Zurich to Milan, Day 3 - 16th February 2016

Jet Lag certainly worked in our favour today. We got up early, as snow flurries started to fall in the still dark skies over Zurich, to catch the 7.30am train from Zurich HB to Chur, where we changed to the Bernina Express to further go on to Tirano, in Italy. In Chur we stocked up on snacks, as I had read that there was no real food available on the Bernina Express - only overpriced coffee and alcohol.

The Bernina Express was something we had both been looking forward to; a 122 km train ride of pure scenic beauty. The track is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is well worth the title. The journey took us 4 hours (the name is quite misleading, as it is quite a slow journey) from Chur to Tirano, through the beautiful Swiss Alps.

From Chur the Bernina Express started winding into the mountains almost immediately, although gradually. Close to Chur we saw little villages built into mountainsides, and crumbling castles and churches perched high on cliff faces, signalling beacons of the civilisations below. I couldn't fathom how the churches and castles were built in the first place, as some were perched on areas just large enough to support the buildings themselves, and were built before the modern age of machinery. How they managed to get the building materials up there was beyond anything I could imagine toiling at.

Pine Trees

We wound over the Landwasser-Viadukt, into the Landwasser Tunnel and out to the Alps. The scenery seemed to change with every tunnel we passed through. Hundreds of pine trees, weighed down with snow clumped in branches, would occasionally give way to traces of human civilisation. The snow thickened as we climbed into the grey atmosphere. The train ran alongside a road covered in snow for a while, from which we saw people sledding down the twists and turns that were usually reserved for tyres.

At just over 1 and a half hours in to the journey the train found its way into dazzling sunshine and reached St. Moritz. In the town at the top of the world, the intensity of the sun hitting white snow created a glitter that whilst beautiful, required us to put down the sun shade on the window and snap our sunnies on.

After leaving St. Moritz we passed through the Stazerwald Moorland, an area of thick white snow, and not much else. From there we saw the Lago Bianco and Lej Nair - the light and dark lakes of the alps. In many areas the lakes were covered with metres of white snow. It amazed me to see a few people wandering about the area, and a small bivvy set up, exposed to the elements. I don't think I would be brave enough to camp, there in the freezing cold, by myself. Kudos to that person.

The Bernina Express reached Ospizio Bernina, the highest station of the journey at 2253m above sea level. We stopped at the Alp Grum station to let a few passengers off. Alp Grum had a restaurant set against the mountainside and that was it. No other houses or structures were close by, and it seemed accessible only by the train. 

I can't tell you too much of what we passed after this point. I had woken up with a bad cold, and once we started the descent down from the Alps towards Tirano, my sinuses got the better of me and I spent the steep ride down in a unique sinus pain agony.

I was only able to appreciate the view of Tirano once the grade of descent had lessened and some of the pain had gone away.

Descending

Once we arrived in Tirano, we had 4 minutes to rush off the Bernina Express and hightail it to the Italian train station across the square from the Swiss station. Luckily we had bought our tickets for the Tirano to Milan train at the RHB shop in Chur during our half hour wait there, which we knew to do thanks to Seat 61's brilliant guide to the Bernina Express. We also used his method of purchasing tickets, which saved us an absolute fortune. What should have cost us $180 approx. AUD, ended up costing us just over $60AUD for the both of us to catch the Bernina Express, when we booked through the German website instead of the Swiss RHB website. 

The train to Milan was uneventful, and I think we mostly just slept for that 2 and a half hours. We arrived in Milan very tired, and checked in to our hotel which was only a few streets from the train station.