DAY 109 THURSDAY JULY 12 HEIDI COUNTRY

We could have paid $12000 per person to join a small elite tour of Swiss Railways but after today we think we are onto the next best thing, using our Eurail Pass.  We arrived home tonight from our day out at 9.30pm and felt we had to get the experience on the blog before the memories faded.  We ran out of adjectives to describe the day's events.  We had so many "wow!" moments and we thought: amazing, breathtaking, awe-inspiring, stupendous, mindboggling, spectacular; German speakers near us came up with wunderschoen. Starting from Chur on the Bernina Express we passed over the Alps (where did Hannibal do it?) and into Italy.  Along with the Glacier Express, which we take on Sunday, these are the "slowest express trains in the world" - all the better for watching the scenery.  Our coach had special panoramic windows and a recorded commentary for the four hour trip to Tarino.

We stopped at many little stations in the hills along the way, many of them over 100 years old.  This one was our first stop at Tiefelscastel after we had followed the Rhine river past quite a few castles.

After this, we headed uphill along the 122 km of World Heritage listed track (only one of three awarded).  Over this distance there were 55 tunnels and 196 bridges (they are kidding, right?). One of the tunnels is 6km long and many of the bridges make you dizzy as you look down to the river below. The tunnels worked in with the bridges such that on several occasions the train crossed a viaduct, went into a tunnel and curved around so it passed under the viaduct after it came out of the tunnel.(or vv from the other direction.  The line on the map often took three steps forward and two steps backward in order to gain height.  This line has been in use for over 100 years.  At the watershed where one river ends at the Adriatic and the other at the Black Sea, the train reaches a height of 2,200 metres (Kosziusko?).  My altimeter watch hit a PB for land travel.  Here are some of the hills, mountains and lakes we passed:

The architecture changed as we approached Italy from typical neat German/Swiss like the church and houses above to a more blocked approach near Italy:

But the flower boxes persisted.  As we came steeply downhill to Tarino the train passed down the narrow main street of towns, as though it were a tram.  At La Prese Station the train stopped right outside the Romantica Hotel.  It must be the closest position in the world to a station.

THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN THROUGH THE COACH WINDOW. NOTE THE GERMAN AND ITALIAN SIGN.

We kept an eye out for a mountain goat as this is the official emblem of the City of Chur, but the only one we saw was on the train and caused much amusement:

ON THE REFRESHMENTS TROLLEY

Our coach was full on the way to Tirano and there were oohs and ahs as well as click, click, click and men jockeying for best position to get their photos.  When we got off the train we saw an advertisement for a restaurant called La Botte and thought we would lunch there to compare it with one of the same name in Carlingford, Sydney,  but we walked around the city for two hours and never found it.  To get with the culture we ate lasagna and ravioli, had gelato when we arrived and again before we left.  We listened to Prego, bonjurno, arrividerci, ciao, grazia, and saw a street sign that said VIA ITALIA.  We thought that might be Highway 1 starting in the north of Italy.  Instead of the topless doubledecker buses that take tourists around most European cities nowadays, this town had a little train, which was very appropriate because many of the tourists arrive on the Alpine trains and only stay two hours:

Tirano has a basilica which was built in the 17th century.  It is in the background above.  It is in a public square in an older part of town.

We took a peek inside and it was beautifully decorated in the baroque style.  This may be the only basilica in Italy we get to see.  A boy on a bicycle passed us and stopped for a drink at this little fountain which was running non stop, presumably from a mountain stream.  We tried it and the water was icy and pure.  We saw two others in other parts of town.

As we wandered around we had to be aware of the trains passing along the narrow streets, close to houses and cars:

We found the oldest part of town where this fort fronted the main highway:

Most of the Bernina Express passengers returned on the same town, but we were planning to take later trains over the mountains to Chur.  We found First Class seats right behind the driver so we were able to look through his glass screen wall to see the tracks ahead: