Day 60 - Into the Mountains

I left Milan this morning (after one final geocache - the challenge to find 1000 on this adventure is ON!) and had a lovely train journey to Tirano. Whilst not part of the Bernina Express route, that part of the journey goes through the mountains and lakes of northern Italy (No, not literally through the lakes - you know what I mean pedants), giving some lovely views.

I then had just over half an hour in Tirano to get a sandwich and find a geocache. I perhaps had not anticipated finding the train platform to be a mission in its own right, but it was. Luckily it was a successful one… and did increase my step count.

For those who have not watched any of Michael Portillo’s copious train adventures, the Bernina Express route runs between Tirano in northern Italy and Chur in Switzerland and is a UNESCO world heritage route on account of its stunning views. There are 196 bridges and 55 tunnels apparently!

I am going to be following this route over the next few days. It is only about four hours in total, but I am stopping at various places on the route. Today I traveled from Tirano to Poschiavo, a lovely Swiss town.

Despite only being on the train for about 30 minutes, it was already easy to see why it is so famous. We crossed the Bristol spiral viaduct, which was really cool but I was not the right side of the train to get a good photo, and came past Lago Poschiavo.

I got off the train at Poschiavo, as I have booked into a lovely chalet for the night - literally about 20 metres from the station!

After checking in, I went for a walk around the town, using Adventure Labs to guide me. There are some beautiful buildings here, all with the stunning mountain backdrop.

I did also discover a rather odd display of human skulls, that were apparently dug up about a century ago and are now displayed at the Ossario Sant’Anna. I don’t entirely understand why.

I did seem oddly interested in them though as I searched for a geocache nearby. Sadly I failed to find both that one and another close by, meaning I am yet to get off the mark for physical finds in Switzerland.

I did, however, make a friend as I searched. I think I disturbed his nap…

After my failed attempts at caches, I returned to my chalet where I had dinner in the restaurant. I was hoping for fondue, but sadly it was not to be, but I got more than my fill of cheese with a Quattro Fromagi pizza instead.

Tomorrow I go over the highest part of the Bernina Pass - there should be some good photos in tomorrow’s blog.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - It Starts……..

Image
Having been thinking and talking about this adventure for months, today rather crept up on me. As well being a little hurried in actually packing a rucksack for up to three months of travel (I had been organised with packing lists, just not the actually putting things in a bag bit), I was also a bit last minute in tying up loose ends at home, mainly the boring things, like sorting out my car tax that I realised expired whilst I am away. It was therefore also a bit of a late night doing the really important things, like finishing the hardback book I had no intention of travelling with, and downloading some shows to watch onto my Chromebook. But, after a bit of last minute re-packing (Do I really need that extra T-shirt? Probably not. Where did I put that charging cable?), my rucksack was ready to go, and I had sorted everything I needed to in my flat. I am pleased to report that I have not left anything in the fridge that is likely to be gross on my return. Then off through the rain to ...
Read more

Day 2 - Touristing it up in Brussels

Image
The Eurostar journey was pretty uneventful yesterday. Despite looking out of the window, I did not see any fish 🐠 as I crossed the Channel, and I made sure I was on the look-out for small boat crossings too.....  It was early evening when I arrived in Brussels. The metro system took me a few minutes (and one journey in the wrong direction) to figure out, but Google Maps did its thing and got me to my hotel safely. The hotel is near the Royal Galleries, close to the Grand Place, and it is pretty busy around as apparently this is a big weekend with Belgian National Day tomorrow.  An evening quest for food (success) was followed by a walk through said Royal Galleries and then a test of my photography skills at the Grand Place. It is, as the name suggests, pretty Grand. Pleasingly for me, there were lots of Geocaching AdLabs around for me to use to learn some history. My visit here was then followed up with some good wandering around, with the highlight undoubtedly the Brussels D...
Read more

Day 3 - Happy Belgian National Day!

Image
Yesterday evening was fairly quiet - a stroll to see Jeanneke Pis, all in the name of gender equality.... and then an ice-cream and soaking up some of the holiday vibes.  Today, in case you did not know, is Belgium's national day. I had read a bit about some celebration events, some of which I am hoping to see this evening, but I did not know that as I walked to find some breakfast this morning, within 100m of my hotel I would stumble upon the whole Belgian royal family arriving for the Te Deum mass at the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral. Having previously sat opposite the Swedish royal family at a concert in Stockholm when visiting with Lizzy, I am starting to appreciate European royal families turning out for my visits.... Apparently it was King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and their four children (Elisabeth, Eleonore, Gabriel and Emmanuel) who were there. You can read all about their outfits on the Daily Fail Online, if that's your thing.  Anyway, I enjoyed the experience, ...
Read more