We got up around 06:00 and had breakfast and packed our bags for a long day of trains. Today we planned to see parts of Switzerland that we haven’t seen yet. We were also going to make our way to Liechtenstein, but we had to catch a bus at 07:06 too time it all correctly.
We arrived in Spiez by 07:18 and had a 20 minute wait to catch our train. Our train left Spiez 4 minutes late which left a tight connection for the next train. Luckily, we made up time in the tunnel and we arrived in Visp only a minute late. It was plenty of time to make our connection. Our next train left Visp at 08:08.
We arrived in Andermatt at 10:20. It was a beautiful train ride through the mountains. The views were incredible and the train was also empty!
We had 10 minutes to catch our connection in Andermatt. Sandra, myself, and the kids got on the train to find seats. The 2nd class cars were all reserved so the lady checking tickets told us we could go to 1st class. We found our seats and waited for Terris and Tavis who went to buy drinks and snacks. When they came, they were turned away and we were told we were too large a group and we had to move to the bike car. It didn’t have seats or windows. We walked up another car and found seats that weren’t together but at least we could see out the window at the view. After leaving, the attendant told us the party of 52 who reserved the cars didn’t show up, so we went up and got the entire car to ourselves. It all worked out. We got some great photos through the canyon!
At 11:35, we arrived in Disentis and switched trains again. The train wasn’t very full and we easily found seats. After we started moving, we enjoyed our packed lunch of Flippin Floppin sandwiches.
We arrived in Chur and ran to catch our connection again because our next train was already waiting for us. We had 3 minutes to spare. This time we had air conditioned seats upstairs. The windows didn’t open though so we weren’t able to get many good photos. Chur is quite a large city. There are several tall building and it has more of a modern feel.
We had a quick ride to Sargons where we caught bus 12E to Liechtenstein. We crossed the river and entered another country, the last one we will visit on our month long adventure. We arrived in Liechtenstein just after 14:00. We saw the castle, then discovered it is closed for renovations. Of course! We walked through the streets and looked in some stores. We had ice cream, then walked to a souvenir/information building. We got a “Princiest” photo taken (they had a royal chair and I believe it has to do with he name of the district), then while Addison was purchasing a coat of arms pin, Ari knocked all the key chains off a rack. We helped sort and put them back but had to run to catch the 14:57 bus back to Switzerland. We left an impression!
The bus took us back to Sargans where we caught a train to Zurich. The air conditioner was broken and the only care with seats left was extremely warm! We split up and half of us found seats in an air conditioned car upstairs while the rest of us sat downstairs where it wasn’t too hot. We arrived in Zurich at 16:23 with 10 minutes to catch our train to Bern. Our train arrived a few minutes late, giving us 3 minutes to get from platform 5 to 3. We ran and just caught our train to Spiez. It was quite crowded but we managed to find 7 seats quite close together and the car wasn’t unbearably hot. When got to Spiez, Terris, Ari, and Addison jumped on teh bus to go home while the rest of us stopped at the store to buy food for dinner. We caught the next bus 30 minutes later.
We had a busy day, but it was incredible! The views through the pass were indescribable. Switzerland is a beautiful country! We are going to have to come back again.