Luzern; Friday, 01 August, 2008

Sadly a good nights sleep is what I didn’t really get. Firstly, it was the eve of the Swiss National Day, so there were large numbers of people about until very late very drunk, and setting off fireworks everywhere. I would have had no problem with this normally, but as I was staying in a converted jail the windows, which were open, were inaccessible to close so had to stay open all night.

Secondly, I didn’t quite see what the conversion was, other than the ability to open the cell door from the inside as well as the outside. The bed looked authentic and wasn’t particularly comfortable, neither was the wafer thin pillow. And in an attempt to make more money they had resorted to UK style prison overcrowding, turning what had been a single person cell into a twin-room with a second bed making an exceptionally narrow corridor between the two, and on several occasions I managed to bang my shins into it, on one occasion taking off several layers of skin on the sharp metal corner.

Consequently, I wasn’t particularly refreshed when I got up, and the shambolic breakfast with not enough table space, no knives and no glasses didn’t help my feelings towards the proprietors.

I very quickly checked out, and made my way over to the railway station to catch the train to Interlaken. This route forms either the first or final (depending on which way you are heading) of the Golden Express Panorama route from Montreaux. A route that I would be completing on Sunday. As the name of the route implies it takes in some incredible views. I had paid the extra to travel first class, and I’m glad I did. The train was bursting at the seams in standard, in First there were only a few people, and consequently I was able to occupy seats on both sides of the carriage taking photos out of both sides of the train, and I took quite a few photos.

The crowning glory of this part of the journey is the steep climb up to and then through the Brünig Pass. It’s so steep that the train has to become a cog-wheel railway to get up, rising almost to the top of the tree-line from the valley floor. Then, once over the top, you get the stunning view of the Meiringen to Brienz valley floor, with the river Aare running in an almost straight line, before plunging back down to meet that valley at Meiringen.

Whilst the journey from Meiringen to Interlaken is one that I had done several times the previous summer, it is still quite impressive with the mountain walls on either side of a virtually flat river valley, before opening out into the Brienzersee.

Two hours after leaving Luzern, and bang on time, the train pulled into Interlaken, and stop 6 on my itinerary.