Valentines Train Ride

Part of our Valentine gift to each other was a train ride on the Bernina Express on Saturday. What a memorable gift!

We walked 15 min. to the bustling St. Moritz train station, with 7 platforms, and our train left the station at precisely 10:48 a.m.

We had a beautiful, sunny, calm day for this - perfect for what we had in mind!

We sat in first class on the train in a coach with panorama windows. First class meant more comfortable seats, more leg room, and fewer people in the coach. There was no food service.

From St. Moritz we stopped about every 5 or 10 minutes in small towns, sometimes dropping someone off, sometimes picking someone up.

From an altitude of 5824 ft. in St. Moritz, we went up to Bernina Pass, altitude 7392 ft., then we went down to Tirano, Italy, altitude 1408 ft.

At a town near St. Moritz called Pontresina, there was an extensive network of cross country ski trails, and many people were out skiing on them as our train passed by. I wonder if those cross country trails were used in the Olympics.

We passed two ski areas, Diavolezza with a huge tram, and across the street from it, Lagalb:

At times we could see our own train:

Near the top of the Bernina pass, there were two huge glaciers which were interesting to view:

Close up:

There was a frozen lake at the top, Lago Bianco, and just past the top, a restaurant at Alp Grum accessible only by train. This restaurant had a spectacular alpine view! We passed in front of the restaurant and then below it.

The train switchbacked its way down to the valley, where there was a pretty lake, Miralago:

We passed along a fascinating circular viaduct near Brusio:

Some of the train stations we stopped at were really quaint, such as the one at Cavaglia:

We arrived in Tirano, Italy at 1:00 p.m., a 2 hour train ride.

We walked around in Tirano searching for a good place for lunch. Most of the shops in town were closed, and we didn't find any restaurants that knocked our socks off. Overall we thought the town was depressing. We were glad to get back on the train and return to St. Moritz. We pulled back into the St. Moritz station at precisely 5:11 p.m.

We had a tremendous experience and are very glad that we chose to celebrate our Valentine's Day in this way.