The Bernina Express (Tuesday 27th August 2013)

We're slowly coming to terms with the unfortunate events of yesterday evening. Kerry was pretty upset by it all but she understand we got off lightly. After breakfast at the Ibis we dragged our heavy bags up a few blocks to the Milano Centrale station. We were about two hours early for our 10:20am train so we found a seat near the Departures board and waited. To kill time we replaced a couple of souvenirs we had lost. As is the modus operandi in Europe the platform a train will depart from is not announced until 30 minutes before it is scheduled to leave. Finally our train was ready for boarding on platform 9 so we jumped up to get a good seat. No need to rush as the train was mostly empty. The conductor came by once we were settled to advise all those going to Tirano to sit at the front of the train. Up we got, lifted down the cases from the overhead storage and walked down to the second carraige. It was a long walk as this train, like most others, was about fifteen carriages long – and we were in carriage fourteen!

The train sped through the suburbs of greater Milan, stopping only at Monza. Before too long we were out if the city and into the country. Our journey was to Tirano a town just before the Italian-Swiss border. We spent about 40 minutes of the 150 minute journey traveling along the shores of Lake Como. Lake Como is smaller than Lake Maggiore, surrounded by craggy peaks. It's where all the rich and famous prefer to go. Kerry tells me that George Clooney has a little shack somewhere on its shores. Leaving Lake Como behind we sped up a very long valley towards Tirano. All along the steep sides the locals have created stone terraces on which they have planted grape vines. The rows of vines are rather short and run in every direction, where ever the country dictates with the growers using every possible square inch of arable land available.

We arrived at Tirano, bought our tickets which weren't cheap as I had inadvertently booked 1^st class seats before we left Oz. We found a little bar for a bite to eat then boarded the train.

Our carriage was only half full and very spacious which was fine as it gave us the ability to dart from one side of the carriage to the other for photographs. A mother, father and their adult daughter were across the aisle from us so we struck up a conversation with them as the train rolled out of Tirano. They were from near Perth and the daughter, Amanda, was doing an MBA at Oxford.

The train started to climb immediately on our journey from Tirano, Italy to Chur, Switzerland, a journey of some six hours. In parts the train was more like a tram, traveling right along-side the road and in one instance traveling right through the main Piazza of a town. Early in the journey we climbed the Brusio Spiral, as amazing piece of engineering where the train completes full circle on a viaduct while climbing over an area smaller than the MCG. Slowly we wound our way the mountain pass which gives it name to the train. The weather was OK but ominous clouds lurked up on the higher peaks. The train's panoramic windows, which curve up on to the roof, offered a wonderful view of the tall mountains above and the deep valleys below.

After quite some time we reached the top of the Bernina Pass at 2256m. Lakes and streams were now glacier fed having that milky whiteness about them. Even though we are nearing the end of summer the streams had a very good flow. Because the track winds so tightly around the mountains it was not uncommon to see the same lake, stream, viaduct or even village a number of times from different heights and different angles. It unwittingly makes for many repeat photographs!

We started our descent which was every bit as winding as the ascent. Rain and sleet were the order of the day as the weather deteriorated quite a lot. All of the mountains were obscured by cloud, which provided a somewhat mystical feeling to the panorama. The train trundled off the higher, treeless landscape down into forests dark and thick with pine. Like on the other side a long, lush valley heralded our approach to Chur. The train picked up speed as it raced to its destination.

Approaching the station our conductor organised for us to buy our tickets online for the next train to Zurich – an Intercity express. The connecting train was waiting for us on the other side of the platform. Our friends from WA were doing the same as us, using Zurich as a stop-over on the way to Paris the next day, so we all changed trains and sat with one another once again.

At about 8:00pm we arrived in Zurich, at a glance in the fading light, a nice looking town. We grabbed a taxi to our hotel a few kms from the station. Kerry thought I was going to make her march through the rainy streets of Zurich to the hotel! We checked in, unloaded our bags and found a kebab shop across from the hotel. We ate the kebabs back in our room washed down with a beer and coke and started to prepare for our third visit to Paris in less than eight weeks.

The Bernina Express was a fun trip, the scenery great and would have been spectacular on a sunny, cloudless day.

Photos tomorrow.