Our next stop after Lyon was a small town called Brienz on the shores of Lake Brienz in Switzerland.

To get there we had a morning train to catch from Lyon central station. That first train would take us to Geneva, where we would change to another train to Bern, where we would then change again to a train to Interlaken, where we would then change one final time on to another train for the final short journey to Brienz. We had very small gaps to make each change so were hoping that there were no delays.

The route started out through the picturesque plains east of Lyon before winding its way into the Alps. After a couple of hours we arrived in Geneva, exactly on time. As we crossed to the next platform our train to Bern pulled into the station, again perfectly on time.

The ride to Bern was stunning. It began by climbing up quite quickly on the north side of Lake Geneva. The slopes were steep and covered in vineyards. Across the lake were the Alps with Mont Blanc visible above the rest. The scenery then changed as the train crossed over the hills and into wooded valleys with cute Swiss houses nestled amoung them. Everything seemed absolutely perfect. Unfortunately it was not easy to get a good photo out of the train window so you'll have to take my word for it.

Vines and villages covered the mountain side

Once again our trains arrived and departed Bern perfectly on time which made our transfers much less stressful than expected. The trip to Interlaken was another scenic one with great views as we travelled alongside Lake Thun.

Lake Thun, as the train approched Interlaken

There was no time to stop and look around in Interlaken as we were racing against the clock. The reason we had chosen to visit Brienz was to catch a ride on an old mountain steam train the set out from Brienz. It was just something that we came across when planning the trip and it looked so cool that we decided we had to do it. After arriving in Brienz and rushing to drop of our bags we managed to reach the station just in time to catch the second to last train up the mountain.

Our train. There is a third track with notches in it that the train uses to pull itself up the steep slopes on the way up the mountain.

All of the trains and transfers were worth it. The train had open air carriages and chuffed leisurely up through the edge of the town and then up into thick forest.

Climbing out of Brienz. This guy ended up in half my photos...

We soon moved out of the forest and into the higher elevations. At this time of year (June) it was lush and grassy but I expect that it would be a different story in winter.

In places the track had been carved out of cliffsides and tunnelled through the rock. Some of the drops were quite exciting.

It was a long, steep drop. The track we had travelled up is visible further down the mountain.

After a decently long trip we made it to the top of the mountain. In a little over an hour we had gained almost two kilometers in elevation. The temperature was much colder up there and there was even a small patch of snow that had hung around. The views were surreal.

It was absolutely unreal.

A train returns to the village

We must have spent at least half an hour just taking it all in, the sound of cow bells drifting on the wind from the valleys below.

We stayed up as long as we could before catching the last train back to the village. Brienz is beautiful, like almost everything we saw in Switzerland. All of the houses had flower boxes hanging from their windows. Even the train station (shelter really) was covered in foliage.

Brienz West station

There is not much else to Brienz so we wandered through the village before returning to our accommodation for the night. Rooms were hard to find around here so we ended up settling on a sort of inn a short distance out of town. It was during the week and there were not many people around. We had dinner in the restaurant connected to the inn which was nice but really expensive - The one downside of Switzerland would have to be the cost. We both ended up ordering the cheapest thing on the menu which was some sort of fried potato thing. It still cost over €20.

The next morning we had a quick swim in the lake which was nice but very cold. It is fed by glaciers after all.

This may be the most picturesque place that I've swam

Less than 20 hours after we arrived it was time to move on. We said goodbye to Brienz and hoped on the train again for a multi-part journey, this time in the direction of Zürich, and from there on to Germany.

Our stopover in Zürich gave us an hour or so to leave the station and have a look around which was nice. We still had our bags on us though so didn't get very far. It looks like a nice place from first glance.

Beside the river in Zürich

Next post will be Ravensburg, Germany