We woke up at 0515hrs to get to the train station. We had purchased the Swiss Pass in Singapore before going to Europe which allowed for unlimited travel for our days in Switzerland. The plan was to take a bus outside the train station at 0650hrs. It was still dark when we reached the train station. The train station was not even open. We waited for a while and I went to the back of the station and found that the counter was open. I needed to pick up my reservations for the Glacier Express which I had paid for. But the man over at the counter do not understand English. Time was running out, I quickly ran back to the front of the station and Dac was waiting at the bus. We had nearly missed the bus.
We were the only ones on the bus. We sat on the left side of the bus for better scenery. Along the way, the sky was getting brighter and we could see the scenery of Switzerland. I enjoyed the bus ride from Tirano to Poschiavo. The music that was played on the bus was very nice. The bus picked up students who seemed to be on their way to school. The bus dropped us off at the Poschiavo train station where we had to transfer to another train which would bring us to Chur (traveling along the Bernina route) and reaching Chur at 1103hrs.
At Chur, we had to switch to the Glacier Express. The Glacier Express was schedule to leave at 1115hrs and reaching Zermatt at 1642hrs. The Glacier Express offers the best scenic train ride in Switzerland. There was no time for us to get our reservations at the counter and the train was leaving, so we just got up the train. We had made reservations (E9) for the second class coach in Singapore. We had sneaked into the first class coach to see how it looked like. It looked much nicer with panoramic windows. We sat on the left side for better scenery. The conductor came and since we did have any proof that we had made reservations, he insisted that we had to pay for the reservations again. But they refunded my first reservations when I wrote them an email when I came back to Singapore.
The train ride was a long, long one. The journey from Tirano to Zermatt took us about 10hrs. We had our lunch (tuna with bread with orange juice) on board the train. We also bought a Glacier Express pin (SF5). We finally reached Zermatt at 1642hrs. We took a quick walk around Zermatt and saw the Matterhorn. Zermatt reminded us of Whistler in Canada. It was a very nice ski town. Dac thinks it is a beautiful place. Hopefully, we get go back one day and ski at Zermatt. The sky was getting dark very quickly.
We took the train at Zermatt which leaves at 1730hrs to get to Lauterbrunnen (2140hrs). We had to change train at Interlaken East before we can get to Lauterbrunnen. During the journey from Zermatt to Interlaken East, we met a Malay family of 5 from Singapore. The family consists of the grandparents, parents and a young boy. They were from Tampines. What a small world. They alighted at Interlaken West. When we reached Interlaken East, it had started snowing lightly. Dac took a nice picture with the Interlaken signboard.
The train ride from Interlaken East to Lauterbrunnen was a short one.
When we reached Lauterbrunnen, the snow was getting heavier. We walked from the train station to Valley Hostel. They were expecting us. We would be staying here for 3 nights for SF192They passed us some bedsheets and Dac and I looked at each other in amusement. YES, we had to lay our own sheets. Our room was on the second level in another building. There was kitchen facilities and shared bathroom. The other rooms on the second level were occupied by a group of China students. Our room was lovely and had a window above our bed but we could not see anything as it was covered with snow. We cooked porridge for a late dinner.
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