Big cross country train ride, Germany to Switzerland via France and Luxembourg

Our route so far
  • Today we are taking 7 trains, all carefully planned …. Isn’t the internet wonderful !
    • Train 1 – Traben-Trarbach to Bullay on the railcar
    • Train 2 – Bullay to Luxembourg.  This train splits at Trier where the train route divides and we had to jump out of the front train and jump into the back train, another new experience.  We had one hour in Luxembourg where we went for a short walk, had a coffee and cake and bought rolls for lunch on the train later. 

This is all you get from Luxembourg – was very tasty.  We found the European take-away rolls and pastries really good, tasty and fresh

  • And more
    • Train 3 – TGV (French fast train) Luxembourg to Mulhouse (In France).  We had backwards facing seats which was not fun, a bit more cramped than regional trains and of course a pillar where the view should be.  We travelled south though countryside which slowly changed, with culture and temperature we think. 
    • Train 4 – Mulhouse to Basel (In Switzerland), a comfy regional train.  We spent an hour in Basel, changed some money, activated our Swiss rail pass, looked at the shops and had an expensive coffee/choc and snack. 
    • Train 5 – Basel to Bern, a full local train.   Our first experience of long, LONG rail tunnels (scary for me)
    • Train 6 – Bern to Visp, pleasant local train but also with some terribly long tunnels.
    • Train 7 – Visp to Zermatt.  Our first rack-rail.  Quite a ride, some steep patches, generally very windy.  Small tunnels and interesting views.  The area is quite populated.
A bit hard to get a view from a high speed train
this is what France looks like from a high speed train window !

We arrived in Zermatt at dusk and caught a ‘taxi’ up the hill to our hostel. In winter the glam-crowds come to Zermatt to ski and party, it is an interesting place.

Next – Zermatt, Switzerland

or

Next – Introduction to Switzerland

Back to Europe, this is the end of Germany