Memory Travel in Switzerland

Travelling by train in Switzerland is a dream most of the time. One of my favourite train journeys is from St Moritz over the pass into Italy.

This slightly technical video shows nice scenery from the cab at 7.20 minutes. Half of the train starts at Chur and joins the train at Pontresina.

It is possible to have a very enjoyable holiday simply travelling on railways throughout Switzerland.

The only problem about Switzerland is the Swiss!!! OK, There are lots of lovely Swiss people especially when you rent their lovely chalets and apartments in places with incredibly views but I would just like to give just one example where a Swiss gentleman did his job in an extraordinarily exemplary fashion.

We were staying Wengen and decided to take a gentle ridge walk which, I have to confess, we took the cable car up to the ridge. I know it is good practice to walk up the hill but the weather was beautiful – the scenery was beautiful and we felt beautiful as a result. But not strong enough to manage the ascent unaided.

The cable car ride was beautiful and the gentle ridge walk was just what was needed after the spending the day before travelling across the country and up the short section of mountain railway to Wengen where we simply walked around until we found somewhere to stay.

The arrangement then was, if you bought a return cable car ticket, you could return by the mountain railway. Standing on the ridge we spied a railway station. We realised that this was the ideal way to return to Wengen.

We rested in the local hostelry and awaited the arrival of the train. Somewhat refreshed, we boarded the train and began to enjoy the descent into Wengen.

Until . . . a very smart uniformed man appeared in front of us and demanded to see our tickets. The demand seemed more like a military order than a request from a servant of the railway company.

We dutifully proffered our tickets. The uniformed man lent forward as if to inspect our tickets to see whether they needed fumigation.

“And where did you get these?”, he snapped in his most formal voice.

We replied that we had bought the return ticket which allowed to return using the mountain railway.

“You can NOT use these on THIS railway!!!”, he spluttered in what seems to be the ultimate level of astonishment.

We explained our understanding of what the tickets said but he just stood shaking his head in what appeared to be disbelief.

“No, No, No, No, . . . . . “, he kept muttering to himself. “I will keep an eye on you until we arrive. Then I will take you to the inspector!!!”

I think we were supposed to be terrified by all this. For the whole journey, this very correct  man stood in front of us seemingly restraining us from any thoughts of escape we might contrive.

At last we arrived.

“Follow me!!!”, our officer snapped.

Of course, we followed him until we were confronted by an even more important official. He looked us up and down then had a private consultation with his junior.

All four of us then trooped into the ticket hall and the very important man took our tickets from his junior then reached into window and produced two different tickets. He then handed these to his junior and gave a parting judgemental gaze to us all.

The three of us then went on to the platform and we looked at this man who had made our journey down the mountain so terrifying.

“These are the CORRECT tickets!!

With an extremely professional flourish, he held the two tickets up in front of him, drew his clipper from his holster and clipped the tickets presumably in order to cancel them.

With one smooth even more professional gesture, he enabled the tickets to drop straight into the rubbish bin on the platform.

For the first since our ordeal had begun, he gave us a wry smile then, with a wave, departed on the train.