Today we took the train through all of Grisons, crossed the Bernina pass, and finally arrived in Tirano, Italy. Only to then turn right back around and take the next train back towards Zurich. So far, it was one of the best train journeys. The weather was amazing, the larches were bright yellow, and the train route was gorgeous. No wonder the route is a UNESCU world heritage.

The wagons were again a bit older where you could still open the windows, which allows for much better views and much better photos. The timing also was great, as our goal was to spot some yellow larches, but the forests were covered in them. Very nice fall scenery!

From Chur the train slowly makes its way up the mountains, across a large number of bridges, tunnels, and viaducts (such as the famous Landwasser viaduct). The final ascent from Pontresina to the Bernina pass then doesn’t feel like a lot of height anymore, as we already made most of our height beforehand.

But then the descent towards Tirano starts. From 2253 meters above sea level at the Bernina pass, the train descents all the way to 441 meters above sea level in Tirano. As far as I can tell, the station Ospizio Bernina is the highest train station in Switzerland which you can reach with the GA travelcard without having to pay extra. The journey from Bernina to Tirano took much longer than I expected, but given the height difference, it makes sense. I was also surprised to learn that the whole network of RhB is just with adhesion, no cogwheels at all. I would have assumed that crossing the Bernina would require cogwheels. Though I guess this is also a reason for the slow journey down the mountain.

The arrival in Tirano was also quite cool. For the very last part, the train made its way through the city on the roads. Usually if this is done, its a small train, but here it was a full grown one.

Currently, one of the trains of RhB is in the VBZ design due to Grisons being the guest canton of this year’s Sächsilüüte. For some time, one of the trams was also painted in the RhB design. On the RhB website there is a map where you can follow along where the VBZ-train currently is. When we drove from Zurich towards Chur, the train was supposed to be in Landquart, but we couldn’t see it. On the way back we took the route via Klosters and we noticed the VBZ-train to make its way towards Scuol while we were traveling along Engadin. If we were lucky, we could not only spot it, but even ride it! And indeed, when we changed trains in Sagliains, there it was. What a coincidence.

Today I had something in Geneva, so I decided to combine this with getting done a few stations. I already started my journey yesterday and then spent the night in les Brenets.

I started in Solothurn, taking the train up to Moutier and then Delémont. From there, I completed the train lines around Porrentruy, going up to Delle and Bonfol.

I then took the train from Glovelier to La Chaux-de-Fonds. Sadly, the weather was not great, so the scenery wasn’t as nice as it could have been. I probably will have to come back here at some point. From la Chaux-de-Fonds I made my way to le Locle and then to les Brenets. The train from le Locle to les Brenets is a very lovely, old train, according to Wikipedia the train set is from the 1950s.

In les Brenets I wanted to go see the lake, but it turns out because of the very dry and hot summer, there was no longer a lake there…

It was still nice to walk along the „lake“ and explore les Brenets a bit.

Today I then made my way from les Brenets to Geneva, taking the slow trains via Neuchâtel, Yverdon-les-Bains, and Renens.

When I completed the train line through Glarus I noticed there was a bus going from Linthal to Altdorf, crossing the Klausen pass. The journey was very impressive with a nice landscape and adventurous roads. Especially on the side towards Altdorf, the road was very narrow with very steep drops right next to it. I am always impressed by the skills of the bus drivers to navigate such a large vehicle across a mountain pass.

I still had the route from Appenzell to Wasserauen to complete. From Wasserauen you can hike to the Ebenalp. On the route you pass the Seealpsee and Aescher, two very famous spots in the region. So I decided to combine checking off the stations with a nice hike. While the weather on the first attempt was not great and we ended up going to Gruyères, today the weather was great.

The views at the Seealpsee were really very gorgeous. From the Seealpsee to Aescher, the hiking trail started very steep. Once we reached the required altitude, the trail was relatively flat. Overall, the trail was quite interesting to walk.

From Aescher to the Ebenalp the trail lead through a cave. In there, I even managed to convince my phone camera that it doesn’t always need to do HDR and have everything be the same brightness.

Today I started my journey in Chur, taking the train across the Oberalp pass, to Andermatt, through the Furka, and then traveling through Valais until Visp. On the way back I took the route through the old Lötschberg tunnel.

It’s a very lovely route. You start with the Rhine Gorge while still in Grisons. Then, after changing trains and train operator in Disentis/Mustér, you climb to the top of the Oberalp pass. Shortly after you arrive in Andermatt, after getting rid of some of the gained elevation.

From Andermatt the Furka tunnel follows, which is quite long with 15.4 km (of course still quite short compared to the GBT with 57 km). Afterwards the route slowly makes its way through Valais. The whole journey from Andermatt to Visp took a bit more than two hours.

My train from Andermatt still had carriages where you could open the windows, which was quite nice to get some fresh air and take pictures without the annoying reflections.

Finally, one in Visp, I took the train through the old Lötschbergtunnel. The route from Brig to the tunnel, slowly gaining altitude while having a nice view across the valley, is lovely. The tunnel itself was again on the longer side with 14.6 km (the Lötschberg base tunnel is 34.6 km).

Overall, it was a very nice journey and the weather was perfect.

Today I covered a lot of stations around the Seetal area. First, I took the train from Dietikon to Wohlen via Bremgarten, which is one of those half train half tram lines.

Next, I covered the line from Lenzburg to Rotkreuz (riding from Wohlen to Lenzburg, just to immediately turn around again). From there, the S1 took me to Sursee via Luzern, along the Sempachersee.

Traveling further north to Zofingen and then turning east with the S28 to Lenzburg, I completed a circle around the Seetal area. With a nice sunset to accompany the journey, I took the Seetalbahn to Luzern. This was a lot of zig-zag across the region… Back in Zurich there was an S-Bahn wishing everyone a nice weekend, which I found very nice of it.

Today we spent some time in the area around Gruyères. We started with a visit of the Cailler factory in Broc. When arriving in Bern, one often hears announcements for a train going to Broc-Chocolatier, which I always found funny. Felt like something very Swiss to have a direct train going from the capital to a chocolate factory.

The exhibition itself I didn’t like that much. It felt a lot like corporate propaganda, where they spent a lot of time telling the visitors how well they treat the milk and cocoa farmers and that they make sure to only use the finest ingredients. Sure…

For lunch we took the bus to Gruyères. It’s a very nice old village but it’s very touristic, though surprisingly it felt less touristic compared to Zermatt. We visited the H.R. Giger museum. I expected the museum to have many more sculptures, it consisted mostly of pictures. A lot of them felt very similar, but it was still interesting to look at. Next to the train station there was also the cheese dairy where the produce the Gruyères cheese, though we didn’t visit this exhibition as well.

On the way back we took the detour via Palézieux to collect some more stations. I always thought Palézieux was a somewhat relevant city, but it turns out it’s basically just a train station in the middle of nowhere. I guess it’s a somewhat important exchange node which is why all the long-distance trains between Bern and Lausanne stop there. But given the good connections, I would have expected for some buildup to happen around the train stations. But it’s just fields right next to the tracks on one side, and only a few houses on the other side.

Today I went to Zermatt with a friend. The weather was lovely and we had lunch with a beautiful view of the Matterhorn.

On the way up from Visp there was a very sudden stop of the train on the open track, followed by a long pause. For at least 15 minutes the train was unable to continue due to some technical issues, we already thought we had to walk up the rest of the way. Luckily, the train then suddenly decided to work again and we reached Zermatt with some delay.

While the town looked nice, it also somehow felt a bit like an „amusement park“, where most things looked like mostly being for tourists and it didn’t feel like there were people actually living there. And of course there were a large number of tourists all across the town.

On the way back we stopped in Spiez to have dinner right next to the Thunersee. With the sunset the mountains turned red and gave a very nice scenery for dinner. We also saw the Sigriswiler Rothorn (to the left of the Niederhorn), where we recently filmed a Skyrim music video in a cave.

Today’s train ride brought me to Einsiedeln. The weather was very nice and I spent some time walking across the Silhsee. Very lovely views to be had.

On the way back, I stopped in Arth-Goldau, where the train to mount Rigi leaves. I didn’t have time to go on Rigi today, but as the train to the top is included in my travelcard, I will go there at some point.

In total, I have already visited 16% of all stations in Switzerland. However, most of them were around Zurich and eastern Switzerland which is quite close to home. The stations further away, for example in the French speaking part of Switzerland, will take a bit more time.