Eight Days By Train In Switzerland

Switzerland. A land I have dreamt of visiting. A land whose chocolate, cheese and a heroine called Heidi have beguiled and beckoned me from a young age. So, did you live up to my expectations? Well, like so much of Switzerland, that’s a bit of a conundrum really.

Our eight days of train travel around Switzerland start in beautiful, tranquil Lucerne. A compact little city, surrounded by snow-capped mountains sitting on the edge of Lake Lucerne. Here we are introduced to the Three C’s – the chocolate, the cheese and the Chinese. While the first two we were expecting, finding the city (and subsequently most of Switzerland) heaving with Chinese tour groups and Chinese independent travellers is a bit of a surprise.

We leave Lucerne on the first leg of the Golden Pass Line. Switzerland has capitalised on its extensive train networks by giving some of them fancy names and fancy prices before spruiking them to the tourists. This first leg deposits us in Interlaken and in hindsight is the most incredible of all the train journeys we undertake over the eight days.

Hauling ourselves up steep mountains using the unique cog railways, we find ourselves in ever more beautiful frozen winter wonderlands before hurtling down the other side to pop out at yet another spectacular lake.

We use Interlaken, a little resort town nestled between the emerald lakes of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz as a three-day base to eat fondue, catch up on washing, visit the nearby snow drenched village of Grindelwald and in my case, catch a cold.

From Interlaken, its back on the Golden Pass Line next stop Montreux. A lively little town snuggled alongside Lake Geneva. Our relatively nondescript room comes with a fantastic balcony that looks directly out over the Lake and down upon the Christmas Market. After thoroughly exploring the market, finding the Freddie Mercury statue (Freddie once lived here) we spend the remainder of the evening people watching from our fantastic balcony.

Its local trains to Zermatt and this beautiful little snow resort town is all about the mighty Matterhorn. Our receptionist recommends a hotel nearby whose terrace café offers incredible Matterhorn views. Enjoying an afternoon beverage on this terrace becomes one of the highlights of our entire trip.

Back on one of those touted epic train excursions – this time the Glacier Express. It may have been my shocking cold talking, but I found the eight-hour 291-kilometre slow crawl journey from Zermatt to St Moritz largely overrated. 

It’s dark when we reach glitzy St Moritz and with the late winter sunrise slightly dark when we bid her farewell. The little we do see looks shiny bright and very expensive – this is a step up from the rest of the country which is just expensive (think $9 coffees, $17 sandwiches).

Last stop Basel. My cold is abating but not enough to tackle what’s meant to be a fantastic Christmas market, unfortunately. A quick walk around before a schnitzel dinner suffices. 

Leaving Basel, we come face to face with the negatives of public transport travel. France is experiencing terrible nationwide strikes and our train to Paris has been cancelled. What was meant to take under four hours turns into an eight-hour marathon but tonight I type this from our Paris apartment.

Did I enjoy Switzerland? Yes – she is truly beautiful. Would I return?  Weighing up the ease of travelling this tiny little country against the expense and the crowds. Well, that’s the conundrum. 

Fun facts –the clean, environmentally conscious swiss are the biggest train users in the world yet on every train we travelled – the toilets emptied directly onto the tracks!