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)
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.
Lake St. Moritz
We spent one night in this beautiful resort town.
The next morning, we continued our journey, another city awaited to welcome us. ZURICH!!!