Train trip to St Moritz. Fantastic.

---

Early start today as we had a train to catch just before 9am at Chur Bahnhof. Not the famous Bernina Express, as Bob had not managed book seats for any reasonable time on that, but the normal Chur to St Moritz train goes on exactly the same line so we had return tickets for that and they proved to be really good.

Arrived nicely in time and found forward facing seats on the right hand side as Bob had read that was the best view and it was indeed. Absolutely super ride. Two full hours of magnificent views as the red train snaked higher and higher through the mountains, tips topped with lots of white haloes of cloud as it had rained quite a lot in the night.
The first half hour of the ride is along the valley but then the track turns south which is when it starts to climb and wind its way upwards. This part of the line is Unesco status and has some spectacular parts where it goes round in circles to get up the cork screw bends via tunnels and viaducts. We saw one village 4 times as we kept emerging from tunnels each one higher than the other. Took so many photos it may take the rest of the holiday to sort them all out.

This is a stopping train which stops at a dozen stations on the way. Sometimes having to wait for a train coming the other way. At a couple of stations quite a few people got on / off to change to other lines. Not far out of St Moritz one such station is the changeover point for the Torino line where the train heads off to Italy.

We did see a few snow-capped tips as we got nearer to St Moritz and we also got above the cloud cover to lovely blue sky. The train arrived exactly on time in St Moritz station. A lovely day, blue sky and a warm sun. Lots of people were over-dressed for winter but honestly not needed at all and we never even bothered to get our fleeces out of the backpack.

We managed to find a town map and set off but as we have found in so many parts of Switzerland this trip, one thing the Swiss are bad at is giving any sort of directional instructions to pedestrian ‘tourists’. No signs to tell us where to go and which route to take to it.
There are two areas of St Moritz. The Dorf, which apparently means the Village and the Bad, which is the Spa area further down and nearer to the lake.

We set of to St Moritz Dorf, which rises up above the lake and is nearest to the station but we didn’t find the straightest route there as no idea which that was because of lack of any direction (the map was pretty rubbish too 😊 ). No matter. Walked through the streets and wondered who actually shopped in those designer shops with just one expensive piece per display window and no prices… and no customers inside either 😊

Quite surprised really to not find a collection of pretty Swiss style buildings. There are several older hotels and a few, obviously older traditional type buildings but far more are modern, and some just concrete boxes which seemed quite out of keeping with what we had expected to find in this classy resort.

We found no normal shops. I didn’t expect tacky holiday resort shops but had hoped to find a few nicer shops to admire but if they were there, we didn’t find them. We were thinking of stopping for a coffee, with cake was my idea, but honestly we found nowhere really to stop for one so ended up at the bottom of the hill heading lakeside and by this point looking and failing for somewhere nice to eat lunch.

We did then pass a couple of food supermarkets Lidl and Coop but still none of the pavement cafes we have become accustomed to and expected to find.

Down to the lake side and towards St Moriz Bad area we consulted Google Maps who sent us to the only nearby restaurant marked which was in front of an outdoor icerink. The menu was in Swiss German or Italian so I worked off the Italian as easier to translate.

I had been determined to find Raclette to try but nothing like that on the menu at all and not finding anything else we fancied we ordered the soup. This was the local Barley Soup. Bob said it was Ok, I didn’t really like it much at all.

Still no shops to browse, none at all and no traditional Swiss buildings to admire so really we were a little disappointed by St Moritz. Maybe it is quite different in Winter and has some charm then but we failed to find any.

No problem, we carried on our stroll back along the lake side this time which was very pleasant as the sun was shining and the sky blue. We were still wondering where on earth all the tourists we saw strolling about and who had been on our train were finding refreshments, when we did at last come to a nice looking restaurant by the boat club.

I asked just for the desert menu and had a proper Apfelstrudel which compensated completely for that soup !

So back to the station, more photos taken, lots of the lake and the mountains beyond and onto our train for another superb ride back to Chur. Wouldn't have missed that train ride for the world. A wonderful 4 hours on a really comfy train through spectacular scenery.

Then back to the campsite in Smart Car where we are tucked in for the evening as it is raining and temperature has dropped. Snow is forecast for the mountains in the early hours but not down here in the Rhein river valley, just rain. From now though Autumn weather has it seems arrived and though the daytime temperatures will be high teens, the nights are going to be much colder and in single figures.

Moving on tomorrow to the East side of Lake Geneva so hopefully not raining when we set off as will need to hitch Smart Arse to the back of the motorhome.

---

Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Trains, trains & more trains
Thus an excuse to post some of your pics in our 'Trains, trains & more trains' thread in the Photography forum. Check 'em out.

[BobsJoy]

Trains
We did have quite a few trains on trip