Bernina Mountains/Pass/Glacier/Train (5/19)


Here I am in the town of Chur (pronounced “Kur”) in a room about the same size as the room in the YMCA my student and I stayed in in New York City. That means it’s about the size of two closets, or there is room for a single bad and space to walk by it. Actually, it’s quite a comfortable room, and it even has a TV, as well as a sink. But let me tell you how I got here.
This morning, I got up in Lugano and left the house with the mystery host (I still haven’t met her) and schlepped my suitcase DOWN to the train station. I had breakfast there and then got on a bus to take me to the Bernina Express. The bus traveled from Lugano across a piece of Italy to Tirano, which is in Italy. There, I got on a train call the Bernina Express. This train, which runs between Tirano in the south and Chur in the north, has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The route takes you across the Bernina Mountains and the Bernina Pass, and past the Bernina Glacier. All of that is in first half of the ride. The bus ride from Lugano to Tirano was somewhat uneventful, even though it WAS beautiful. I sat with a nurse from Los Angeles. She and her husband run a program of care for adults with intellectual disabilities. It was interesting to talk with her. And I realized that I spoke too soon about not running into many Americans. I’ll bet two thirds of the people on the bus were from the United States, and the same was true when we finally got on the train. The bus and train are timed so you can comfortably have lunch in Tirano, and then get onto the Bernina Express. Unfortunately, it was raining, which cut down a great deal on visibility, mostly because there was a lot of fog, which made it hard to see the tops of the mountains. At the same time, the ride was ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR!
 In the first few minutes of the ride, the train made a circle of 360°, which enabled it to go up 400 meters in a short distance, next to the town of Brusio. Within minutes, I felt like I was back in Switzerland again. I was - Tirano is just a short distance from the border -  but the houses begin to look like Swiss houses. Soon, there were pine forests, then the stone houses, but this time with wooden shutters, then chalet-style houses with wooden shutters and roofs, and finally full-on chalets. There were some amazing bridges, and there were waterfalls on many of the mountains. There was snow on the mountains and the scenery was simply amazing. On the train, I sat next to a couple from Arizona. They were on their way to Paris by way of Zürich, and it was fun to share the experience with them. Now that I’ve been on this train, I have a better sense of why my wonderful sewing machine is call Bernina, and I now know that the name Bernina applies to mountains, a mountain pass, and a glacier. This was one of life’s peak experiences. It was an amazing trip, even with the bad weather.
The train route ends in Chur, and I walked a few blocks to the hotel where I had made a reservation. Apparently, this is a part of Switzerland where the language is Romanish. Chur is relatively close to Davos, where that big international financial meeting was held a few months ago. Apparently, Davos is a fancy ski resort. Anyway, when I checked into the hotel, I had a real hard time communicating with the receptionist. It was all sign language. I ended up eating dinner in the hotel and the server, who had helped me (linguistically) check in, was my waitress. She was very motherly, in the best possible way -  even helped me get the last bit of cheese out of my fondue pot! THAT kind of help I appreciate!

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