LUCERNE

In our planning for the trip one of us wanted to visit Tuscany again (Robin) and the other (Ruth) wanted to visit Switzerland.  We had travelled through Switzerland once before on a holiday to Paris and Venice but although we were travelling by train we didn't stop for more than a short while in Zurich to change trains.

Leaving early we took a taxi to the station to catch the train to Florence.  The two car train was fairly full as we left but at every station more and more people got in and it was really crowded by the time we reached Florence.  Rather poor planning on Italian Railways part.  However, the next leg was much more successful.  The tickets had been bought months before when they are at their cheapest and we travelled in premium class for the same price as a regular ticket,  That meant we got newspapers we couldn't read but coffee we could drink.  The train was a Frecciarossa, a streamlined high speed train, the fastest on Italian Railways.  The train was very smooth and very comfortable and they run on a few limited lines built especially for their use alone.  There was just one stop at Bologna before we reached Milan where we were due to switch to Swiss Railways. 

The new line from Florence to Bologna is quite remarkable in that it duplicates the old line but is almost entirely in tunnels. The line is 78.5 km long and includes 73.8 km of tunnels, nine in all with just 3.6 km on embankment or in cutting and 1.1 km on viaduct in the open.  It travels at 200 km/hr on this part of the journey which takes 35 minutes.

The second leg to Milan is 200 km and takes one hour and two minutes at 300 km/hr for much of the trip.  The train is so smooth you have no idea that you are travelling that quickly and clearly no-one would ever dream of flying.

The stop in Milan was fairly short and we boarded the next train to Lucerne.  The is one of the classic railway journeys as it travels through the Swiss Alps through the St. Gotthard tunnel.  This tunnel was built in 1881-1891 and is 15 km in length. It will be replaced in 2016 by the new base tunnel and that is going to be fifty-seven km in length. As a result the climb up to the tunnel is much less arduous than that to the original tunnel and it will allow much heavier and longer trains to travel through it.  It promises to shorten the time between major stops by quite a large margin.  One other reason for this is that the original tunnel has a series of spiral loops into the mountain which limit the length and weight of the trains that use it.  One sad note is that these advantages will deny the traveller the pleasure of seeing the magnificent mountain and valley scenery that is is so evident on the old line.  We were happy to travel in 2013 not 2016.

Our train was direct to Lucerne and we reached the end of the journey in under five pleasurable hours.  We had booked a hotel within a short walking distance of the station and we were soon checked in and ready for the evening.  The hotel was very close to the river and the famous Chapel Bridge.

The Chapel Bridge in Lucerne

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Lucerne is surrounded by mountains and the most prominent is Pilatus, it forms a backdrop to the city.

Mount Pilatus

You can get to the top by funicular or gondola.  We had many other options available to us so that we didn't reach the top of Pilatus.

We had our evening meal and looked around the old town which was across the river. One thing was immediately apparent, Switzerland is very is expensive compared to everywhere else had been.

We had four days to explore the region.