Touring Switzerland by rail
Saturday, July 25 – We had an uneventful drive to CVG and no issues with checkin or security, arriving at the gate with a bit over an hour before boarding. Our first leg was to Atlanta on a Delta MD-88 where we were packed like sardines, but the flight time was just over an hour. Our flight deplaned in terminal A at Hartsfield.
The train whisked us from terminal A to terminal E. It wasn’t as fun as the train at Dallas-Fort Worth since it ran underground in a straight line and stopped so frequently. Delta flight 66 to Zürich was a 767-300ER and was overbooked. Delta offered a voucher and upgrade to business class to anyone who could fly the next day instead. We were tempted but didn’t want to mess up our schedule. The seatback entertainment systems did not work well (Jim’s was in some southeast Asian language and refused to change, Lynne couldn’t get any audio) but we planned on sleeping as much as possible on the flight over. This proved a challenge as we were in the center section of the aircraft.
Sunday, July 26 – We had a terrific view of the Alps as we descended into Zürich a bit ahead of schedule. The airport train ran with Swiss precision between the terminal and passport control with digital clocks counting arrival and departure times down to the second. The line for passport control was not too long. At baggage claim we found our suitcases were very scuffed up and the luggage tags were missing from both. We walked from the airport to the Radisson Blu via the shopping center and convention center across the street and were pleasantly surprised to have a room available even though we were there just after 9:00 AM. The Radisson’s famous Angel Bar with its wine tower was right in the lobby. Our room overlooked the roads leading to the airport but with the Alps in the distance.
After a bit of a rest we walked back over to the shopping center. Our first surprise was discovering acetaminophen is only available by prescription in Switzerland. The lack of sleep was hitting us hard so we hit back with caffeine from Starbucks. Lynne’s drink didn’t agree with her so we headed back to the hotel rather than do some shopping. She was feeling better after a bit and that afternoon we joined most of our tour group for a ride down to Zürich’s river and lakefront. We opted to wander on our own rather than follow David, our tour director, and did some window shopping on Bahnhofstrasse, the high-end retail district. Almost all the businesses were closed because it was Sunday. We walked down to the lake and plunked down in an open air cafe in a tree-filled square (the Bürkliplatz) for some iced tea.
Refreshed, we wandered back to the River Limmat and watched the swans and ducks while we waited for our coach to take us back to the hotel. We wondered on the trip back how the driver could manage with the narrow streets, tight turns, and navigate as it felt like we made a turn every couple of blocks. After freshening up it as time to head back to the coach for a welcome dinner at the Linde Oberstrass restaurant. Some of the group hadn’t arrived in Zürich in time for the afternoon sightseeing so our Trafalgar group had some news faces at dinner. Our table had us sitting with Americans, Australians and Chinese making for interesting conversation. We had some rain as we headed back after dinner.
Monday, July 27 – The breakfast buffet at the hotel was very good. We made our way back to the train station at the airport for a ten minute ride to the main station in Zürich. We changed trains there and rode along the shore of Lake Zürich and the Walensee heading southwest to Chur. Our first two trains were run by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS, the company’s initials in German, French and Italian) and were standard gauge. As we passed through Sargans we were just over a mile from the border with Liechtenstein and less than six miles from Austria.
In Chur we boarded a narrow gauge train to St. Moritz. The trains in the southeast are run by the Rhaetian Railway. A coach was waiting at the station and took us up the zigzag streets past the upscale shops in the center of town. The Winter Olympics were hosted twice in St. Mortiz, in 1928 and 1948, and our hotel (the Hotel Bären) was located between the Cresta Run for skeleton and the Olympic Bob run which is a golf course in the summer. There were two lifts in the hotel. The one in the lobby was just big enough for two people and the door was operated manually. Our room had a balcony with views over the town and St. Moritz’s famous leaning bell tower.
We had delicious bratwurst (much better than we’ve ever had back home) at the Chesa al Parc restaurant by the golf course for lunch. A Post Bus took us to the town of Pontresina to catch the Bernina Express. The canton of Graubünden is officially tri-lingual (German, Italian and Romansh) and became increasingly Italian as we headed south. We had our own Panorama coach at the rear of the train. We had been facing the rear on our three trains earlier in the day so we made sure we grabbed seats facing forward this time. From Pontresina the train climbs 718 meters (2,355 feet) up to the Bernina Pass. As we ascended we had stunning views of glaciers, waterfalls and mountain peaks. The Bernina line has the highest elevation of any of the regular trains in Switzerland.
The train made a steep winding descent into the Poschiavo Valley. In the town of Le Prese the tracks ran right down the main street; the sidewalk doubles as the train station. We disembarked there for wine and hors d’oeuvres on the back lawn of the Ristorante Giardino. The sun was warm, the air calm, and the valley setting near Lake Poschiavo was absolutely charming. It was one of the most pleasant experiences and one of the most tranquil spots we’ve encountered in our travels. Too soon it was time to head back to St. Moritz, this time on a Post Bus rather than the train. A turnoff to Livigno gave us a view into Italy. The Post Bus has a famous three-tone horn based on a work by Rossini. Our driver used it frequently on the hairpin turns in the mountains.
Back at the hotel we had dinner with our group and were seated with Bev and Sue, two friends from Australia who roamed the world together. The vending machine on our floor dispensed soft drinks and beer so Jim took advantage to try a local brew. We slept with the window open. All the trains and buses had been downright hot and the cool mountain air was a sweet change.
Tuesday, July 28 – The German-style breakfasts with the hot milk to put in the coffee quickly became a favorite for us. Beautiful sunny skies and fresh air greeted us as we took a coach to the station in St. Moritz to catch the Glacier Express. Some first class passengers were being dropped off by a Rolls Royce limousine when we got there. Our rail passes had us in second class for the duration of the vacation. The station in St. Moritz had a wire model display of the Bernina route showing the elevation changes which gave us additional insight into the previous day’s excursion. We were becoming well acquainted with the Kiosk shops at the stations for drinks and snacks. The Glacier Express is run jointly by the Rhaetian Railway for the eastern portion and the Matterhorn-Gottard Railroad on the western end.
The first part of our trip was back the way we came to Chur. Everyone was assigned seats on the Glacier Express and we were facing forward for this portion of the journey. We traveled back across the iconic Landwasser Viaduct and past many charming small alpine villages. At the station we had a few minutes to get off the train while coaches were removed from the rear of the train. The Swiss rail system runs with watch-like precision so we knew exactly what time we had to be back aboard. Upon leaving Chur the train followed the Rhine through the Ruinaulta (also called the Grand Canyon of Switzerland), a gorge carved by the Rhine after a huge rockslide blocked the river 10,000 years ago. As we rolled across the countryside we saw sailplanes, paragliders, dams, small towns, farms and always the mountains. We sipped hot cocoa as the scenery slid by. Lunch on the train was very good and generous in its portions.
Near Andermatt the train climbs to the Oberalp Pass, leaving the watershed of the Rhine and descending into the watershed of the Rhone. Shortly after leaving Andermatt we entered the Furka Base Tunnel in Realp and traveled 9.6 miles underground before coming back to the sunshine in Oberwald. The tunnel allows trains to run year-round but doesn’t do much for the view. Farther along a stopover in Brig gave us another chance to hop off and stretch our legs.
In Visp the train turned south and began a steep ascent up the Matter Valley. Some stretches had us using the rack as the grades exceeded the train’s tractive ability. Jim had a model of the station from St. Niklaus on his model railroad as a child and was happy to see it in person although we did not stop there. We had views of the Matterhorn with clouds hanging about its summit as we made our way to the end of the line in Zermatt. At the station we unloaded our luggage and wheeled it to the station entrance where it was loaded onto electric taxis – Zermatt does not allow automobiles in town.
While our luggage and some of the less mobile members of our group rode to the hotel, the rest of us walked the six or so blocks to the Best Western Alpen Resort. Our luggage had an adventure when the trailer came loose from the taxi and veered into a building but with no harm done. We were in building A closest to the road. Our balcony gave us a view back down the valley. The building across the street had a garden on its roof. Noise was never a problem thanks to the cars and trains all being electric. After the large lunch on the Glacier Express we weren’t very hungry but headed up Bahnhofstrasse to see if we could find something light. The Confiserie at Bäckerei-Konitorei Biner caught our eye and we opted for pastries and chocolates for dinner. Decadent and quite satisfying, and it gave us a reputation with our traveling companions. The Matterhörnli (chocolate mountains with white chocolate snow) were a delight.
Wednesday, July 29 – Clouds shrouded the mountains when we woke up. The breakfast spread at the Alpen Resort included champagne for Mimosas but we took a pass. At 9:00 taxis took us over to the gondola station for the Klein Matterhorn. One of the cab drivers got into a heated argument with David, our tour director, because he wanted her to drop two of our group off at a doctor’s office on the way to the station. Everyone started joking she was his new girlfriend. We had to hustle out of our cab at the station because the goat parade was coming down the street and the driver didn’t want to get caught up in it. Dozens of goats with their bells swarmed past us on their way through town with their bells clanging.
Visibility was poor as we started the first leg of our ascent in a six-seat gondola. We had to stay on board through a couple of stations. In every group there’s always someone who pays no attention to the instructions and we had him in our gondola. We briefly toyed with the idea of letting him get out at the wrong station but couldn’t bring ourselves to follow through. We saw a pair of deer while we were still below the tree line.
At Trockener Steg we exited our gondola. David had us spend some time there so we could acclimate before continuing to the summit. Lynne bought a hat at the souvenir shop because the damp was accompanied by high wind. A photographer took a group shot of us with a Saint Bernard before we headed up to the summit station on a larger tram. We crossed over one glacier and had a terrific view of another as we climbed. The tram station opened into a tunnel through the mountain with a lift to the summit. We rode up to the summit of the Klein Matterhorn at 3,883 meters (12,739 feet). None of the surrounding peaks were visible because of the clouds. It was -1° C at the top.
Light rain was falling when we got back to the base station. A cab took us back to the hotel. Lynne didn’t feel up to walking around town so Jim went to the Coop grocery and brought back sandwiches, drinks, snacks and most importantly, chocolate. Rain fell continuously all afternoon so we hung around the hotel – no view of the mountains. Fortunately the rain let up by dinner time and a group of us went to the Stockhorn Restaurant for a fondue night. First course was a cheese fondue followed by a Chinese fondue (thin strips of meat cooked in boiling broth on the table, with chips and rice for sides) leading to the chocolate fondue for dessert. Most of the group had never been to Switzerland before so we were the veterans showing how it was done. On the way back the clouds briefly parted and we finally got a view of the Matterhorn.
In the center of town there is a cemetery where some of the hundreds of climbers who have perished on the Matterhorn are buried. A memorial there commemorates four climbers from the party of seven who made the first successful ascent but died on the way down when one slipped and pulled the others with him. The rope broke leaving three survivors. Darkness fell as we made our way back. By the time we reached the main street only the bars and a few restaurants were still open. Lynne was able to get a cup of hot cocoa to go from the restaurant at our hotel for a nightcap. Jim told her he was chocolated out after the fondue and she looked at him like he was nuts.
Thursday, July 30 – After breakfast we walked back to the train station. Our luggage was sent ahead to our hotel in Geneva. The Matter Valley was cloudy but no rain as we made our way down to Visp. By the time we got there to change trains the skies had turned sunny. We soon passed into the French-speaking western region. Announcements on the trains had been in German and English everywhere (German, English and Italian on the Bernina Express) but once we left Visp all announcements were only in French. Chalets gave way to French renaissance and Baroque buildings. Our train soon started following the northern shore of Lake Geneva through Montreux and Lausanne and past the castle of Chillon. The Hotel Cornavin was right next to the train station in Geneva. The hotel had been featured in a Tintin story and the lobby had a statue of Tintin and Snowy in a window.
After settling in our room we popped back down to the shopping center attached to the train station. Lynne was having trouble with swelling and sore joints. The pharmacist spoke limited English but Jim was able to string together enough bad French to get some analgesic cream. Knowing we were going out for a big dinner, we just had pastries and coffee for lunch.
Afternoon sightseeing had us on a coach to see the United Nations, International Red Cross, World Health Organization and some of the other 200-plus international organizations with headquarters or offices in Geneva. August 1 is Swiss National Day commemorating the Federal Charter of 1291 when the first three cantons signed an oath of confederation. It is regarded as the foundation of Switzerland. Geneva takes the celebration seriously and fairground equipment stretched along the lakeshore on both sides of the Rhone. We stopped for a photo op with the Jet d’Eau, the 140 meter (459 foot) tall fountain in the lake. While we were taking our pictures we saw a man get arrested and handcuffed just down the street.
On our way back to the hotel we sang Happy Birthday to one of our traveling companions and David apologized for missing Jim’s birthday earlier in the week. He got a Swiss Army Knife for a present and managed to miss being serenaded. While all this was going on, we found out Bev, our dinner companion the second night, had left her bag with her passport on the train in Visp and it was gone when she went back for it. Trafalgar came to her aid and she and her friend Sue were at the Australian Consulate getting a replacement.
In the early evening we crossed over the border into France and the Jura Mountains above the charming little town of Gex for dinner. Le Refuge de Florimont featured a stunning view of Geneva and the lake with Mont Blanc and some of the Italian peaks farther away. Kir was served on the terrace giving us plenty of time to take some pictures. Our group was treated to a pierrade where heated stones were set on the table and used to cook thinly sliced vegetables and strips of beef, pork and chicken. Lynne opted for a cheese fondue. Red and white table wine accompanied dinner as did side dishes of baked potatoes, au gratin potatoes and fried potatoes. For dessert we had a vacherin glacé maison with raspberry sorbet and we agreed it was the most delicious thing we’d ever tasted.
A full moon had risen behind the Alps while we were eating giving us a beautiful view from the terrace as we left the restaurant. Walter, our coach driver for the evening, took a route back to Geneva to give us the best views so it was a bit circuitous and included a jaunt through the airport. We were waved through the border crossing both coming and going.
Friday, July 31 – The Cornavin gave us a ticket for the “American breakfast” which looked suspiciously like the German breakfast we’d had every day in the eastern part of the country. Our group rolled our bags over to the station and checked them to be shipped to our hotel in Lucerne. While we waited for our train we saw a couple of the French high-speed TGV trains coming and going. We saw a very rare site in Geneva, a train that was running late. It was the only time we saw one and luckily wasn’t one we were waiting for. Our train took us back along the lakeshore through Lausanne to Montreux. We had a four minute window in Montreux to change trains and made it with ease.
The GoldenPass Line runs from Montreux to Lucerne but is run by three different railways. The first leg was on a narrow-gauge (one meter) track. Leaving Montreux, the Montreux-Oberland Bernois train climbed a series of switchbacks up the Alps. As we made our way towards Gstaad the chalet architecture reappeared. Despite the record heat which had gripped Europe earlier in the summer, everything was lush and green. French briefly intermingled with German before the villages became all German as we made our way east. Gstaad was hosting a tennis tournament and was very crowded but we only made a brief stop and didn’t get off the train. This leg ended in Zweisimmen.
Zweisimmen afforded us six minutes to change to the standard gauge BLS line. We were seated with Bev and Sue so we got to hear all about Bev’s woes with her lost passport. She also lost all her cash but the passport turned out to be not too difficult – she was Australian and was able to get a new one from the consulate in Geneva in about an hour. The BLS train had us on older coaches without the panoramic windows but that did not diminish the views. In Interlaken we had a bit over an hour between trains so time for lunch. We walked around a bit, didn’t find any restaurants that enticed us, and bought lunch from the Coop grocery near the station followed by ice cream.
Our last leg found us back on narrow gauge with the Brünig railway climbing through the Brünig pass. We stopped briefly in Meiringen, famous for the nearby Reichenbach Falls where Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty had their final battle. The town also claims to have invented meringue. We saw plenty of waterfalls and glacier-fed lakes along the way. In Lucerne a coach took us to the Lion Monument. This time we were able to see it in its intended appearance. On our previous visit the monument was being cleaned and its reflecting pool had been drained. Our hotel was the Astoria, a few blocks up Pilatusstrasse from the train station and the hotel we’d stayed in before. Most of the group went to the folklore show at the Stadtkeller but having already seen it, we opted to strike out on our own. It was only a couple of blocks from our hotel to one of the pedestrian bridges over the Reuss. We dined almost riverside (we sat back a bit because a live band was a bit loud for our taste) at the Zunfthaus zu Pfistern.
Saturday, August 1 – Swiss National Day. Most stores were closed. We headed out in the rain to Stans and the 1898 Stanserhornbahn funicular railway for the first part of the trip to the top of Mount Stanserhorn. Partway up the mountain we changed from the antique funicular to the state of the art Cabrio double decker tram with its open top. Despite the drizzle we opted to ride outside. Visibility was poor; not much could be made out beyond Mount Pilatus. Even the marmots pretty much refused to come out in the rain. We did spot a pair of chamois on the mountainside. Jim walked up to the summit where the view wasn’t any better although the tableau of the valleys and lakes below the mountain was very pretty. It had stopped raining by the time we rode back down but most of the descent in the Cabrio was in the clouds.
Lunch and souvenir shopping were the next order of business. We crossed the chapel bridge and looked at each of the restored paintings in the roof trusses. First stop was at Casa Grande, three floors of souvenirs and one of the few shops that was open. Most of the sales clerks were Japanese as were a lot of the clientele. Next was lunch. We ate at Heini, a combination bakery, chocolatier and cafe. We wandered around the pedestrian area taking in the architecture and the decorative painting on many of the buildings. We got a good look at the needle dam that regulated the water level and the power plant by the old mill bridge. The mill bridge is covered like the chapel bridge and also has paintings in the trusses. A quick look at a map showed us an easy route back to our hotel. Naturally in no time at all we were lost. We accidentally managed to end up on Pilatusstrasse two blocks from our hotel.
The afternoon was spent on a cruise of Lake Lucerne aboard the MV Stanserhorn with spectacular views of the mountains. Tour director David doubled as the bartender for the cruise. We saw the house of Richard Wagner, the summer home of the Hapsburgs, and many more large and expensive domiciles. One former castle had recently undergone 15,000,000 dollars worth of renovation. Jim got stung by a bee that got caught in his camera strap. The lake was so calm Lynne didn’t feel the least bit queasy with the only disturbance coming from the wake of one of the big lake steamers. The boat departed from and docked right behind the train station.
We had a farewell dinner at the north quay at the restaurant Da Ernesto. Luckily for us we had eaten at the Pfistern the night before; if we hadn’t seen anything we liked on their menu, Da Ernesto would have been the next restaurant we’d have tried. Dinner was good with lively conversation. We spent a good portion talking with John and Nyla from New Zealand. John had slipped on a boat and was the person who had to see a doctor in Zermatt. We were continually surprised by the number of different places our traveling companions had been. After Europe, the Kiwis were off to Hong Kong on their way home. Richard, a Canadian from Montreal, was working on hitting 75 countries as well as all the US states and Canadian provinces and was almost at his goal. Jan and Bill from Omaha had been to Antarctica, South America, most of Europe and were making plans for New Year’s in Dubai. We decided we really need to travel more. Back at the hotel we said our goodbyes to the group. Revelers were setting off fireworks most of the night but we were able to get a bit of sleep.
Sunday, August 2 – We woke up an hour before our alarms were set to go off so we decided to get an early start. After checking out we walked the five blocks to the train station figuring on catching the 6:10 train to the Zürich airport. Unfortunately the 6:10 only went to the main station in Zürich and we didn’t feel like wheeling our suitcases around from train to train. Instead we ate breakfast at Bodega, a cafe in the shops below the station. We’d eaten there before on our previous trip. The 7:10 was nearly empty when we left Lucerne but picked up more passengers when we stopped in Zug and a few other stations. Once in Zürich it was up two escalators to Terminal 2 to check our bags.
Delta’s counter had long lines. The kiosk said it would scan our passports but kept asking for our boarding passes – the passes we were trying to get from the kiosk. We got in the slow line for the main cabin and started wondering if we’d make our flight despite arriving two hours before takeoff. By the time we finally checked our bags, got our boarding passes, went through passport control and security, we only had a few minutes before boarding. Delta flight 67 was another 767-300ER but more modern than the one we’d come over on and our seatback screens worked properly. As we taxied away from the gate to the runway we saw a 787 and an Airbus A380, the double-decker that makes the 747’s look small. The last people to board the plane were a couple from Austin who had been with our tour group.
Many of the farm fields in France were already brown from the harsh summer. We saw Paris and were able to make out Versailles and the Eiffel Tower. Once over water we had a good view of Sark and Guernsey, two of the Channel Islands, and saw the Cornish coast and Land’s End before clouds covered the ocean. Our flight took us on a northern course and we saw Montreal before turning south towards Atlanta. Once back on the ground it was a succession of lines for customs, immigration and security. Our boarding passes said to check the information boards. Our flight wasn’t listed. We figured it would either leave from Terminal A or B so we took the train to B. We had some coffee while we waited and naturally when the information did appear, we were departing from A. Back to the train.
We had a long time to sit in Atlanta and it got even longer when our departure was delayed because the flight crew was late getting in. Despite a late start our MD-88 managed to arrive in Cincinnati on time just as the sun was setting. It was dark by the time we got our luggage and boarded the bus to long term parking. We got back home a bit before 10:00 eastern time, 23 and 1/2 hours after we woke up in Lucerne.
Milestones on this trip: Our first rail vacation, the highest gondola ride in Europe on the Klein Matterhorn, the open top gondola on Stanserhorn.
States and Countries we visited:Kentucky, Georgia, Switzerland and France.
Capital cities we visited: None.
