Bernina

Fabulous.  I haven’t yet found out how to post pictures to the blog from the iPad, but really you’d be better to look it up on YouTube.  We took the Bernina Express to Tirano and back today.  Each leg is just over four hours, so it makes for a long day.  Not so long as for Pam and Geoff, who very sportingly joined us this morning at Chur, having travelled from Bern, and that before there was a tram to get them to the station.  As I write, they should be just about to board a tram from the main station, about sixteen hours after they left it.  So, a long day, and spent in fine company.

The line is extraordinary.  Built over 100 years ago, it crosses some of the craggiest terrain you’ll find in Europe, and includes some landmark architecture, notably the Landwasser viaduct and the 5.8km Albula tunnel, dug with picks and shovels.  To gain and lose height without resorting to rack and pinion, there are numerous hairpin bends, spiral tunnels and an over-ground spiral at Brusio.  The 7% gradients are about as steep as adhesion will permit, and that’s why the architecture is so daring.  I wonder if the founding fathers ever paused during the building work to think whether it might have paid to go for rack and pinion and a simpler route, but I guess labour was cheap and expendable.

On the way out, the Albula valley was wreathed in cloud, so after Filisur we didn’t see much.  As soon as we emerged from the Albula tunnel, though, there was a general ‘Aah!’ from the carriage as we emerged into brilliant sunshine and practically cloudless skies.  We paused for a quarter of an hour at Alp Grüm to marvel at the scenery -  a distant glacier feeding countless waterfalls that would eventually feed into the Adriatic.  (I was relieved to find that I coped better with the 2000m+ altitude better than in the past.)

We had lunch in Tirano, the little Italian town at the end of the Bernina line, where the restaurant of the same name, used to serving people well within the interval between arrival and departure of the Bernina Express, greeted us warmly and fed us well enough.  Returning on the same day allowed us to watch out for things we’d admired on the way out, and gave us the chance to enjoy the upper Albula valley after the cloud had burned off.

It has been a comfort to have cooler weather today. There was a fair bit of rain last night, but not enough to relieve the muggy feel.  The hotel lacks air conditioning, and is next to a major road out of town, and our room is one floor above a McDonald’s drive-through, so the late evenings are plagued with the rumble of cars ticking over immediately below.  The early evenings are plagued by the jeunesse dorée of Chur, zooming around in their loud cars and squadrons of mopeds.  A room higher up on the back of the hotel might be better, but if we are to return to the region, it’ll be a complete re-think.  Self-catering would be a better idea too, given the eye-watering cost of eating out, and the fact that said eyes tend to be (even) bigger than our bellies.

I just learn that Pam and Geoff are safely home and rehydrated, planning an early night.  As are we.