Chur to Lugano (Bernina express) - Day 3

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Today we travelled through the Swiss Alps by train from Chur to Lugano. The train ride we took was a scenic train called the Bernina express. It is the most beautiful train ride I have ever taken with some of the best views I've ever seen in my life! This is the part of Switzerland I've been looking forward to the most, it it definitely did not disappoint! We have beautiful snowy mountains in New Zealand but this was completely different. The mountains the train went up and through were massive. Some of the train ride was lower so you had the beautiful green grass with the snowy mountains in the background, and as we went up it became more snowy until it was completely covered in snow (and by then we were up in the mountains). We sat next to two women from Switzerland and on the other side of us were a couple from America. We had a good chat with the Americans but unfortunately the Swiss women spoke German so we struggled to communicate initially. But luckily blair knows a bit of French, and the women knew a bit of French too so the German speaking Swiss women and the English speaking New Zealander spoke French to each other. So in total four languages were being communicated in this little group! Blair was in his element (he loves to talk!) and talked the whole way to Tirano with everyone. I found a gap in the windows where our luggage was so I went into there to take a lot of our photos (photographer duty), while Blair provided the entertainment for the group. We had such a good time with the group, the Swiss ladies next to us gave us a free sparkling wine to share with some nuts (they had a spare voucher) and the American couple offered me a Swiss chocolate with brandy in it (which I spilt all over me.... It was straight liqueur inside, not the gooey stuff we get in nz!). We then said our goodbyes and headed in different directions. Blair and I got off in Tirano which is in Italy, we had our first gelato here and it was so good! And then we took a bus to Lugano (back in Switzerland) past the beautiful Lake Como. We now have to start trying to speak Italian as we are in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Tomorrow we head to Venice so will update you from Italy. Addio for now!

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