2 years and 81 days since the start of the 1st lock down in March 2020.
I got up at 6.30 although I didn’t really need to get up until 7.00… snoring!
For our last pre0booked trip we had tickets on the 9.17am Bernina Express to Tirano in Italy. We already knew that the walk alongside the lake to the station takes a leisurely half an hour.
Another beautiful day and we arrived in good time to find our seats. Amazingly we were lucky and the two seats next to us (we had window seats across a table) remained free for the entire journey.
We were given complicated cartons of an unusual Swiss herb tea including mint and Edelweiss - different. Much better were the little tin train full of chocolates (I think as we’ve not opened them yet). The journey was very impressive with far views to snow capped mountains and huge glaciers. We stopped for a 15 minutes break to take photos at the highest point of the route - Alp Grüm. It was a great chance for selfies in front of the train - no worries about health and safety here as we walked on the tracks in front of the train!
Back on again and now we started the slow descent towards Tirano in Italy but there were still some amazing right turns with a double spiral during which we could see our train twisting ahead of us on the Brusio spiral viaduct. As we got closer to Tirano the number plates on the cars changed to ‘I’ for Italy and at one point the train was actually running alongside the roads and cars.
We pulled into Tirano on the dot of 11.32? and it was baking hot. We had a restaurant in mind that I’d researched before we left so we passed by the pizza places close to the station and walked into town and crossed the river. After a few turns we were in the old town and found the restaurant which was empty when we arrived but full by the time we left. We were seated outside under umbrellas near a fountain and it was lovely. I can honestly say it was one of the best Italian meals I have ever had at a restaurant. I started with steak tartare with mozzarella foam and what crisps. Main course was seafood spaghetti with prawns and although initially I though it was not a particularly generous size portion, the stock that the spaghetti had been cooked in was so rich as it was proper fish stock that I could not have eaten any more. It was delicious. We shared a dessert of coconut and lime crème brûlée with a raspberry ice cream and chocolate soil - wow. By the time we came to leave the outside restaurant was full. We wondered some of the old town but it was very hot - so hot that we managed another sorbet at ‘Lollipop’, a gelateria that I had also found before we had left the U.K.
For our return journey I bought tickets on a standard train but to be honest this was almost better as although the seats were a little smaller and there are no gifts of chocolate, we could open the windows right up and hang out to get photos with no reflections. It was just a good a journey on the way back. We got back at exactly 18.12 and slowly walked back around the lake and stopped briefly at the reliable and massive Co-op for snacks for dinner. It was an even slower wall up the hill to our apartme nt.
Another great day and the last of my prebooked trips. The evening we spent packing but it did it take too long and listening to the cows bells in the field nearby that we had seen yesterday.
