together-gather: Europe 2011: St. Moritz, Switzerland

June 3rd, 2011
Lugano (CH) - Tirano (IT) - St. Moritz (CH)

We arrived in Lugano at 8:10am. Quite train station, not so many people. It was still early, and our next ride, Bernina Express bus would only depart at 10am. We had our light breakfast, croissants and hot chocolate at the train station.

at Lugano train station

Lugano town seems calm and quite, not so much of activities. It was friday, wondered where were those people?

Our breakfast

After a while, few people started gathering at the parking lot. All of us were to board the Bernina Express. As expected, the bus arrived on time. It was a panoramic bus, with the large windows for easy viewing :)

Our ride to Tirano

The road in Lugano town were so small (the bus route). Only one way vehicles can pass at one time. Hence the frequent honks used. The houses were too near to the road. If the bus window can be opened, I could just touch the building wall along the road ;)

The scenery throughout the bus ride was breathtaking! Awesome views! We passed by Lake Lugano, Switzerland and Lake Como, Italy.

Lake Como

The 3 hours bus ride ended at a small town called Tirano. Tirano is located at the border between Italy and Switzerland. From Tirano, we boarded the Bernina Express train. It has panoramic coaches, and popular with tourists. The train connecting Tirano and St. Moritz, our final destination on that day.

The Bernina train ride was the highlight of our Europe trip. The journey crossed the Swiss Alps from south to north. For us, it was once in a life time experience :)

view from the train on top of the Alps

"Ospizio Bernina is a station on the Bernina Railway line between St. Moritz inSwitzerland and Tirano in Italy. Hourly services operate on this line.
It is the highest station on the Bernina Railway and also on the entire Rhaetian Railwaynetwork. Nearby is the Bernina Pass." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospizio_Bernina_(Rhaetian_Railway_station)

"The Bernina Pass (el. 2328 m.) (Italian: Passo del Bernina) is a high mountain pass in the Bernina Range of the Alps, in thecanton of Graubünden (Grisons) in eastern Switzerland. It connects the famous resort town of St. Moritz in the Engadin valley with the Italian-speaking Val Poschiavo, which ends in the Italian town of Tirano in Valtellina. The pass lies a few kilometres east of Piz Bernina. A lower pass is located west of the Bernina Pass, at 2,253 metres.

The Bernina Pass is crossed by road and rail, with a popular tourist train, the Bernina Express operating year-round betweenChur and Tirano. The train crosses the lowest pass at 2,253 metres (at Ospizio Bernina) - it is the highest adhesion railwayroute in Europe." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernina_Pass

After about 2 hours journey, we arrived in St. Moritz. We checked in at Bellaval hotel, which was situated just next to the train station. It was summer, daylight was longer than night but the shops were closed early. We didn't get the chance to shop (selamat duit!), just literally window shopping! We roamed around the small town. Our famous malaysian shoemaker, Dato' Jimmy Choo was going to open an outlet in St. Moritz.