After our early start in Venice we boarded our first of 3 trains for the day and set off for Lucerne. I love the fast trains in Europe and have been trying to get a photo of the speed read out. Unfortunately, although I have seen speeds higher than 250 kph I have only managed to get one photo below 200 kph.
Our first leg had us on the train to Milan. When Megan and I first looked at the tickets we both managed to convince ourselves that we would have a significant layover in Milan – so much so that we even investigated places to store our bags so that we could head into town to explore. It always pays to check your travel details twice, three times, four times … as on a subsequent read we could find no reference to a massive delay.
There was to be a short delay though, so imagine our surprise when we got off the train to find a train right next to us that was about to depart for Arth Goldau, our next stop. A quick chat with the platform controller and we boarded easily and were on our way again.
This part of the journey caused great excitement as we climbed into Switzerland. We initially came across amazing vistas including mountains, streams, farmland and lakes. As if this wasn’t enough, before long we entered a magical, winter wonderland. Below us was postcard scenery with snowy fields, isolated houses with smoke rising from the chimney and people on bikes or in cars going about their day. Unfortunately we did not get any decent photos as the windows of the train were quite dirty and went opaque whenever the sun hit them.
Arriving in Arth Goldau we had another easy changeover to our next train (a local domestic route) for the final leg into Lucerne. We arrived to cold but clear weather and elected to stay at the train station for a little while to greet the Campbells who we arriving on a separate train.
With the Ingrams and Campbells together we set off on a short walk across a bridge spanning a small arm of Lake Lucerne to our hotel. We were staying at the Pickwick Hotel. This is an odd place for a typical English pub but it is in a really handy location, the rooms were adequate and the views were great from the balcony.
We got ourselves set up in the rooms, went for short walk and then decided on dinner in the pub downstairs. Not the most exciting of meals although Pete did spend a small fortune on a nice bottle of wine to celebrate. Off to bed to await the surprise that would greet us in the morning.
