4th Nov 2013, Monday, Sunny
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| My Breakfast |
Today is the day we are going to take the
Bernina Express Train to go into Switzerland from Italy. Tirano is the starting place where the train starts and the train will cross the Swiss Alps along the way. We had planned to take the 1st train out from Tirano, so we got up early and went down to the Swiss Train Station to check whether we need to get reservation for the train. The station was damn empty, only 1 or 2 people were inside the counter. As it was a Monday, so no reservation is required. So we went back to the hotel to have our breakfast, oooo!! The croissants were soo good, there was sugar on top and i took a few nutella so that can have them on the train. My friends took some fruits along. I finally had hot chocolate too, hahaaa, i used the espresso cup to fill the hot chocolate and it over-spilled cos the cup was too small. After breakfast, we went up to our room to collect our luggage and took turns to go down to the lobby. Hahaha....when we were paying for the hotel stay, i took out swiss franc currency to try to pay for the hotel (blur blur, i forgot we were still in Italy land....hahahaa). Then my friend looked at me shocked and reminded mi that we need euros, not swiss franc....hahahaha....really blur sotong....
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| Inner of Bernina Express Train |
After the "
乌龙" i made, we went to the Swiss Train Station for our scenic train journey for the day. We got on the regional train instead and we got the whole coach to ourselves, and we could open the windows (the bernina express train doesn't allow windows to be opened). At 8.50 am, the train started to leave, and we were off to Celerina (where we will be staying for the night and its the most awaiting hotel we were eager to stay in. Cos it was a like apartment, which was having 2-Storey in it). But first, we need to take the train until St. Moritz station, which was the last station of that line. Inside the coach, the train map was printed on the mini table around the seats and basically, we went running around the coach, from left to right and front to back. The train also went through towns and we were so close to the buildings (those with big lens camera needs to be extra careful, not to get hit by the objects when the train passes and the train is moving at high speed too). We also passed a lot of stations, the train doesn't stop for all stations, some, was stopped upon request. There was a stop button in each coach for people to press if they want the train to stop. Ohhh...Swiss trains timings are more accurate than Italy trains. They are always on the dot, come on time and leave on time, unlike Italy trains, which can delayed until crazy. Along the way, you can see snow mountains, lakes, towns, stations, and the road (for cars) are just beside the train. (See my photo album for the scenery photos during the ride).
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| One of the lakes saw along the journey |
We reached St. Moritz at around 11 pm plus, so we need to make our way to another platform as to catch another train to go to Celerina. We had to spend some time at the station as the train leaves at 12.02 pm. After the wait, the train finally left the station, so it was a few minutes ride to Celerina. So it didn't take us too long to reach. After we alighted from the train, we tried to find our way to the hotel. It was like a long way from the station to the hotel, luckily it wasn't hot there (in fact, it was cold....hahahaa). Finally, we reached the hotel, it was called All in One Hotel Inn Lodge. We went up to see our room after we were done with the check in. The lift was big enough to fit the 3 of us, plus our luggage...kekeke....and the lift buttons were all touch buttons. When we got in to our room, it was really big, really with 2 levels...1 sofa bed downstairs and 2 single on the upper level. There's even a stove beside the sofa bed. The toilet doesn't look small too, no bathtub though.After the exploration of the room, we headed out to Diavolezza for our snow mountain visit. This was the only mountain opened for this period. When we got to the lobby, the hotel staff stopped us to get us pay for our payment first as they said their system will be down tomorrow, so they won't be able to access it. So we made the payment and my friend checked with them on how to go Diavolezza. They told us there was another train station opposite the hotel street that we can take the train to get to the place directly. So we walked to that station instead of the one we alighted earlier, and got on the train. As this station is not a main station, so we had to actually flag the train to stop (as to catch the driver's attention). Hohoho...it was fun....
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| Smiley Face (drew by me) |
The train was empty too when we boarded and we were at the first coach, we could see the controls of the train and the 2 drivers were in control. After a few mins, we reached Diavolezza station, it started to snow....and we went in to buy our cable cars tickets. There was a guy in front of us, who kept asking questions to the staff (only see the staff had to make calls and then answer him), that caused to miss the cable car. In the end, we had to wait for the next car to come by the time we got our tickets ($30 swiss franc return trip per pax). Luckily, it wasn't a long wait (like about 5 to 10 mins). And so we went up to the cable car, it was those big type and we were going to the top of the mountain. Too bad, it was snowing outside and we wasn't able to see the outside view clearly. We played in the snow for some time when we reached, i tried to make snowballs and threw at my friends...hahahaa....It was soo cold, my ears were pain from the coldness (luckily i was wearing my friend's down jacket-her "rubbish bag"..hohoho...). After all the fun in the snow, we went in to see the souvenirs. As we were looking around, 2 of the staffs came over and asked us where we were from. One of them started to sing a song about Singapore when they heard about it. The guy just came to mi and gestured to take a photo..and so the other staff took a photo with mi....-_-".....they were so friendly...the one who took a photo with mi still joked by asking me $5 for the photo....i was like "i didn't ask for photo-taking".....After shopping, we had to take the cable car down as it was getting late.
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| Potato Chips |
After we came down from the mountain, we made our way out to the same platform to take the train to Pontresina. It wasn't a long ride too, we tried to find our dinner place as we were all hungry. We started walking in and it was a long way to the dinner place. By the time we walked in, the sky was getting dark. We stopped at a supermarket and grabbed snacks, drinks and even food for our dinner...hahahaa...There were coloured eggs too, which made us curious as why the eggs were coloured and for what purposes. We done with our shopping after spending half an hour or so inside...Then we made our way back again to the train station, as it was still early, we went in to a heater room to keep away from the cold and we had our potato chips first. It was nice, i like the potato chips (should buy some back). Then it was time for our train, so we made our way to the platform to go back to Celerina. Oooo..it was so dark when we alighted, there was not street lamps, we had to use torchlight as guide so that we can walk back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, we had our shower and i boiled some hot water for our milo and instant cup noodles (brought by my friend). It felt so good to have some hot food in such a cold weather....And so, my day ended for today...yeah!!
Hotel Stayed:
All in One Hotel Inn Lodge
Places Went:
Celerina
Diavolezza
Pontresina
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