We began by listing all of the routes (trains and boats) we’d like to cover and then, over time, assembling them into a not very strenuous itinerary. We decided to fly into Zürich from our respective homes to arrive on September 12 and return on September 25. In between we planned to spend 4 nights in Montreaux, 3 nights in Interlaken, 1 night in Locarno, 2 nights in Brig, 2 nights in Chur, and 1 night (the nights before returning) in Zurich.
My flight to Zurich went smoothly. I flew first to Newark where I had a five+ hour layover, so friend Steve Eisenstein picked me up and we had lunch. I spent the remainder of the layover in the United Polaris Lounge before walking to my gate. The plane boarded late and arrived early which wasn’t in my favor as I had a three hour wait for my traveling companions who were flying in on Delta. I spent the time lightly napping in the SWISS Arrival Lounge. By 11am we were assembled and ready to board our train to Montreux via Lausanne. The only non-routine thing about the trip is that the departure board for Lausanne displayed on the train said that our connection would be on the adjoining track and by the time we realized that it was wrong we had missed our connection. But this is Switzerland and there was another train less than 15 minutes later. We soon arrived in Montreux, our home for the next four nights.
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| View from the Grande Suisse Majestic Hotel |
Our hotel for this visit was the same one I’ve stayed at the last two times I’ve been to Montreux. It’s the Grand Suisse Majestic and it’s a great hotel, right across the train station and with views of nearby Lake Geneva. As it happens, two of our friends, Bart and Sarah Jennings staying in the hotel the first two nights we were there. They were in the middle of a longer trip riding rails all over Switzerland. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, napping, watching trains, etc., before having a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and heading off to bed. I turned my light off at 9:15pm and ….
….woke up at 8:15am on Saturday having slept 11 hours. The plan for Saturday was to visit the Blonay-Chambry Museum Railway. The line between the two places mentioned in the Museum’s name is operated by them and used by the MOB (Montreux-Oberland-Bernois) Railway (a narrow-gauge railroad in the area as a way to move cars between two otherwise unconnected lines. The recommended connection would have us arrive in Blonay (via Vevey) a few minutes before the morning steam train departure to the museum. We elected to take an earlier train to make sure we were there in time to buy tickets. It’s a good thing we did, because we missed the connection in Vevey due to confusing directions between platforms. So the train out of there ended up being the originally recommended train. Luckily we got to Blonay just in time to get tickets and board the train.
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At Blonay
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| At Chambry |
The train itself was made up of three antique coaches from the museum’s collection. We had a compartment for six to ourselves for the very short ride — first to Chambry and then a backup move to the museum. The museum is a fascinating look at old MOB (mostly) equipment — much of it operating. While there we enjoyed a light lunch and then caught a shuttle to Chambry where we arrived just in time to flag down a Golden Pass Panoramic train coming down the mountain. We’d ridden this MOB line in the past but never tire of how steep its descent is down to Montreux.
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| The Henry Durant at St. Gingoloph |
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| The border we inadvertently crossed |
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| Train to Aigle |
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| On display at Aigle (where we connected) |
Upon our return we took some time to freshen up and Bill, Roy, and I decided to take a ferry to St.Gingoloph across the lake from our hotel. Linda decided to take a nap. The ferry (the Henry Durant) took a bit over an hour and arrived at our destination a few minutes after the train that would eventually take us back departed. We took our time climbing the hills up to the station, and along the way discovered that we had walked into France (barely.) We hung around the station waiting for departure time and boarded and rode it to St. Maurice where we changed for a train back to Montreux. Dinner was at a very nice traditional Swiss restaurant Le Contretemps - Montreux in nearby Territet.
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| Bill and Linda enjoying breakfast on the Henry Durant |
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| The Henry Durant leaving Lausanne |
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| The Montreux ready to sail |
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| The fantastic four at our dinner table on the Montreux |
On Sunday we headed to the ferry pier for a 9:05 departure to Lausanne aboard the same ferry we’d ridden yesterday. The cruise along the shore of Lake Geneva made several stops along the way until it arrived in Lausanne at about 10:15. There awaited Belle Epoque steam-powered ferry Montreux to take us the rest of the way to Geneva. The ferry was built in 1904 and modernized over the years, but still remained true to its original design and still was steam-powered. The engine made two different sounds to my ears. The first was when it started up and the sound reminded me of “I think I can. I think I can.” The second was while it was underway, when it sounded like the clapping cadence in Queen’s “We will Rock You”, totally appropriate because Freddie Mercury lived in the region for quite a while. We had reserved a table for four in the first class dining room and we dined our way to Geneva. Upon docking there we walked up the street and found a bus to take us to the main train station, Geneva Cornavin, where we caught a train back to Montreux. At one point enroute we noticed that we were on a line that ran high above the lake rather than the normal line along the lake. It turned out that due to construction on the line near Vevey, mainline trains were detouring via Puidoux (on the line to Bern). This necessitated reversing direction to get back on the old line and added several minutes to the ride. When we got back Linda and I walked over to the hotel. I took a short nap while Bill discovered that the fondue restaurant we had planned to eat at was closed on Sunday — we ended up at a very good Italian restaurant near the hotel (Cafe 1880.)
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| Mont Blanc Express |
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| In Chamonix |
Monday was our last full day in the Montreux area. So what did we do — we went to France. We started out with a quick SBB train to Martigny where we connected to the Mount Blanc Express. Because we were skunked trying to connect to Blonay the other day we decided to take a train that left Montreux 20 minutes earlier. We need not have worried. The connection was very easy. On the other hand, because we were there early, we were able to get good seats on a very crowded train (mainly a Japanese tour group.) We were the only non-Asians in our small first class seating area. But eventually we had a nice conversation with two couples who were from, surprise, California. They had tagged along with the tour group as a convenience. No one ever looked at our tickets. Perhaps because literally everyone else in our car was with the group.
Our Swiss Travel Pass covered the fare to the French border. We had to pay from there to Chamonix Mont-Blanc – buying that ticket took a ridiculous amount of time at the SBB office in Montreux for a 14CHF (or so) fare. The line out of Martigny starts up an impossible grade (it’s a cog wheel train) and continues getting more amazing as it goes along. A very enjoyable ride. But, continuing our string of changing plans, one of us suggested that, after lunch, we continue on around the Lake on the French side to Annemass where we could connect to the SBB and a train back to Montreux. This necessitated a one hour cut to the time we had budgeted for Chamonix, but was new mileage, and so worth it. We ate outdoors at a very nice Bistro (Josephine I think) and some of us enjoyed boeuf bourguignon while others enjoyed onion soup. The return involved two changes of trains. At St. Gervais and at Annemass. We were back at the hotel before 6pm which was good because we had a dinner reservation at the great fondue restaurant Caveaou des Vignerons. We ate there last November and it was a highlight of our trip. It did not disappoint.
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| The Golden Pass Express at Interlaken Ost |
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| Interlaken Ost |
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| The Schynigge Platte train |
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| MOB |
We started out Tuesday by traveling to Interlaken on the Golden Pass Express. We had been unable to get first class seats and had to settle for second class…but second class was amazing. Comfortable seats. A fantastic view especially of the aforementioned mindbending climb out of Montreux. Also amazing is that the route changes gauges at Zweisimmen (from 3 meter gauge to standard gauge) and this train adjusts automatically. In the past the passengers changed, not the train! We arrived at Interlaken Ost before 1pm. When booking hotels we had found it hard to find anything suitable that was available. Then I found a place, Swiss Hotel Apartments, about a half-block from the station. We reserved a three bedroom apartment at a not-too-ridiculous price. I had some trepidation, but I need not have worried. It had a huge living room, spacious bedrooms, three bathrooms, a porch (where I’m writing this now), a full kitchen and an in-apartment laundry room (in the apartment.) Pretty much everything we could want. The apartment wasn’t ready when we arrived, so we dropped our bags and then went next door to the Coop Supermarket restaurant and had a light lunch before catching our first Jungfrau region train to Schynigge Platte. This is another cog wheel train that makes its way up the mountain (slowly) to a ski/hiking area at the top. It was not a beautiful day down below, but the sun was bright above the clouds where we were. When we returned the apartment was ready and we moved in. Then purchased supplies at the Coop. Bill and Linda opted to make dinner in the apartment. Roy and I decided to eat at a nearby Asian restaurant. The crispy duck was outstanding. The Szechuan beef, not so much.
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| Brienz Rothorn Bahn station |
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| Panorama Express Train |
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| Perhaps the best dinner of the trip |
Wednesday we spent much of the day sailing Lake Brienz and Lake Thun, the two lakes that Interlaken sits between. But first we took another cog train to Brienz Kulm (at about 7700ft.) Our train was powered by steam and went up at an impossibly steep angle. It took its time and at one point we were stopped because of cows on the track. But we eventually got there. It was very cold and windy at the top and Linda was having breathing issues so we caught the same train down and then enjoyed lunch at a Swiss restaurant while we awaited the ferry back to Interlaken. This ferry was steam-powered but not coal fired. It was quieter than the ferry from Lausanne to Geneva. A very enjoyable ride. After a quick stop at the apartment and a transfer to Interlaken West, we boarded another steam-powered ferry for Thun at the other end of Lake Thun. On this ferry we dined on sorbet. From Thun it was a quick train ride back to Interlaken Ost and our apartment, where the Schafers again opted to eat in and Roy and I went out in search of dinner. We had heard good things about a particular pizza and Italian restaurant that we headed to via bus and a longish walk through a very active business/tourist area in the central city only to find that it was closed. We started back to the apartment on foot assuming we’d find something suitable. We eventually stumbled upon the best restaurant of the trip, the Tavern Ristorante in the Hotel Interlaken. Roy had a superb chicken dish and had a superber pork dish. The food and the presentation was incredible. And the pricing was laughably low for Switzerland. Aside: in order to keep from going crazy over prices, I elected to treat them as dollars during the trip. (Of course my credit card company may have other ideas.) In reality, though, the listed prices had to be increased by about 25% to turn them into US dollars.
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| At Kleine Schnige |
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| Wengen |
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| The Jungfrau train returning to Kleine Schnige |
Thursday was our last day in Interlaken. We spent it touring the Jungfrau region, starting out from Interlaken to Kleine Schnige via Wengen, and returning via Grindelwald. At Kleine Schnige, Roy and Bill opted to ride to the top of the Jungfrau. Linda and I, who like oxygen better, went back to Wengen and waited at a lower altitude until it was time to go back up and meet the others. (I’d ridden to the top of Jungfrau in 2016 and saw no particular point in doing it again – especially given the very high cost of a ticket.) There was a cross-platform connection back to Grindelwald and then to Interlaken and we were back by about 2:30. It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that the rides and the views were amazing. We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around at the apartment or watching trains at the station next door, and then went back to Tavern Ristorante so that Linda and Bill could experience it.
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| At the top of Pilatus Kulm |
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| Lucerne |
Our original itinerary had us going to Brig for three nights, but for grins I asked Google Gemini for a critique and it suggested a night in Locarno (in the Italian part of Switzerland) instead of going right to Brig. Originally we were going to make a roundtrip to Locarno from Brig (we were trying to avoid switching hotels too often) but Gemini made more overall sense so we switched plans about a month before. Our day started with a quick ride to Lucerne on one of the great scenic rides in Switzerland. At Lucerne we stowed our luggage in lockers then got on another train back to Alpnachstad where we caught the Pilatus Bahn, the world’s steepest cog railway to the top of Pilatus Kulm. We then backtracked to Lucerne and retrieved our luggage. Since we had 30 minutes between trains, we went to get something to eat. Due to a miscommunication, Roy and I ended up on the train we’d planned on, but Linda and Bill ended up on the one that left an hour later (and took about 75 minutes longer.)
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| In Locarno |
By the time Linda and Bill arrived, Roy and I had lugged our bags down a cobblestone street to the Millennium Hotel, checked in, and went back to the station, and met the wayward two to take them to the hotel on a luxurious city bus. The Millennium only has about 10 rooms, each named for a Jazz musician. My room was the Duke Ellington Room. One of us was in the Nat King Cole room. I think another was in Count Basie (or maybe Chet Baker.) It is a cute hotel, right on the waterfront.
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| A magical night in the Locarno Piazza |
After a rest we headed for dinner to a recommended Italian restaurant (Locarno is in the Italian part of Switzerland.) While we were eating we heard a brass band playing (mostly) Queen songs in the distance. After dinner we investigated and found a terrific free concert in the Piazza. A really magical evening.
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| Outside the Millennium Hotel |
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| Funicular |
We had not planned anything for Saturday morning. We slept in a bit, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and then rode the local funicular to Madonna del Sasso, perched high above the city. After a quick break for gelato, we picked up our luggage and caught a bus to the railway station. It took us a while, but we finally found the FART. (Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinsei) This train would take us to Dommodosala Italy where we would connect to another train through the famous Simpson Tunnel to Brig. I had been looking forward to this ride because the last time I’d done it we had to take a bus part of the way due to a landslide and I remembered it as a beautiful ride. Maybe the bus was, but in the end I thought the FART ride was pretty boring…made worse by the uncomfortable seats in their “panorama” car. To make matters worse the connection at Dommodosala was not well marked and involved lots of stairs (one lift was out of order.) We missed the connection and had to wait around the station for an hour.
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| Brig |
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| View from our Brig hotel (and the only good thing about it) |
We eventually got to Brig and walked a short (but slightly uphill) three blocks to the Hotel des Londres. This was easily the most disappointing hotel of the trip (and the trip isn’t over as I write this.) Small (at least clean, and with working a/c) but with almost nothing else. No TV (not that we cared), a tiny bathroom. No place to hang things up other than some hooks on the wall. And, way too expensive for what we got. We were booked for two nights (it would have been three except for the change that Google Gemini suggested.) After settling in a bit we walked through the plaza to a very good restaurant for dinner and then back to the hotel to bed. I say bed instead of sleep because the plaza was active until 1:30am, and there was a band playing. We fell asleep as best we could to a constant pounding of the drum.
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| Scenes around Oberwald on the Furka Steam Railway |
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| The tunnel auto train |
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| The Furka engine arrives |
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| On the turntable |
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| Atop Furka Pass |
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| Roy atop Furka Pass |
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| Roy and Linda during the lunch stop |
The whole trip had been scheduled around Sunday. When we were in Switzerland in November we discovered that the Furka Steam Railway’s season had ended at the end of September. In season, the Furka runs an excursion Thursday to Sunday across Furka Pass. Before the Furka Base Tunnel opened in 1982 all trains running between Oberwald and Realp used this route. But snow conditions were so heavy that the line was closed during the snow season (which began early at the altitudes in traversed.) Now the regular trains use the tunnel and the historic Furka Steam Railway operates the line to show us how it was. The pass is still closed in winter. And the only road between Oberwald and Realp also goes over the pass. The tunnel was built only as a rail tunnel, so the railway runs an auto shuttle through the tunnel which turns a 70 or so minute drive into a 20 minute trip through the tunnel including loading and unloading. The steam engines used on the Furka Pass route are cog equipped, meaning that they engage with a rack in the track to help with the steep climb. The equipment (engines, cars) are all antique and it was really fun to ride them. Once back in Brig we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon (which had turned rainy) before going to dinner. At least the rain caused the drums to fall silent that night.
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| The Glacier Express arriving in Brig |
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| Arosa |
Monday, we checked out of the hotel, marveling at how much it had cost us for so little, and caught the Glacier Express to Chur. This train bills itself as the slowest express train in the world. It really doesn’t go very fast, but the cars have huge windows making it easy to take in the ever changing scenery. We arrived at Chur around 13:25 and checked into the ABC Hotel (or tried to, our rooms weren’t ready.) We left our bags and went back to the station to ride what I remembered as one of the most scenic and interesting train rides in Switzerland. The hourly train to Arosa begins with running down the middle of the street, transitions to a steep climb out of town using only adhesion. The line is full of curves and spectacular views and takes about an hour each way and is easily the best value in terms of scenery per minute in my opinion. When we got back to the hotel our rooms were ready and after relaxing a bit we went to a restaurant that had impressed us last time, La Pasteria Otello, where we enjoyed a fine meal before returning to the hotel.
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| Landwasser Viaduct |
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| St. Moritz |
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| At Klosters Platz |
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| At Filisur |
Tuesday was spent riding that part of the RhB narrow gauge system that we hadn’t already ridden previously. We started the day with a trip from Chur to St. Moritz where we rode an escalator and walked into town for a quick lunch at the Hauser Restaurant. Then back to the train station to head to Scuol-Tarasp with a change at Samedan. From there we traveled through the Vereina Tunnel to Klosters Platz. The tunnel, at about 13.25 miles, is the longest meter gauge tunnel in the world. At Klosters Platz we waited for about a half hour for our train to Filisur through Davos Platz. We witnessed something the Swiss do routinely and that we can’t do at all as far as I can tell. For instance, our train came in from Scuolo-Tarsp and shortly after we arrived a train from Davos Platz coupled on to the rear and the combined train ran to Landquart. The train we were taking to Filisur arrived at the front end of a combined train that was split in two with the front half (which we boarded) continuing on, and the rear continuing on to St. Moritz. The split was only noticeable if you were looking for it. We had a 4 minute connection in Filisur which would have been essentially impossible because it involved going down stairs, through a tunnel, and up stairs. Luckily, for us the train to Chur was six minutes late so we easily made it. (Had we missed it there was another train within about 30 minutes…so no big deal.) After a brief rest we headed back to the same restaurant we’d eaten at last night for a final dinner in Chur. Then back to the hotel to repack and to bed.
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| Sydney or Newcastle? You be the judge |
Wednesday was our last full day in Switzerland and as such it was mostly a day to transfer to a hotel at the Zurich Airport. We slept in (sort of) and had a leisurely and excellent breakfast at the hotel's buffet. We caught a 10:08 express to Zurich but then connected at Sagans to a slower train on the line that passed through St. Gallen to see the line. The line was not as spectacular as some of the other lines, but it was nice to see a different part of Switzerland. Along the way we spotted a line of transit cars marked Metro outside of the Stadler plant in St. Margrethen. Then began the battle of the AI engines. Bill and I both took pictures of the side of the car. Bill gave his to one AI engine and I gave mine to another asking what transit line they were headed to. They disagreed, even after we fed the answers from one into the other. Eventually we settled the question by sending an email to Stadler. They answered within 30 minutes that Bill’s AI engine was correct. I asked my engine why I should trust it in the future and it explained why it was confused and said I should be skeptical of all answers
Claude AI, while I gave mine to Google Gemini. Claude said “Tyne and Wear” and Gemini said “Sydney”. So I fed Claude’s answer to Gemini and Bill fed Gemini’s answer to Claude. Claude was adamant in it’s answer. So was Gemini carefully explaining exactly why Claude was wrong…including an argument based on the font on the logo. ChatGPT agreed with Claude immediately. I finally asked Gemini for a photo of the Sydney logo and it looked nothing like the logo on the cars. (They Tyne and Wear website confirmed that it was their logo.) To settle it for good I sent an email to Stadler’s PR department and got a detailed answer within less than 30 minutes. Claude was right and Gemini failed! I fed the Stadler answer into Gemini and asked why I should trust it in the future. It replied that “Ultimately, your actions in this conversation were a perfect model for how to use an AI as a tool, not a definitive authority. You challenged the answer, you sought a second opinion, and you provided a primary source that definitively proved the correct answer. You were the one to be trusted in this exchange, and your critical thinking is the best tool you have.”
This consumed much of the train ride and we soon pulled into the Zurich Flughafen (airport) station. We had booked the Radisson Blu because it was the only hotel with a direct connection to the airport (other than a sold out Hyatt.) It took us a lot of time to figure out exactly where to go and then even longer to walk because part of the direct tunnel was under construction. So another hotel might have been easier to get to. In any event our rooms were ready and quite nice – what I could see of it – the lighting was so dim that it was hard to even be able to read the thermostat (which didn’t appear to change the temperature anyway.) After a 45 minute rest Roy, Bill and I headed back to the airport to figure out why Delta was giving them trouble with check-in. That problem was fixed and Roy and I went off to the SBB ticket office to look at clocks and watches. Roy ultimately bought another watch. I didn’t. While we were doing that Bill bought chocolates at the Coop store nearby. After we were done, we did the same. We had discussed going into Zurich proper, but we were all exhausted and decided to just hang out in the hotel for the few hours before dinner. After dinner I trekked back to the SBB’s Airport Office and bought a small trinket.
Thursday was the day of departure. I flew home on United through Washington Dulles. Before I boarded my flight in Zürich I spent a while in the Swiss Business Lounge which I enjoyed very much. A very nice buffet including custom made eggs and omelettes and very comfortable seating with a few of the runway. Because I also had access to the PrimeClass lounge and it was right opposite my departure gate, I spent about 15 minutes there ahead of boarding time. It was nice and I’d be happy to stay in it if I did not have access to the SWISS lounges, but it was decidedly inferior. The best lounge of the return in terms of amenities was the United Polaris Lounge at Dulles, with a great food selection. But it was so damn crowded that it was hard to find a seat. The transatlantic flight was comfortable (but obviously long), however I found the food (in Business Class) notably inedible. I had pre-ordered the chicken because the preparation sounded great. It wasn’t. When she saw I hadn’t eaten it the flight attendant brought me the steak instead. It, at least, was flavorable…but it was so overcooked that I could not deal with it either. The cheese platter for dessert was fine. The pre-landing salad I had was also pretty good. In any event, I made it home around 8:30pm.
Linda and Bill flew KLM to Amsterdam and thence to Detroit on Delta and then home, arriving around midnight. Roy also flew to Amsterdam, but a few hours later, to connect to a Delta flight to Boston and then home. I flew to Washington Dulles on United around the same time that Roy left and then home. But his connection out of Boston was canceled due to awful weather and he was rebooked on a 4pm flight the next day.
This was a fantastic trip. As I read back over what I’ve written I can see that as the second week approached its end, so did our level of energy. The fact that we did not do anything much after we checked into the Zürich hotel on the last day is pretty telling in that regard. But we certainly crammed a lot of trains and sightseeing in the two weeks and enjoyed every minute of it. Of the trains we rode, I would rate the trip to Arosa the best, and the Locarno to Domodossola line as the worst. But really there was a lot to be said for all of the trains we rode. I loved the scenery on the various cog trains we rode, but some of them were uncomfortable to ride and once was enough. Regarding hotels, the only real dud in those we stayed at was the Hotel des Londres in Brig. At least it was clean. The Radisson Blu at the Zürich airport gave it a run for its money with awful lighting and temperature control in the room and costing too much for what it delivered. The best was the ABC in Chur with the Grande Suisse Majestic in Montreux coming in a close second, with the Swiss Apartment Hotel in Interlaken not far behind.
The cost? You don’t want to know. Well, actually you might want to know, but I don’t want to know (though I guess I’ll find out soon.) The way I coped during the trip was to think of all prices as being in dollars. The bottle of water I bought at the Coop was a bargain 95 cents in my mind (It was actually closer to $1.20 – still a bargain.) The 300 CHF hotel room (which I thought of as $300) was actually about $375. Now if I can only convince Chase to do the same thing.
Would we do it again? Of course. Stay tuned and see what happens in about a year.
