David’s big train adventure.

Here’s a little early morning blog for you. As promised it’s the story of the train trips to and from St. Moritz. We will pick up from Catriona and I arriving in Fribourg

After Catriona and I met up with Lorna and Cath we hopped on the train to Zurich. This train was extremely uneventful. At Zurich we had less than ten minutes to catch a train to Chur, which was going to be tricky. Zurich train station is huge and we were getting there at five in the evening when everyone is trying to get home or wherever. We found the train and we somehow met Marius as well.
The Chur train was pretty busy so we had to stand for the first half hour or so. Fortunately we had space to ourselves, so Catriona was able to sit on the floor. At the first stop we got seats and got off the train about forty-five minutes later.
The next train was a lovely two hours long and climbed over 1000 meters in that time. The scenery was amazing. Unfortunately by the time we got to St. Moritz it was dark, so we couldn’t see all the scenery. When we arrived at St. Moritz we thought we were a bag down and that we had lost the bag Catriona brought with her. We had a panic that it was two hours away in Chur, but I found the bag because I’m amazing.

Before I tell the story of the journey home I must say that on the way my bag was full to bursting point. Rather apt, as my bag was riddled with holes. Note the word ‘was’.

The journey back started in Bever and we headed to Samedan and then back on the train to Chur. This train was mobbed. We all managed to get seats, but not together. I was sitting across the aisle from Lorna and Catriona, while Cath and M&M where further back. Catriona managed a little snooze though. There was an announcement on this train that an extra, direct train to Zurich was being put on from Chur. We decided that this was the train for us because it was going to be faster.
This is the station where my bag completely ripped. I was having to carry it upside own and it was a struggle to get everything to stay in.
Since this train was direct everyone wanting to go to Zurich had the same idea as us. So as a result this train was mobbed; worse than the previous one. Again, we didn’t get seats together. I was across the aisle from M&M sitting next to three elderly Swiss-Germans. One kindly man, noticing my bag troubles, got a length of string out his backpack and did a temporary fix on it by tying my bag together. Again, for the second weekend in a row a complete stranger did me a huge favour so props to him.
It was at Zurich that we said goodbye to Marius and headed for the train to Fribourg. Guess what? This train was mobbed; worse than the previous two trains combined. It was a double-decker train and I ended up sitting on the stairs with Markus and Cath while Lorna played with Catriona in the family car. In Berne we said goodbye Markus and damn near all the other passengers got off here too, so Cath and I found a peaceful seat and reflected on the weekend for the last twenty minutes of the journey.

We were picked up by Cath’s mother and taken to Thora (Lorna’s car; named after the late Thora Hird) and headed straight back home. Boy, was a glad to get back and head off to bed.

The journey went fine in that we got all the trains that we wanted to get, but it was made a nightmare because all the trains we wanted to get were so damn busy.

The End.

Epilogue: The bag was unceremoniously binned.