good morning from the beautiful city of zurich i'm taking the train from here
down into the swiss alps i'm going to be getting on the bernina express one of the most beautiful
and scenic railway journeys of the world hope you can join me on this trip it's going to be amazing i'm
really looking forward to it i'll catch you a little bit later in the video cheers for now
the first part of my journey was to catch a train from zurich to chur where it connects
with the bernina express i'd managed to purchase a cheap ticket using a perfectly legitimate travel
hack which reduced the fare significantly i'll explain more about that later on
i was pleased to see that the restaurant car was attached and open for business it was quite an
early start for me and i'd skipped breakfast at the hotel
second class travel for this part of the
journey of just over an hour is perfectly adequate nice and clean you must wear a face covering on the
train although you can take it off when eating in the restaurant car i like the retro look and feel
of the restaurant car i'm not sure how old they are if you have any idea leave a comment below
on arrival at chur it's a quick cross-platform change to the waiting bernina express
and the majority of the actual bernina express consists of observation carriages
and there is an extra cost associated with reserving a seat in one of those
i opted for the three-car unit at the front of the train which was much quieter
a massive advantage with this part of the train is that you can lower the windows and get some
great photos of the alpine scenery outside now the coaches themselves are very smart with a
map of many of the swiss scenic railways printed on the tables between the seats
there's also a running commentary of the major sites en route which i presume is the same as you
get in the more expensive carriages behind
now as the train starts to climb we follow the
rhine valley crossing the famous landvasser viaduct before reaching the town of bergun
okay so a little bit more about my ticket although i started in zurich i purchased a
ticket from deutsche bahn that actually originated from singen this is the last station in germany
at a cost of 29 euros and 90 cents this made it a lot cheaper than the
normal zurich to tirano one-way fare which normally retails around 85 euros for
exactly the same trip you must remember to book from singen the day before so it will incorporate
an overnight stop in zurich and then you just get on the train as per normal in the morning
quite easy really i am indebted to the 'man in seat 61' website for this tip an excellent resource
which i highly recommend and use all the time there's a link in the video description below
at alp grum we pass the other bernina express heading in the other direction
this had open air carriages on the back it's a bit touristy but that's what you expect on
this line and they did look kind of good as long as you've got decent weather i guess
actually alp grum was one of many places i thought would make a great lunch stop
if you do want to break your journey there are plenty of regular local trains plying these
routes so i think it would be relatively easy to just hop on and off during the
day and after alp grum the train begins to descend as it heads towards the italian border
well guys i'm on the most amazing train journey today the bernina express just made our way
up to alp grum now we're descending down into tirano gotta say this is a fantastic journey
if anybody wants to try i would definitely recommend taking the three cars at the
front of the bernina express you can wind the windows down have a look out of the window
it's brilliant for photography if you like that sort of thing i'm having a great time
it's certainly in terms of scenery it's just absolutely fantastic definitely recommend it
when I get down to tirano i'm going to have some lunch then i'm on the train again to milan
this afternoon so stay tuned keep watching there's plenty more video content to come cheers for now
there was hardly anyone on my part of the train at this point so i decided to take a wander
to the front of the train fortunately the driver had left his blinds open
and i was treated to an excellent view of the track ahead now as the line is single track the
train can often be held at a passing loop waiting for a train coming from the opposite direction by
this stage it was so quiet there was hardly anyone on board therefore i claimed my prize
as the only passenger in the three-car unit that travelled on the entire route from start finish
there are first class sections at either end of this part of the train
there is also a video display of the route and a toilet midway
now one negative of the three car units is the lack of refreshments available
so you've got to make sure you stock up and bring your own supplies before getting on this part of the train
and at this point you will notice that the train has started travelling down the street
something that becomes more common incidentally the closer we get to tirano
the train slows right down across the spectacular brusio viaduct
notice how steep this is as the train curves around a full 360 degrees before
passing underneath the tracks it's just travelled over this was a real highlight to the trip for me
and we finished this leg of the journey and indeed the bernina express route by crossing
the square just outside of the santuario della madonna de tirano roman catholic church
and i hope i've pronounced that correctly apologies if i haven't
after disembarking i headed across the square to buy a ticket at the trenitalia office to get me to
milan this cost just 11 euros 50 cents for the two and a half hour journey i would be taking later on
in the meantime i went for some lunch at one of the many bars in tirano
and then i wandered back up the road to watch another bernina express train
stopping the traffic as it left tirano on its journey north
we left tirano on a fairly run down old loco-hauled train
a storm was brewing as we made our way towards milan past the shores of lake como
the views were still quite beautiful despite the
weather and i would recommend sitting on the right hand side of the train for this leg facing forward
it was nearly six o'clock by the time i reached milan central station but what
an amazing building this was the scale and the detail is so grand i think it's probably the
most impressive station concourse i've ever seen a memorable arrival at my final destination
eleven hours after starting out so early in the morning and i'll tell you what it was worth every minute
hi guys that was the bernina express i'll tell you what it was a fantastic journey i hope you enjoyed
watching it i certainly enjoyed traveling in it it was absolutely brilliant i'll never forget it i'm
actually in a hotel now in milan when i got to the end of the journey on the bernina
express in tirano i took a trenitalia train for two and a half hours down to milan complete
contrast to the bernina express by the way the train was an absolute nightmare really there's
no air conditioning absolutely jam-packed yeah a bit of a tough ask really at the end
of a long day anyway i'm gonna go out for some dinner i hope you've enjoyed this and stay tuned
guys because i might have another video for you tomorrow when i take the fast train back up to
zurich from milan central i hope you've enjoyed this one please subscribe if you have leave any
comments that would be really appreciated and i'll see you on the next video cheers for now