Prologue
In February and March of 2016 some friends and I made a trip to Switzerland to ride as many trains as possible using an eight-day Swiss Rail Pass. I had such a great time on that trip that I resolved to do it again.
I began thinking about planning another trip in 2019 and happened to mention my desire to return to Switzerland to my friend Bill Schafer who said that he and his wife Linda wanted to return as well. We resolved to plan something together. Then the pandemic hit putting everything on hold.
We were together on the Canadian (the train that runs between Vancouver and Toronto) in March and the topic came up again. Soon we were discussing dates. I was pushing for early Spring but Bill had other plans and pushed for November which is what we settled on. Before long Roy Wullich joined our small group and we began to seriously plan.
The 2016 trip had me changing hotels almost every night...eight hotels in nine nights. The pain of carrying luggage everywhere was palpable. This time we resolved to minimize hotel changes and settled on three cities to center our travels around: Montreux (six nights), Chur (two nights), and Luzern (four nights.) We would have preferred three nights in both Chur and Luzern but our desired hotel in Chur was unavailable for one of the nights.
I have no stomach for flying transatlantic overnight from an east coast city. The time in the air is too short and uncomfortable to get a good sleep and the resulting jet-lag upon arrival is brutual. So I pushed for (and the others agreed) taking the day flight from a New York area airport to London Heathrow and then going on to Switzerland from there. There is still jeg-lag involved but it is minimized by sleeping in a real bed at night. We settled on meeting in New York on November 6, 2024, flying to London on November 7, and going on to Montreux Switzerland on November 8, with a return from Zurich on November 20. Although we were only going to be in Switzerland for 13 days, we all purchased First Class Swiss Travel Passes prior to departure from the US.
After our flights were booked and our hotel rooms reserved we discovered that portions of a few lines we wanted to ride over would be out of service for maintenance during our visit. While disappointing, this wasn't enough for us to change our plans.
Beyond the basic structure of the trip (dates, flights, hotels, and transfering between hotels) we did not plan our specific activities in advance. This served us well as it allowed us to easily adapt to changing
circumstances.
circumstances.
Wednesday, November 6 (Day One)
I had my wife Barbara drop me off at a bus stop where I could catch a free PRT bus to the airport for my shortly-after-noon flight to JFK on Delta. I was reminded yet again why I dislike flying Delta to JFK at least from Pittsburgh. The walk from the gate to Airtrain is interminable. Even with eventually catching a roving cart for a ride I was exhausted by the time I got there.
We had decided to stay at the on-airport TWA Hotel, reached through Terminal 5 via Airtrain, but with a walk through the parking garage. The TWA Hotel is striking -- it uses the original TWA terminal designed by Eero Saarinen in 1962 as its central core. To it are attached two conventional hotel towers. The hotel is not particularly customer-friendly. For instance, there were no bellmen to help with bags...and there are long mostly uphill ramps to negotiate before getting to the hotel room. But I made it. So did Bill and Linda who flew in shortly before I did from Norfolk, and Roy who flew in from Richmond before them.
After a perhaps too-brief period of relaxation the four of us met in the lobby, walked back to Airtrain and took it to the Jamaica station of the Long Island Railroad. Since my last time in New York City the Long Island Railroad had established service to Grand Central Terminal (before that they only served the Pennsylvania Station.) We resolved to ride this new line and have dinner at the historic Oyster Bar in GCT. After an excellent dinner (I had the dover sole) we caught a taxi to Amtrak's new station at Moynihan Hall as I hadn't yet seen it. From there it was another short ride on the LIRR back to Jamiaca and then Airtrain and a walk to the hotel.
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| TWA Hotel at night |
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| TWA Hotel lobby |
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| The Oyster Bar |
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| Moynihan Hall |
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| TWA Hotel in the background, dwarfed |
Thursday, November 7 (Day Two)
The flight to London Heathrow was on a Virgin Atlantic 787. We had all booked their premium seating which was suitable enough for a day flight. The meal service was not particularly memorbable but the flight was comfortable enough. We landed about 30 minutes early at about 7:45pm. If we were flying on to Switzerland the next day we would have stayed at the Hilton at the airport, but we were taking the train so it was more convenient to find a hotel in London proper. Normally I'd get to London on the Heathrow Express, but there were four of us and a Black Cab directly to our hotel (the Renaissance St. Pancras) was significantly cheaper and much more convenient.
We arrived at the hotel at 9:20pm and were amazed to see what a treasure it was. It had almost been demolished but a preservation campaign saved it a few decades ago. Since it is actually a part of St. Pancras Station, and we were taking a Eurostar to Paris from there it meant we could sleep a bit longer the next morning. We checked in, and then met in the bar for drinks before getting to bed about midnight.
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| Bill, Chuck, Linda, Roy at the Renaissance St. Pancras Bar |
Friday, November 8 (Day Three)
Our Eurostar left for Paris at 9:31am and they suggested that we be there about 90 minutes ahead of time to clear both British and French immigration. We actually ended up leaving the hotel about 8:00am and walking the few steps to the Eurostar. There was a train to Brussels leaving ahead of ours and there were no seats in the waiting room until it boarded. Our train boarded about 9:10am and left on time. We had booked our seats so that we would be sharing a four seated table, but Eurostar did not realize we were traveling together and one of us ended up in a different car. Not a big deal. I've never found the Eurostar to be an exciting train (but it is quick) and this trip was not an exception. I actually slept for part of the ride.
In the event we arrived at Paris Gare du Nord on time and took a taxi across town to Gare de Lyon. The Metro would have been faster and cheaper but more difficult with all of our luggage. The TGV to Geneva was a much more enjoyable ride. We arrived at about 5:30pm and waited until 6:10pm for an Inter-Regional train to Montreux where we arrived about a hour later.
Our hotel, the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic (now a Marriott) was right across from the station. I had stayed there one night during my 2016 trip. My room had a balcony which overlooked Lake Geneva. The only problem with the room was that the hotel turned off the A/C at the end of September and the room was somewhat warm. But the window opened and a breeze off the lake usually cooled it down suitably. After 30 minutes unpacking, etc. we met downstairs for dinner in the hotel restauarant. After dinner we walked across the street to the station and watched trains for a while and stopped for drinks in the hotel bar before heading to bed.
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| St. Pancras Station |
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| Eurostar ready to depart |
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| Someone enjoying the scenery |
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| The lineup at Gare de Lyon |
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| Our TGV Lyria to Geneva |
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| Montreux Station |
Saturday, November 9 (Day Four)
After being totally schedule driven the previous days, we decided not to set alarm clocks to awaken us this first day in Montreux. Never-the-less we were all ready to go before 9:30am. As we did many days, we purchased breakfast at the Migros (basically a high-end convenience store) in the station to be eaten on one train or another. Then we went up to the platform to catch our first train. The station at Montreux is pretty special in that it is served by railroads built to three different gauges. In addition to the standard gauge (4' 8.5") lines of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) that brought us from Geneva, there is the Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway Company (MOB) line to Interlaken Ost that is meter gauge and the Transports Montreux–Vevey–Riviera line to Rochers-de-Naye that is 800mm gauge.
We spent the day climbing mountains out of Montreux and environs. We first took a local to Les Avants and back. This is part of the Golden Pass line to Interlaken but the line beyond Les Avants was out of service to Montbovon for construction during our stay in Switzerland. There is half hourly service on this line (as there is on most of the lines we rode.) The climb out of Montreux is spectacular and all the more impressive because it was done with adhesion.
Almost immediately upon return to Montreux we took the train to Rochers-de-Naye. This is a rack (or cog) railway that makes an incredibly steep (maximum grade of 22%) climb out of Montreux. It was nearly impossible to walk down the aisle during some parts of the ride. I had forgotten that there was an extra fare not covered by the rail pass for the portion from Caux to the top of the mountain. When the lady conductor came to collect the extra fare I offered to pay for all four of us. She proceeded to overcharge me to the tune of over 200 CHF (over $225)! I think she realized it almost immediately but had no way of correcting it. I wasn't terribly worried because I figured it could easily be resolved when we returned to Montreux. When the train got back to Montreux I found the conductor waiting for me along with her supervisor. She was beside herself as it was her first day on the job. I made it clear to her and her supervisor that I was not upset in the least and the supervisor took me to the MOB office where I was given a cash refund of the overcharge. I'd been putting off going to the ATM to get Swiss funds so I was happy to receive the cash.
After lunch we caught a train to nearby Vevy and from there made another climbing trip (part adhesion, part rack) to Les Pléiades. This is a meter gauge line which had a switchback enroute. By the time we returned to Montreux it was getting dark and we were ready to relax before dinner. After dinner we walked to the Montreux Jazz Cafe for dinner, done the hill behind our hotel. Luckily there was an escalator to take us up the hill and back to the hotel.
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| The depot at Les Avants |
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| Les Avants |
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| Happy friends on the way to Rochers-de-Naye |
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| Replacement parts for the rack |
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| You intrepid author at Les Pléiades |
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| The view from my balcony |
Sunday, November 10 (Day Five)
Today we relaxed a bit more. We slept in and met for the brunch our hotel offers at 9:30. It was good but overpriced. Since it was another beautiful day, we walked to the promenade below the hotel and down to the Freddie Mercury statue, and then to the nearby dock where we caught the Vevey, a diesel powered side wheeler, for a two hour cruise around the eastern end of Lake Geneva.
Upon return we took a brief break back at the hotel before setting out on a round trip to Les Diablerets, high in the mountains. We could make a spur of the moment trip like this due to the flexibility of our Swiss Rail Passes which gives us the ability to hop on and off most Swiss trains, boats, trams, funiculars, buses, etc. at will. Today it wouldn’t have mattered much as we never saw a ticket taker after getting off of the Vevey.
The return from Les Diablerets was late so we missed our return train from Aigle -- no matter, in Switzerland on many routes the trains run like streetcars -- miss on and another will be along shortly. In our case I think the wait was less than 10 minutes. We got back to the hotel about six and then met up again to go to dinner (at an Irish pub) at 6:30.
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| Me and Freddie |
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| The Lake Geneva lineup |
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| Château de Chillion |
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| The Saint Gingolph local |
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| The Vevey sails off on another circle trip |
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| Our hotel from the Vevey |
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| The train to Les Diablerets |
Monday, November 11 (Day six)
Today we rode the Golden Pass route in one of their new gauge changing trains. Because of the track work between Les Avants and Montbovon previously mentioned, we were bused for about an hour before boarding the train. We were the only ones who purchased an upgrade to Prestige Class, so we had the whole compartment (12 seats) to ourselves. The scenery on this route is terrific. When the train got to Zweisiminen the track gauge changed from meter gauge to standard. On most trains this involves changing trains, but this train simply slowed through an area outside of the station and the trucks widened to the new gauge. Plus the train raised 20cm to accommodate the different platform heights.
We disembarked at Spiez and waited for our train to Brig. There are two routes to Brig from Spiez. The new one uses a 9 mile long base tunnel (the Lötschberg Tunnel) completed in 2007 and takes about 35 minutes. The old one covers the route as it existed before the tunnel complete with impressive spiral tunnels and great scenery and takes over an hour. We, or course, took the longer route. (The scenery inside a tunnel tends to be boring.)
When we arrived in Brig we caught the connecting train back to Montreux but as we left Roy said “what’s our hurry” so we got of the train at nearby Visp and spent an hour or so watching both passenger trains (standard and narrow gauge) and freights.
After getting back to Montreux and freshening up we went out to an excellent dinner at Caveau des Vignerons where we were served fondue (cheese and chocolate) and a very nice raclette by the owner. This involved much more up-hill walking than I was happy with but it ended up being well worth it.
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| The Golden Pass Express |
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| The Prestige Class compartment |
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| The view from the "fireman's seat" |
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| In Spiez |
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| Spiez |
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| Various trains at Visp |
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| Courtesy of Bill Schafer: From the platform at Visp: A train coming down the line from Spiez |
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| Fondue at Caveau des Vignerons |
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| Montreux station at night |
Tuesday, November 12 (Day seven)
We woke up early this day excited because we were going to eat. We were going to the homes of Callier Chocolate and Gruyere cheese. Ordinarily there is a special Chocolate Train that does the tour, but not at this time of the year so we "rolled our own".
We left our hotel at about 8am to catch the 8:17am train to Lausanne (the goal was to get to the chocolate factory when the tours started at 10am.) Unfortunately, and unusually, the 8:17 was running about 6 minutes late and we could not make our connection in Lausanne without heroics which we weren't up to. Because this is Switzerland and they understand how a transporation network should work we were able to reroute ourselves onto a different set of trains which caused us to arrive in Broc (home of Callier) via a Chocolate Train only 30 minutes later than we had planned.
The factory tour was interesting and we got to sample a lot of the output from so that we could make informed decisions about future chocolate buying. Coincidentally the tour ended in the shop full of goodies and I ended up buying 3 good sized chocolate bars.
From there we went to Gruyères which involved a change of trains at Bulle. Because we were off schedule we had to wait a bit longer than was comfortable on the cold platform there, but eventually we got on a nice warm train for the short (8 minute) run. There we had lunch in the restaurant that is part of the cheese factor and then did the self-guided tour (we were about 90 minutes too late to see the actual cheese making process.)
Our luck was a bit better as we exited the tour building because our train to Montbovon was due in just a few minutes. After a short wait on the platform it came and before long we were in Montbovon and on the (temporary) connecting bus back to Montreux arriving about 4:30pm. Dinner was at the 1822 Restaurant.
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| Lausanne Station |
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| At Broc Chocolaterie |
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| Callier Chocolates |
Lucy (without Ethel)
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| In Gruyeres |
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| Back in Montreux |
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| More balcony porn |
Wednesday, November 13 (Day eight)
We had planned to go to Chamonix France and see Mont Blanc, but by chance the night before I had discovered that the key (rack) railroad we wanted to ride was out of service for maintenance and a bus was being substituted for that leg of the trip. Instead we went to Zermatt and Gornergrat to see the Matterhorn.
During the 2016 trip to Switzerland we visited Zermatt and Gornergrat and there was snow everywhere and the Matterhorn was in the clouds and I never saw it. This time we weren’t expecting much better because rain was in the forecast -- but when we got there it was bright and sunny -- we could not have hoped for a better day.
At 10,132 feet the atmosphere was pretty thin and both Linda and I started feeling symptoms of altitude sickness almost immediately. So we turned around and went back down on the next train. Which was just as well because after a leisurely pizza lunch in Zermatt it was well after 6 before we returned to the hotel. We had a light dinner in the hotel restaurant before calling it a night.
Thursday, November 14 (Day nine)
This morning as we were getting ready to leave Montreux we found the lady conductor who had overcharged us on the Rochers-de-Naye train on the platform. She saw us and came running up to me apologizing again. I was more concerned that things had worked out for her -- apparently they had. The five of us chatted for a while waiting for our train. She insisted on taking a photo of us against the Montreux Palm tree(?) and we took some of her. I never got her name, but if you’re in Montreux and see her say hello for me.
This was the the first day in almost a week we had to carry our luggage along. We left Montreux at 9:42am on an inter-regional train to Brig. Ordinarily one would prefer to take the Glacier Express between Brig and Chur without change of train, but it does run this time of the year so we had to take local trains to cover the route. The Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn local to Andermatt left from the plaza outside of the main station came along about 20 minutes after we arrived in Brig. Another beautiful ride, high in the mountains. The low point of the trip was at Andermatt where we had an eight minute connection to the local to Disentis/Müster which almost killed us (heavy luggage, no elevators, and ridiculously long/steep ramps.) Our next connection was much easier -- across the platform in Disentis/Müster to a local run by the Rhaetan Bahn that took us the rest of the way to Chur.
Our hotel, the ABC Hotel, was just down the street from the station and we were in our very nice rooms by 4:30. After a suitable rest we headed to a recommended restaurant only to find that it was full (so we made a reservation for the following night) and went to another one that they recommended.
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| Linda and our lady conductor friend |
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| Group photo |
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| In Chur |
Friday, November 15 (Day ten)
We started the day with an excellent "free" buffet at the ABC Hotel before heading the half-block to the station to catch the Bernina Expess. This was the second time for me, but it was the first time I saw much of the vaunted scenery -- there was a blizzard in 2016 which obscured almost all of the views. This time we rode in bright sun!
When planning the trip we relied on several resources, one being "The Man in Seat 61". One of his recommendations was that (somewhat pricey) seat reservations weren't necessary if we were willing to ride in the in the Allegra-unit. Wikipedia says the Rhaetian Railway Allegra is a dual voltage metre gauge three car multiple unit train. The unit has both first and second class compartments and is available on a first-come/first-served basis. We decided to sample the Allegra on the southbound ride to Tirano and reserve seats in the panarama cars for the northbound leg. The four of us ended up being the only ones in the 12-seat first class section. It had large expansive windows and very comfortable seats.
The usual route of this train takes it along the route that goes over Landwasser Viaduct, but due to track maintenance our train was rerouted through Landquart and Samaden. It was still very scenic -- the whole ride is pretty amazing.
After arrival in Tirano we went across the plaza and had pizza for lunch before boarding our Panorama car on northbound train. The Panorama car had even bigger windows but, in our case at least, less comfortable seats. Were we to do it again we all decided that sitting in the Allegra-unit was much better.
It gets dark early in November after Daylight Savings Time ends, so the last hour or so of the trip was in the dark. We were ready to get back to Chur and an excellent Italian dinner at Otello (the restaurant we were unable to dine at the night before.) Highly recommended -- the food was great and so was the service.
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| Our Allegra compartment |
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| Alp Grüm |
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| Tirano |
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| Trenitalia station in Tirano - Expected train was canceled |
Saturday, November 16 (Day 11)
We had hoped to spend an extra day in Chur because there is more we wanted to do, but our hotel was not available for Saturday night. So we left Chur for Luzern today. Prior to leaving Chur we had planned to do a roundtrip to Arosa -- one of the most beautiful rides that I remembered from the 2016 trip. But we decided to sleep-in instead and get to Luzern an hour or more earlier (in daylight) than originally planned. One of the routes we wanted to take out of Luzern was the Gotthard Pass route. We had thought about doing a roundtrip out of Luzern but that would have been a long day. Instead I read about a Postbus line that runs from Chur to Bellinzona (the southern part of the Gotthard Pass line) described as "one of Switzerland's finest postbus journeys, involving a long climb to the San Bernardino Pass..." We had never contemplated taking a bus by choice, but this tempted and allowed us to avoid using up a day in Luzern with a roundtrip to Bellinzona) so we did.
At about 11am we boarded the bus for an incredibly scenic and mostly pain free (nice bus, but still a bus) trip to Bellinzona in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. At Bellinzona we boarded a train to Luzern over the old Gotthard Pass route -- not via the new Gotthard Base Tunnel route (which does most of the trip in an almost 36 mile tunnel) because we wanted to see scenery, not black cats cavorting in a coal mine at midnight.
We arrived in Luzern before 5pm and checked in to our hotel (The Monopol, literally across the street from the station.) Dinner was at a very good German restaurant also across from the hotel.
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| View from the Postbus |
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| Bellinzona station |
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| Our Traverso train to Luzern |
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| Luzern station |
Sunday, November 17 (Day 12)
Today we took a lake cruise, climbed a mountain, visited Zurich for a short while and returned to Luzern.
The day started with an about one hour cruise on Lake Luzern from Luzern to Vitzanu. We’ve been remarkably lucky this trip with no rainy or even very cloudy days. This was unexpected for November in Switzerland. Today was no exception. The cruise was comfortable and provided breathtaking views.
When we docked at Vitzanu I had a Deja vu moment and realized that we had docked there briefly on 2016 on our way to Locarno. I went back and checked my pictures and it looks (to me) a lot different now. From Vitzanu we took the Rigi Cog Railway to the top of Rigi Kulm. This is a standard gauge rack railway but with a maximum grade of 25%. The views were impressive. After we took our seats behind the cab, two budding young railfans asked if they would ride in the cab with the engineer -- which they did. Were we jealous! Once at the top we took another rack rail line (not quite as impressive wth only a mere 20% grade) back down the mountain to Arth-Goldau (a major junction) where we paused for lunch.
One of the beauties of having a Swiss Railroad Pass is that it allows you to make spur of the moment decisions. We had planned to return directly from Arth-Goldau to Luzern but over lunch decided to go to Zurich for a while and then return to Luzern on a train that had a restaurant car so that we could possibly have dinner. This all worked as planned except that none of us were particularly hungry so we gave up on dining on the train.
Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant. We’ve mostly been having Italian food with some French, German and Swiss thrown in -- so this was a change of pace.
Monday, November 18 (Day 13)
After sleeping in a bit we made a circle trip to Basel—along the border with both France and Germany. My idea of Basel came from countless spy stories and I saw nothing to disabuse me of it. Of course we were only there for about an hour so I also saw nothing to confirm it.
We left on a 10:02 train to Interlaken Ost. The route was a meter gauge line that combined both adhesion (normal) and rack (cog railroad) segments. I was surprised at how fast the train was on flat or mostly flat segments given how much extra weight it must be carrying to deal with the rack. This segment was carded at just under two hours but, because of a washout caused by a torrential downpour in August we had to do the last 45 minutes (from Meiringen—where Moriarity killed Holmes) in a bus.
Interlaken Ost boasts a nice and busy station that hosts the lines leading eventually up Jungfrau—the highest point in Europe. We didn’t ride that this trip, rather we boarded our waiting train to Basel. This a high speed train that brought us to Basel in around two hours. It had a full dining car in the consist so we spent part of the two hours enjoying lunch complete with waiter service.
We spent an hour in Basel looking around the wonderful train station and the adjoining plaza before catching a Trenitalia Euro train to Milan. The second stop was Luzern about an hour after we left Basel. I must say that the equipment wasn’t nearly as well kept up as any Swiss train we rode.
We relaxed in our rooms until six and then walked across the river to have dinner at Mr. Pickwick’s English Pub (I’d eaten there before in 2016 and it was as good as I remembered.) It started raining a little as we got back to the hotel -- the first significant rain since we arrived back on the 8th.
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| Our train to Interlaken Ost |
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| Interlaken Ost |
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| Getting ready for lunch in the dining car |
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| Roy and Bill |
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| The dining car kitchen |
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| Basel Station |
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| The Trenitalia train back to Luzern |
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| Interior of the Trenitalia train |
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| The Chapel Bridge in Luzern |
Tuseday, November 19 (Day 14)
When we started the day we had intended to take a 15 minute boat ride to the Swiss Transport Museum where we would spend a few hours and then decide what else to do. But, we had such a good time on the boat ride to Vitznau on Sunday that I suggested we do an almost three hour cruise to Fluenen and then take a train back to the museum. Everyone agreed to this revised itinerary.
In spite of the overcast skies (for the first time since we arrived in Switzerland) the boat ride was great. We had all eaten something prior to boarding the boat so we did not partake in what looked to be excellent meals available, but had a terrific time taking in the scenery.
After docking at Fluenen a quick set of trains took us to the remarkable Swiss Transport Museum. To me the highlights of the museum were seeing a demonstration of how a combination adhesion and rack steam locomotive worked, and the Convair 990 and DC-3 duo posed outside. We caught another train back to Luzern and rested before going to an outstanding Thai dinner as our last meal in Switzerland.
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| Ms Waldstatter at Fluelen |
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| Our train from Fluelen to Arth-Goldau |
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| Arth-Goldau |
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| Our train to the Swiss Transport Museum |
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| A Solari Board |
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| The Consolidated-Vultee 990 dwarfs the Douglas DC-3 |
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| Interior of the Convair 990 |
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| Another Traverso, heading towards St. Gallen |
Wednesday, November 20 (Day 15)
All good things come to an end, and this was the day that this railway adventure does. I awoke in Luzern and went to sleep in Pittsburgh.
I had breakfast, purchased the night before, in my room as I finished packing. Then met the others in the hotel lobby about 9:10. It was a short walk to the station and before long we were underway on the 9:35 to Zurich which took less than an hour. A quick transfer to another train had us at the Zurich Flughafen (airport) by 10:45.
Our flight was scheduled to board at 12:35 and it took a lot of the intervening time to go through the departure process. We ended up waiting 30 minutes at the gate before boarding began, and we were soon ensconced in our seats in Delta Premium Class on a 767 to JFK, looking forward to our 8.5 hour flight.
We pushed from the gate a good 10 minutes early and were soon aloft. Shortly after takeoff the steward served a round of drinks and I savored my first genuine Diet Coke since leaving JFK on May 7 (Coke Zero is ubiqutous and I occasionally encountered a drink labeled Diet Coke -- but it was actually Coke Light -- something entirely different.) A lunch of curried chicken was served a bit later. Shortly before our early arrival at 4:20pm they served a very nice charcuterie platter.
With Global Entry, customs and immigration was a breeze (though Bill and Linda and Roy who did not have Global Entry got through nearly as fast.) I was early enough that I planned to go to either the Chase Sapphire Lounge or the PrimeClass lounge, but both had 20-30 minute waiting lists for entry. So I went directly to the gate instead and sat for about 45 minutes.
The flight to Pittsburgh was scheduled to leave at 6:30 and arrive at 8:19 (well padded.) In fact it left at 6:17 and arrived 7:28! My bag wasn’t quite waiting for me but I was on the way home in the car I had reserved prior to departing on the trip well before 8 and home before 8:30.
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| Photo: Roy Wullich |
Epilogue: Some thoughts about the trip
Public Transportation
Switzerland is a small country. It's smaller than Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Yet it has a public transportation system that is (or should be) the envy of the world. The mountainous terrain makes railway (or road) construction difficult. Yet according to friend Hubert Horan "the goal of the transportaton planners is that someone boarding a train anywhere in the country at any time of day should have the most efficient schedule to absolutely anywhere else in the country. A small town on a branch line might have trains every 120 minutes but every train should offer well timed connections to all other lines." This efficiency of connections was apparent throughout our trip.
Stations
The thing I noticed most about stations in Switzerland is that they can be difficult for a person with physical issues to navigate (I was having some foot trouble during the trip.) Every station we encountered had stairs and ramps (at least one very steep) between the platforms and ground level, but only some had escalators or lifts. This made it challenging to change platforms quickly in those cases.
Except for the biggest stations (think Zurich, Basel) there was little wind protection on the platform. (There was usually rain/snow protection.) On many platforms there was a small enclosed area to get out of the weather while waiting for the train.
Most stations had free WCs (bathrooms) but a few required a franc or two to use the facilities. It was not predictable (by me) what to expect at any particular station. Almost all stations had a COOP (think Wawa or Sheetz) or equivalent adjacent. Some of them had free WCs.
Trains
For the most part Swiss trains are modern and comfortable. At least in First Class they almost all had power to charge devices at every seat. The First Class sections were sometimes complete cars, but frequently a partioned-off area at the end of one car. There are steps everywhere with most of the cars except for ramps in the "Traverso" trains. Most cars had huge, clear, clean windows. We found that if we particularly liked a car we were riding in it was almost always made by Stadler. The aforementioned Traverso was probably the kind of train we liked best. The one Trenitalia train we rode was not as nice as most of the Swiss trains.
One of the more interesting trains we rode was between Luzern and Interlaken. It was interesting because it combined highspeed running (using adhesion) with slower speed running on the rack up some very steep grades. Some of the trains we rode had full dining cars. Others had a small vending machine area. But most of the trains had no food or beverage service.
PostBuses
Switzerland has an extensive network of buses running throughout the country. We took one scheduled bus ride (it allowed us to save a whole day of travel without missing any of the rail lines we cared about.) It was a doozy...between Chur and Bellinzona...a bus route as scenic as any I have ever ridden. The seats on our bus were at the high-end of bus seats...but still uncomfortable as it was 2-2 seating with ungenerous pitch.
Boats
If there is a big lake in Switzerland there are boats providing transportation. Most of these boats are included in the Swiss Pass. Alas, many of them had stopped service for the season by the time we arrived. But the rides we took on Lake Geneva and Lake Luzern were both great. The ships are comfortable, at least somewhat historic, and serve decent food and beverages as you cruise through breathtaking scenery.
First Class or Second Class?
Having paid for first class Swiss Rail Passes we spent little time in second class. First class typically has 2-1 seating, while second class has 2-2 seating. The other difference is that, as expected, second class is a lot more crowded. We often had an entire first class section to ourselves (for instance 12 seats for the 4 or us to spread out into if we wanted.)
Cleanliness
Switzerland is a clean country. Example: although there are smokers everywhere (outside) I don't think I ever noticed a tossed cigarette butt. Graffiti is minimal (at least in the more southern part of the country.)
Hotels
We were in only three cities during our 12 nights in Switzerland. Not having to lug our luggage around frequently was a winning strategy.
Our hotels were uniformly adjacent to railway terminals. Two of the three were hits. One was a miss. We were in Montreux for six nights and stayed at the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic (now a Marriott.) This was a very nice hotel right on Lake Geneva and across the street from the station. My room had a balcony overlooking the lake and was a very nice room except that the air conditioning was turned off for the season. Luckily the windows opened and they provided a fan.
The ABC Hotel was our headquarters in Chur for two nights. It was just down the block from the station. This was also a very nice hotel with somewhat spartan rooms, but great bathrooms. The air conditioning was great, plus the windows opened. The reasonable rate included a really complete breakfast buffet.
We finally had a "miss" for our four nights in Luzern at the Monopol Hotel. Our the four of us had three rooms and they each had problems...not worth going into here, but let's just say that we won't be staying there again if we find ourselves in Luzern.
Meals
We had at least one memorable meal in each of the three cities we stayed in. In Montreux it was at Caveau des Vignerons, where we served wonderful fondue and raclette by its owner. In Chur it was at La Vita, an Italian restaurant near our hotel. In Luzern it was at Thai Garden.
Dogs
People brought their well-behaved dogs everywhere. It was wonderful to see them enjoying train and boat rides as much as we did.
The Value of a Swiss Pass
Is the Swiss Pass worth it? If you're traveling on public transporation (particularly trains) to any significant extent it certainly is from a financial stand point. For instance the 15 day first class pass we bought was 723 CHF. A first class ticket roundtrip from Montreux to Zermatt is 260 CHF without any discounts. Almost as imoprtant the Swiss Pass allowed almost complete flexibility. For instance, we were having a quick lunch at the Arth-Goldau station while waiting for a train to take us back to Luzern (after riding the cog railways to Rigi Kulm) when we decided to make a roundtrip to Zurich before returning. So we hopped on the first train to Zurich instead of Luzern and simply showed our passes when they were asked for.
Planning
The following resources were indispensible for planning the trip:
- The SBB app and sbb.ch webpage.
- The online map showing where the Swiss Rail Pass was valid (useful even if you don't purchase a pass.)
- The book Switzerland: A Guide to Exploring the Country by Public Transport by Anthony Lambert
The Best Experience
My wife Barbara asked me what was my favorite part of the trip. That's a really hard question. Each of the train and boat rides we took had their own charms. It was wonderful to be able to see the Matterhorn this trip (it was beclouded the last time), but the nearly three hour cruise on Lake Luzern was also a joy. Getting to see the Bernina pass (last time there was a blizzard and I could see nothing) was certainly a highlight. Lots of rides on rack railroads going up impossible grades was also quite enjoyable. Finally, spending significant time sharing the experiences with three good friends was really wonderful.
What's next?
We're talking about making another visit next year. Stay tuned!
