The Swiss Alps

Marc's Journal

Today was a feast for my eyes. The Bernina Express snaked through canyons, little Swiss towns, tunnels, over ancient bridges, and finally over a high mountain pass which then decended into Tirano, Italy. 

We had a brief 1-2 hour layover in Tirano, where we grabbed a bite of lunch in Italy. In Europe, eating is an event, not a task. It's tough to speed up the waitstaff even when a train is about to depart.

Diane's Journal

Every day is filled with new experiences. Not knowing what to expect and then finding so many pleasant and magnificent surprises—along with a few bumps. Living in awe and wonder of the day.

Today was an awe-and-wonder day. We took the Bernina Express train from Chur to Tirano, Italy. It took a little over four hours to follow the UNESCO World Heritage route of the RhB.

RhB – Unlike the SBB (the big national Swiss rail company with standard-gauge trains), the RhB runs on narrow-gauge tracks (1,000 mm / meter-gauge), which is why their trains can handle the sharp curves, steep climbs, and tunnels of the Albula and Bernina mountain routes.

There were so many breathtaking views in the Alps: castles, the source of the Rhine, bridges, a four-minute tunnel, tracks that  spiraled around the mountains,  glaciers, villages, farmland, forests, horses, always cows, hunters on and on.

We had an hour and twenty minutes to eat lunch in Tirano before catching the next train back. I had seasonal wild mushrooms with pasta. When in Italy, eat as the Italians do—and it was delicious.

It was a very long day, but a beautiful one traveling on top of the Alps by train. Oh yes—the sun shone the entire way.Coming soon