Tirano

Once again, we're winging it. The Bernina Express is another world-famous classic train ride. Our Eurail pass covers it, but not the $25 seat reservation for each person, each way. We're getting so used to just jumping on any train, that we didn't bother with the reservation. And we like the extra space in the first class compartment of the regional train.

From St. Moritz, we headed south and soon encountered the first glacier we've seen from a train: the Morteratsch Glacier. It's lovely, but I just gotta say that the Glacier Express we just completed yesterday allows no views of glaciers and is by no means an express. It's like the Holy Roman Empire over here, in that none of these words describe reality. I'm not complaining, because we love the slow trains. But be warned that the Glacier Express is just a branding term.

For most of the ride, there was just one other couple in our compartment. They were German and only the woman spoke English. They had traveled quite a bit in the US and were on a short vacation to Switzerland and even she commented on how expensive Switzerland was. All of us were excited to see the scenery and we had plenty of room to move around the compartment to change seats. They're from Straubing, in Bavaria and mentioned that their 50th wedding anniversary was this Saturday. They met at the Octoberfest in Staubing, the 2nd largest Octoberfest in Europe. Long live beer!

There were dozens of bridges and tunnels on this stretch, and the engineering feats were impressive, especially towards the end of the ride at Busio, where the famous Busio spiral viaduct takes the train down at no more than a 7% grade in a corkscrew ramp. We ended at Tirano, Italy, which lies just south of the Swiss border. What a difference! It was under 40 degrees when we woke up in St. Moritz and we arrived to sunny 70 degree weather in Tirano. But that's not the only difference we noticed right away. Literally right after we crossed the border (no checkpoints, this is all the Schengen visa area) I noticed a shirt drying on a balcony. In the 10 days or so we were in Switzerland, I never saw laundry drying. Is there a law against it? It's not like they use clothes dryers a lot in these parts.

People were more animated. They talked with their hands. Wine was literally 15 - 25% of the cost in Switzerland, just 5 miles north. Food was much cheaper at the store. Unfortunately, we've only got one night here. But we'll get back to Italy at the end of this trip.

We walked around town after the other Bernese expressers caught trains out of town. Deanne stole a grape from a vinyard. Kids played in the park. Local guys drank and sang loudly at 4pm at the pub across the piazza from our apartment on a Monday. What a contrast to the reserved Switzerland we just left.

We scored big time on the apartment I booked. It overlooks the main piazza near the station and was recently remodeled. And it's big by European standards

In the morning, we backtrack on the same route we took, up to Chur. From there, we'll pass through Liechtenstein and make our way to Innsbruck, Austria. It should take about 7 hours. My thoughts on Switzerland are that it is indeed expensive. It wasn't much of a shock coming from Sweden and Denmark. However, it's a once in a lifetime experience for me. The air and water are so clean and everything just works. I've never seen such well-marked trails and signs. The cost of visiting the Grindelwald area is high, but considering the cost to run the trams and trains and the trail maintenance, it's well worth it.

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