Chur & The Alps, Switzerland

Posted on March 27, 2024  •  18 minutes  • 3685 words

When we found out we were going to meet friends in Portugal and I looked up flights from Geneva, I was a bit dismayed. We had 5 days from when we were planning to leave Lausanne to when we wanted to be in Lisbon, so I started to look at other flight options. Milan was about a quarter of the price so I then looked if it was worth it to travel there. Traveling just there to fly, wouldn’t have been worth it, in my opinion. But then I figured out we could take the Bernina Express, a train that goes over the Alps that I had wanted to take, and then the pieces fell into place. I explained it to Dan that we were actually saving money…it cost less for the train tickets, lodging and Milan flights than just the flights from Geneva. Dan tries to explain that this isn’t actually saving money, but whatever.

The Bernina Express starts (or ends, depending how you look at it) in Chur. It looked like a fine place to check out and I didn’t want an extra stop, so that was where we were heading. Our first train was to Zurich and it was pretty easy. We read and looked out the window most of the time and before we knew it, we were in Zurich. I don’t know how to exactly explain what a German train station feels like, but this one had that vibe.

We had about 12 minutes to catch our next train, which was fine. Looking back, we should have just taken one a bit later and stopped for a proper lunch. I had lots of food, but we could tell the kids really needed more substance. But in the moment, you think…get on the train! The ride was beautiful, even though we were on the wrong side for most of the views. I attempted and failed with photos anyways.

After food, this is pretty much how we all felt. No energy and all of a sudden, just ready to be there…even though it was a 50 minute train ride. (The one to Zurich was almost 3)

We arrived, I lead us out the wrong station exit, walked back and then walked the actual 2 minutes to our Airbnb. It was raining and we were a little early for check in, but we were able to leave our stuff. We needed food but weren’t jiving well in finding one. It was raining, places were full or way too fancy. There was a food truck selling sausages which Dan thought would be a good ’tide us over’, but after he ordered he found out it was cash only. He then ran to get money as the kids and I stood under an eave. We then scarfed them down standing as it was still raining. Over ruling Dan on this one, I found a place that served Italian and a review said ’the kids play area was great’. Sold!

It was just what we needed. Pizza and a play place, especially as Dan was really close to taking us all to McDonald’s. They got out some energy and ate really well. We stayed for a bit, but wanted to get our stuff into our room. We got our keys and piled into our room that was by no means for 5 people. Maybe 4, but NOT 5. One bed was a trundle and had to be stored for anyone to even walk around. We have probably made smaller work, but it was a bit of a bummer. I 100% picked this place because it was 2 minutes from the station (adult walking) and the only other option (that was not a hotel where we would have had 2 separate rooms) was 25 minutes away and basically out of town…also would have required 2 rooms…meaning no ability for Dan and I to hang out at night. The hardest part of the room, actually, was zero storage space, just one coat rack. It did have a patio that would have been lovely if it didn’t rain every day we were there. Kids loved it though.

Dan and Max then went to the grocery store and Sam, Ben and I read. Dan came back with loads of stuff and lettuce with the roots still intact. :)

He then ran out again to get beer, wine and ice cream as he had ran out of bags to carry it all back on the first trip…and it was getting too heavy. Dinner was easy, pasta with pesto and a giant quinoa/lettuce/veggie salad. The place had no big broom, so we voted Max to be the one to sweep after dinner.

Dan had picked out what we assumed was a local delicacy…Nut Tart. It was so dense, but a huge hit. Served slightly warm with ice cream on top made it even more amazing!

The next day had a low chance of rain, but either way, we knew we had to get out. Unfortunately, the only common/hang out space was the kitchen and dining area, so we really needed to plan outings…we just couldn’t hang out in the place. We looked up some hikes, but ended up relying on Dan’s navigating to find us a good one. We started out of town and walking to the river.

Not really a flower, but leaves in flower formation? I just thought it was really cool looking and they were everywhere.

We arrived to the river, which surprisingly was the Danube!

A trusty little suspension bridge took us across.

And the engineer in me, took the opportunity to talk about tension, bolts, etc. My kids do at least humor me.

We walked along the water for a bit and then through a very small town before heading up the mountain a bit.

The guardrails in this town were done in a way I have never seen before. Instead of attaching the rails/beams to the posts, they were held in with a wedge piece above. I assume this is so they can replace them more easily. There were 2 nails from the wedge to the rails/beams though.

As Dan looked at the map a bit more, he figured out we could walk by a castle. Then he realized we could walk past 3! We have been very spoiled with amazing castles so far on this trip from Montenegro to Scotland to Bulgaria, so I tried to give a heads up that this was not going to be the same grandeur. First one was pretty cool perched up o a hill, looking down upon us.

As we continued on, we found a, what I assumed to be a non-potable, water fountain. Or maybe it was a spring out the side of the mountain. Either way, wasn’t going to try it out. I later found out Ben did! No issued, luckily.

The second castle was under renovation and had a port-a-potty fit for royalty that we got a kick out of.

We couldn’t go in this one either, but we did have great views to the valley below.

It started to mist/rain as we were close to the third castle and we were ready for lunch. What was left of this castle was more or less a stone wall in front of a cave/giant overhang.

Kids bummed there wasn’t a huge castle, but parents thrilled to have a dry place to eat lunch. I, once again, made us yummy sandwiches.

I know the kids wanted to see a cool castle, but it was kind of cool being in the ruins all alone, looking out upon the land once owned by the person who would have been sitting in the same spot. With not much care, it’s amazing really any of it was still standing.

We started out walk back and pretty much flew down the mountain. The rain stopped, but it was possible it would come again. It had a bit of a Scottish feel to it…so much moisture allowing things to grow everywhere.

Great foggy views as we neared the bottom.

We popped into a small town (100 houses maybe). Cool looking fire hydrants…kind of looks like a giant water fountain that would blast you if you tried to drink from it.

Found some old walls with cool wooden doors where we could see into a locked courtyard.

Walked along it to make it back down to the river. I find it astounding how much we just stumble upon. We had zero expectations for this hike; we just wanted to be in nature, yet we found so much! It does sometimes make me wonder how much we didn’t stumble upon though. :)

We made it to the river and even though Dan and I were cold, we found a park that we weren’t going to convince kids to not play at. Interesting sign…helmets NOT allowed?

The parks in this country do the climbing part of parks SO well!

Now that Dan and I were freezing, we dragged the kids from the park for last bit of the walk home. Probably 30 minutes still, so we tried to pick up the pace as we walked along the river…partially to warm up.

As we neared Chur, we saw a cool mural on a building.

Turns out the fastest way back was through a chicken farm. Chickens everywhere (in fenced areas) AND a egg vending machine that we had to try out!

We made it home, let the kids watch a show and the parents relaxed. Dinner in and early bed for the kids. We put them down and joined a family from Australia in the dining room while they had dinner and we had dessert. Always nice to chat with other travelers.

To our surprise, the next day was Good Friday and EVERYTHING was closed! There went out plans of going back to the cafe with the kids play area so Dan and I could work and the kids could play. I had to get work done, so Dan took the kids out for a bit and found the coolest park! Zip line, massive climbing structures, sand area, trees and more. They loved it so much that I took them back after lunch while Dan got work done. I think we were there for over 4hrs.

With no restaurants open, we were able to get some food from a kiosk in the train station plus some food we had for dinner. Finished up the nut tart for dessert. Max giving it his thumbs up approval.

Kids in bed and Dan and I chatted with a family de Costa Rica while the kids slept.

In the morning we packed up the rest of our stuff, ate breakfast and despite feeling we had plenty of time, felt a bit rushed at the end. Sometimes when you have too much time, you don’t think about the time and then the departure time sneaks up on you. We made it with plenty of time, but the kids had Swiss Franks they wanted to spend…and I told them they had to. Really hard to exchange coins from a different currency. I also had about 30 left, so we stocked up at the kiosk in the train station. All boarded on the Bernina Express!

I think I may have been the most excited. This ride, after all, was sort of the reason we did this 5 day part of the trip. We had full height windows that our faces were plastered against for the first part of the trip.

I had told the kids we crossed 55 bridges and through 100+ tunnels. We attempted to count for a bit, but sometimes you couldn’t even tell if you went over a bridge. And sometimes you could!

Mountains and streams everywhere.

And adorable towns.

For the first hour we pretty much stared out the window non-stop. It was still beautiful, but I knew the kids couldn’t just do that for the whole time. Sam was the first to get out his book and started drawing the mountains..

Climbing more and more with larger and larger mountains…and snow.

The train was long enough that you could see the front on a big curve.

A bit hard to see, but the viaduct that we just crossed over.

A couple hours in and we busted out all our snack food!

Including the ‘original’ goldfish…according to the bag.

Still a bit from the top, but now there was snow everywhere. We could see trail below with cross country skiers out.

Finally nearing the top and the snow was no joke! It was close to the height of the train where it had been plowed off the tracks.

As we hit the top of the pass, we were able to get out for a few minutes. It felt so good to get some fresh air and stare up at the Alps. Quick photos and back on. The conductor was very adamant that the train would leave right on time and would leave you behind.

The down had a much larger gradient and we felt like we were flying. It felt good as the kids had hit their limit and I felt like I got the trip I wanted. Despite the fact that it was beautiful, really the pictures do no justice, it was amazing to see the route and to know it was built so long ago. An amazing engineering feat crossing so high with bridge after bridge. Old bridges, new bridges. As we were heading down, the crew passed out tea boxes. Max and I loved it! Slightly sweet, but not too much and with mint.\

And then just a short bit later, they passed out tin trains with chocolate inside. Clearly a huge hit.

Started to flatten out a bit after our big descend, yet still in Switzerland. I had assumed the boarder was the peak of the Alps, but I was wrong…most of the Alps in this area are in Switzerland.

One of my favorite parts was the way the train made a 90 degree turn. Instead of a hard turn (that a train couldn’t do) it did a 270 degree arc the other way, crossing under itself. So simple, yet so clever.

Just outside of Torino, we saw the perfect building for a haunted story. You could see Ben start to plan how to incorporate this into his Ghost Team’s Adventure series.

I had booked our ticket to Milan for the train that gave us a 2hr and 12 minute layover, not 12 minutes as we weren’t sure about the mutuality of the train. We arrived with time and even though 30 minutes before I was able to change out tickets online, 8 minutes before I couldn’t. I was pretty annoyed at myself that I didn’t do it when I could and now we were going to have 2hrs to kill and were going to get in to Milan late. It ended up being a HUGE blessing in disguise as we were able to have a nice lunch with food that we really needed. We even sat outside and the kids could run around a bit in the plaza.

After lunch, and still an hour to go, I decided to take the kids to a playground so they could get out energy before another 3+ hours on trains. We sat Dan in the waiting area with all our stuff and walked 6 blocks to a park

It felt rushed, but I didn’t want to stress Dan our by showing up with minutes to spare. Yes, he did send me texts asking about ETA when we were still playing. Loaded on the train; Ben and Max went right to reading, while Sam and I played ‘who can find a river first’. Sort of a joke as they were everywhere coming down from the mountains.

Sam eventually tired and joined in on the reading. Ben still engrossed in his FunJungle Series.

When you can’t put your feet on the seat, but you really want to put your feet up.

We paralleled the coast of Lake Como for a bit and then hit some stop that must have been VERY popular as the train went from being about 20% full to 110% full. Coming into Milan central we were about 5 minutes late and had a 12 minute transfer time for the train to the airport. With SO many people, we had to push our way into the aisle, as no one was wanting to wait a whole 4 seconds for kids to get in an walk a little slower. It was not easy with the kids, luggage and the bike box, but e did it. Our train to the airport was about 6 platforms over by number, but it was a walk…or speed walk actually. Dan went ahead with Ben and Sam running with him and Max and I plowed through with 2 suitcases and Max holding onto the side of the handle of one for dear life. Dan was standing at the door, unsure to board or not, not knowing if we’d make it. We made eye contact and I telepathically yelled to get on! Loaded onto another crowded train where we were able to find a couple free single seats.

Not a short ride, maybe 50 minutes total, but Dan saw the airport tower and we jumped off at the next stop. We sort of got off at the wrong terminal, but it worked out fine. A little extra walking, but then found carts. I wanted to just get a taxi to our hotel, that was all of 4 minutes away, instead of waiting for the shuttle, but the airport has a fixed fee for taxis and it would have been 50 euros and I couldn’t do it. Luckily, the shuttle came about 15 minutes after we got there, even there was doubt in my mind it would come at all. Kids were crazy, running around, grabbing each other and I had no energy to stop them.

Shuttle did indeed come and we were at our hotel minutes later. I did check-in while Dan went with the kids to the restaurant to order dinner. It was 7:30pm at this point and I was really appreciating that we had a real lunch. I somehow dragged, carried and pushed all our luggage into the elevator and up to our rooms, not wanting to disturb the ordering at dinner. As I was checking it, thanks to a sign, I realized it was day light savings that night/morning. I felt a bit cheated as now that we live in Arizona, we don’t have to deal with this absurdity. Had I not seen that sign, we may have never known it even happened, thanks to our phones doing it automatically.

It gipped the kids a bit of sleep they needed, but it was fine. In the morning we had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. I ate only fruit as I was clearly craving it.

Once everyone got settled with food, I went to check out and to get us reserved for the shuttle to the airport. Turns out the 8:30am, 9am, 9:30am & 10am (that would have been cutting it close) were full! I was able to get 3 spots on the 9:30am. We were again caught a bit off guard with a holiday (it was Easter) and the hotel couldn’t even guarantee that a taxi would come. I could see the stress in Dan’s face as I told him what I had learned. We decided to rush and be ready for Dan and Max to get on the 9am, assuming someone might not show up. It worked! We all randevued at the airport after Ben, Sam and I arrived on the 9:30am.

We were there just before 2hrs before out flight was to leave. We wanted some extra time as Dan’s bike box was technically 2cm too large and we didn’t know if we’d have to reshape the top…and our carryon suitcase was 2kg over weight and we sort of had an extra one. Well, no one cared and they even offered to check any carry-ons we had since the flight was full. I did some quick stuffing of winter coats in bag to check and we went to drop off the suitcase at the weirdly shaped baggage drop off. Through security in a flash, didn’t have to pull anything out and we could even have liquids!).

We had time, so I took the kids for a walk. Max’s lemur found his long lost twin…just a bit more fluffy.

Not sure about this one.

No matter how many times we tell them to stay off the ground in an airport, they end up there. I had given up with trying to get them to listen…it was a bit of a struggle. Shockingly they aren’t on top of each other.

Dan left us to get a coffee and to have 5 minutes of silence. Kids did spot him and kept walking over to tell him ‘important’ things.

As a family of 5, we usually have 5 seats across with an unlucky person in the window. However, on this flight it was empty so less fighting over who got the window. Dan had downloaded some ‘How It’s Made’ episodes. We a splitter, so we rotated through reading with Mom and then watching with a brother. Fast flight, but SO bumpy.

We landed and kids took off like bats out of hell when they had space. Ben was ‘riding’ the horses while holding onto the other two’s backpacks/reigns.

The kids wanted to push each other on the carts, but I put a quick stop to that. They argued it was allowed as the drawing on the cart showed a kit on top of luggage with an X through it, but not one of a kid sitting directly on the cart. Ugh. Finally got out luggage, walked out into what felt like the tropics after months of cold winters and taxi to our place.