Ken and Elise's trip

Day 16: Bernina Express

  The Bernina Express is one of the two famed train rides through the Swiss and Italian Alps. The tour takes place with panoramic windows on the train coaches so that you get the best view of the spectacular scenery.

  Ken and I were at the train station a little after 8 as the train would leave at 8:32 a..m. We were on the platform waiting when our gleaming red train pulled in and we found our place in the first class section. Thing were a little hectic as people tried to find their reserved seats, but we are train warriors now and found ours easily. There was a minor upset as a little Japanese American man couldn’t find his and his wife’s seats. They could find #31 but he kept insisting that there was no #32. Ken got up to help  him, but a very tall, rather heavy-set Swiss man took over before Ken could get there. The man spoke excellent English and in no time the Japanese couple were comfortably seated in their places--it seemed that #32 had been there all along--the number had just been hidden by a hanging magazine. I was impressed by the kindness of the Swiss man, but opinions change--and then change back again as I will explain.

  Finally everyone was seated and with a few “ein”s, “klein”s, mixed in with a “das” and a “die” here and there, we were off.

  To be real frank, I wasn’t expecting much. I had initially thought this would be one of the highlights of our trip, but now I was wishing it had come before our stay in Wengen as it now seemed to me that the regular Alps would be a let down after our stay in the high Alps.  I was once again to be proven wrong.

  Also the weather report was calling for rain and Mrs. Always Looking at the Bright Side was convinced that it would be misty and drizzly the whole way and the higher mountains would be covered with clouds making the trip basically useless. To add to the frustration, Ken was feeling quite sick. He was struggling to be a trooper, but it was hard when he felt so lousy. I, myself, was not feeling all that great. I simply couldn’t shake the cold I got in Vienna. So, really, neither of us were feeling the excitement that we had expected.

  Right away, I experienced a bit of irritation. Ken and I had snagged solo seats facing each other on the right hand side of the coach meaning that each of us had a window seat--which was great! To the left of us were a set of double seats facing each other. And guess who had them--yep, Mr. Swiss, his adoring wife with another couple in the two facing seats who were clearly friends taking the journey together. The other wife had pink hair--and I mean really pink. Which might be overlooked in a teenager, but this woman was 60+ and dressed otherwise quite conservatively. It became clear right away that they were on the train only peripherally for the scenery--they were really here to have a good time together. They laughed and they joked the entire way making so much noise I had to hold myself back from asking them to just please be quiet!! On regular occasions a voice would come over the intercom telling us what we were seeing, but Ken and I (and I’m guessing quite a few other people) never could hear it as Mr. Swiss and his friends were having too jolly a time to quiet down. I had to keep telling myself that this man had immediately and kindly jumped to the aid of the little Japanese man and his wife so he really was a good guy.

  Almost immediately, it became clear that this ride was going to be worth every cent. At first it was misty, but shortly after we left the sun broke through and everything was just beautiful. We started sort of down in the valley, but as the hours passed we climbed and we climbed. And every turn was more beautiful than the one before it. The mountains got higher and higher and you could start seeing snow on them after awhile. There were deep green valleys and wonderful lakes and waterfalls.

  At one point we pulled into a switching station and waited for a few minutes. Parked right next to us was the Glacier Express, the other famous excursion train through the Alps. When they saw us, there was a huge reaction as soulmates meeting on the road of life. As the two coaches passed, there was major waving and the raising of glasses in a toast. That was sort of fun,

  In the meantime Mr. Swiss and his friends were driving me nuts. They graduated from coffee to champagne. They laughed and chatted the whole way only stopping when we passed a particularly spectacular piece of scenery. Then they were right back at it---ha ha-ing and ho-ho-ing, I began to resent the heck out of them. “Why do they even bother to come on a trip like this” I thought. “They aren’t paying any attention to the wonders around them. They don’t deserve this!”

   Along the way in the deep forest, we passed a solitary hiker. It was an older man, walking in almost reverence through the forest  along the river. My heart immediately felt in tune with him and I felt that he and I were the kind of people this sort of beauty was made for. People who actually appreciated it. Of course even though I felt a kinship to this solitary hiker, there was a big problem. He was in shape to carry a huge backpack through the wilderness. I, most definitely, am not. So I have to take a train. “When this day is over, I will have seen a lot more of the splendor of the Alps than he will,” I thought, “but he will experience it in ways that I can only imagine.”

   I spent quite a bit of my day thinking thoughts like that while Mr. Swiss and his friends continued to chortle away opposite us.

  But then, something happened that changed me. As I said, there had been lots of waving from people as our train whizzed by. But there was one particular incident that I will never forget. We came to a small town and traffic was backed up at the crossing to let us go through. A car hurriedly pulled up at the end of the line, and as we passed, a man--an older man--leaped out of his car and stood beside it waving--waving both arms at us in a heartfelt salute to us and the beauty he knew we were enjoying. And suddenly I understood that all of us--Mr. Swiss, the pink-haired woman who drank her champagne too quickly, the little Japanese man who couldn’t find his wife’s seat, the solitary hiker in the woods and the cheerful man waving vigorously as the train went by--we are all in this together. This world belongs to us all. The beauty is not just for those who appreciate it but for everyone. Because, most of us appreciate it at least to some degree. There will be some, like the solitary hiker, and me, who will appreciate it to the core of our beings. We will leave  this world someday deeply imbued with the beauty we have been blessed to see. But our hearts are the solitary kind and as such, we will miss some of the comradeship, the the friendships that people like Mr. Swiss enjoy. Who is to say which is the better path? We all choose our own way, and hopefully, in the end, it will have been the right path for us.

  At last the glorious train ride was over. We had arrived in Tirano, Italy. It was both Ken’s and my first time in Italy and we sat for an hour or so in the pretty public square in Tirano waiting for the second part of the Bernina Express. Not everyone takes the second part which is a bus ride from Tirano to Lugano, Italy. I’m glad we did decide to take it as it was thoroughly enjoyable as well. The Italian Alps (at least what we saw) are gorgeous too. They are powerful and mighty, but much friendlier somehow than the Swiss ones. They are green and the sun beats down on them and there are lovely villages sprinkled all throughout. Reading my description, you probably will think that most people would prefer the more friendly Italian mountains, and I’m guessing most probably do. But not me. My heart sings the song of the mighty Alps of Switzerland,

   From Lugano (gorgeous gorgeous city) we caught another train into Milan prepatory to catching an early train into Venice which is our next big stop, I’m going to write another entry about our adventures in Milan simply because they don’t seem to go well with the glory of our trip on the Bernina Express. Watch for Part II.

  

NOTE: You may see some reflections in some of these photos. That is because many of them were taken out of the train window. I hope to remove the reflections when I get home and can access Photoshop. Actually, this gives me a chance to say that I am very unhappy with having to post my raw unedited photos. I shoot in a format that doesn't give the brilliance that the finished photo will have--the format allows for the photographer (rather than the camera) to decide how the photo should look, so it doesn't automatically make the colors vivid, etc. However, in order to do this blog I'm having to just go ahead and post the photos as they came out of the camera as I will have to wait until I am home and can edit them in Photoshop to look the way I want. So forgive the somewhat dull photos--they WILL be fixed later. Some of the really good ones were taken by Ken who is shooting in standard jpeg format and therefore the camera has "fixed" his photos.