark along the way to explore separate routes to Davos and St Moritz.
Our Bernina Express journey started with a stop-off at the convenience store to pick up travel supplies - cans of Red Bull, water, crisps and lollies. The train arrived at the platform exactly on time and we had pre-booked seats in the 1st Class seating carriages. This turned out to be an oversight by Mei who forgot that we held 2nd Class Swiss Rail Passes. Fortunately the 1st Class carriage was not at capacity and the ticket inspector just charged us the difference in cost (45 Swiss Francs), thus allowing us to enjoy the luxurious big windows.
All aboard the Bernina Express
Our first choice of seats were going against the direction of travel and we soon moved to a better spot so that Olie could photograph the scenery - spending a lot of the journey with his head and camera hanging outside the window so that the photos would not be impacted by reflections on the glass windows.
Camera man Olie
Approaching a bridge
Beautiful alpine scenery
Yellow flowers - colours of Spring
Snow covered peaks in the last weekend of the ski season
Crossing the Eastern Alps
The highlight of the train journey was reaching Ospizio Bernina station and Lago Bianco (White Lake) - the highest point of the railway at 2,253m above sea level; and also the point that the railway crosses over the Alps.
Alp Grum
A 20 minute stop-over at Alp Grum station allowed us to stretch our legs and capture more of the amazing scenery.
Selfie at Alp Grum
The railway station cafe
Not many people getting on at this platform
The rest of the journey towards Italy followed the valley near the Swiss Italian-speaking town of Poschiavo and the scenery changed from snow covered mountains to forests with little villages and waterfalls running off cliffs.
Village in the mountain pass
Waterfall of melting snow
Video of our Bernina Express trip
Olie captured so many short video clips from the train journey that he created a compilation and published it to YouTube. If the embedded video below doesn't play, please click on the direct YouTube link <http://youtu.be/raM38xrvNC0> to access it.
Tirano, Italy
The train pulled into Tirano station close to 12:30pm and after a short walk to discover the Old Town (a few laneways, churches and a shop offering wine tasting), we ate takeaway pizza and gelati - discovering the enormous price difference between eating ice-cream in Switzerland vs Italy.
A river full of melted snow
One of the medieval streets in Tirano
Pizza for lunch
St Moritz
We left Tirano just before 2pm for a two and a half hour journey to St Moritz - the glamorous resort town of the rich and famous. However as it was off-season, the town was bereft of glitz and most tourists carried a disappointed look as they huddled around the coffee shop - one of the few businesses open on a Sunday. The scenic highlights included walking to the leaning tower and visiting the lake.
Lake at St Moritz
The Leaning Tower
Skeleton rider - the skeleton sport originated in St Moritz
Swiss clock face on the lamp-post
Cars of the rich and famous
Houses of the rich and famous
Dinner in Chur
We arrived back in Chur close to 8pm and were very keen for a good meal, selecting an Italian restaurant - Pizzeria Verdi part of Zollhaus Hotel for dinner. We were welcomed to the table and after ordering what Olie hoped to be a classic seafood pasta - it turned out to be laced with soy sauce and looked like an Oriental stir fried noodle dish rather than something representative from Italy. A disappointing end to our 2nd and 3rd day in Switzerland.
Not what we expected for seafood pasta
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The second leg of our Swiss rail adventure included visiting the pretty lake side city of Lucerne for lunch, two nights at the historic town of Chur and the trip highlight - a journey in the first class scenic carriages of the Bernina Express that took us over the Alps and across the Italian border to Tirano. Time in Italy clocked to just over two hours before we were back on the train to the resort town of St Moritz. After wandering through the quiet streets (it was off peak season), we headed back to our hotel with lasting memories of mountain scenery, snow covered peaks and meadows of lush grass and flowers.
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