Didn't plan to go to Switzerland, but hey! Whatever!

---

From Shell: So while we are having a pretty long holiday..... we were very focused on only visiting Italy, France and Stephen* in Europe, so that we wouldn't spread ourselves too thinly.

So imagine our surprise when we spent four hours viewing the most stunning Swiss country-side yesterday (albeit at 150kph!). It all started with our combined wish to travel via train from France to Italy and resulted in our Eurail pass consultant booking us from Lyon, France to Milan, Italy by way of Geneva, Switzerland. Maybe she had something against the Mont Blanc tunnel??

Anyway, the gods of travel shone down upon us and
1) gave us a Swiss train conductor who overlooked the fact our Eurail pass doesn't cover Switzerland
2) ensured we passed through customs in Geneva undetected.
It was, in fact, the most (only?) stressful leg so far, in that we had only 13 minutes to make the connection in Geneva and our train left Lyon 25 minutes late. Also, half an hour into the journey, we were informed by the conductor that our part of the train wasn't going to Geneva (WTF!?). We needed to be in the front carriage for Geneva as they were going to split the train halfway through the journey.

We've found that on cross-country journeys, the Danish, Dutch, Belgians and even Italians make their announcements in their native language and also other common languages, including English. However, in France, it was always only in French. So our conductor had to go through the same discussion with every other non-French speaking passenger. Then when we got to the stop where he indicated there would be enough time to make a dash for the front carriage, we encountered about 75 other non-French speaking people doing the same thing from their carriages! Surely an announcement in English at the original station would negate the whole issue??? If only I were running the world..... however, the vision of us all racing for the front carriage would have been hilarious.

Needless to say, it all came together and the views while going through the valleys of the Swiss Alps rivaled the Rockies in Canada - staggeringly beautiful.

*Stephen is a sovereign state in Europe, known for it's limited acceptance of eclectic global citizens from the world over. It has been somewhat moderated by the influence of the goddess, Zeynep and it's protector, Siri. Word to the wise - don't give it bad service.

---

Comments

[Bron]

haha funny stuff, loving the travel stories! Hope your having fun wherever you are Bronze xoxo