Venizia Mestre – Verona Porta Nuova – Milano Centrale – Lugano – Arth-Goldau – Zuerich – Basel – Strasbourg

The idea for today was to take the train to Vienna, then onward to Brno in the Czech Republic. However, in the back of my head was a completely different idea, to go back to Paris for a concert tomorrow night. I was genuinely undecided as I packed my bags to leave the hotel, but as I walked to the station I decided that the Paris option was the one I was going to take. A scan of the timetable showed that it gave me the option to see Zurich, which I’ve wanted to do for some time.

This journey is a well trodden path for me, but a series of tight connections, 5 minutes in Verona, 8 in Milan, 4 in Lugano and 4 again in Arth-Goldau. I’ve seen the sights many times but still spotted things I’ve not seen before. In Como, for example, there is a mausoleum right by the railway. I was too slow to get a decent photo, but it’s a huge place. The scenery in northern Italy and Switzerland is magnificent.

The connections all went well up to the last one. Here we arrived a minute before our onward train was due to leave. The train manager advised (in three languages) that the train was just across the platform and quite a number of us were standing by the doors as it pulled in. I was boarded and in a seat before the train I had got off had left the platform. Phew!

I’ve passed through Zurich a few times but not stepped away from the station. I found the lockers and dropped both of my bags off. I always take a photo of the receipt just in case I lose it. It’s great to be able to do all this without cash; I’ve not yet had to get any Swiss Francs on my visits.

The station is rather lovely, but I left it behind and followed the tramline down to the lake.

Though I’ve not been here before, the sight was quite familiar to me. The paddle steamers feature on any number of photographs I’ve seen and one was arriving as I got to the jetty. Sadly it wasn’t due back out at a convenient time but I took a short passenger trip around the lake instead.

Returning to land I walked back through the city a different way. The cathedral is covered in scaffolding but is still impressive, as is the whole waterfront.

I rather liked Zurich. Like every other Swiss city I’ve visited, it is immaculately clean. There were lots of street cafes and restaurants, but all were quiet in the late afternoon sun.

I returned to the station and collected my bags. Although it was by now nearly 8pm, I’d decided that I would continue my journey a little further to another city that I wanted to explore; Strasbourg. Moving out of Switzerland simplified things a little, because of the currency (and is also a lot cheaper place to stay in!)

I love the trains that run this line. I’ve never seen these carriages anywhere else, but when I’ve travelled this route they have been in use every time. They were made in the UK by Alsthom in 1984 and are by a distance the most comfortable train seats I’ve ever used.

As we travelled I booked myself into a hotel near to Strasbourg station. I’ve used Ibis hotels a lot on my travels as they are reliable and cheap. This one was no exception other than that there was building works going on outside and I struggled to find the entrance.

It was by now going dark as I started to explore, but it looked like a really super town. Visiting a place I know nothing about is a favourite thing to do. I could see a huge tower in the distance and figured that must be close to the city centre so headed towards it.

Up close it was quite incredible, as the introductory photo on this post hopefully shows, even if it is a bit blurred in the fading light. It is REALLY tall!

I continued past the cathedral and found the river Ill (“ill”) which runs along the southern half of the city centre. It was all rather charming.

Walking back through the city centre, I passed a number of cheese shops, of which this was the most impressive. This reminded me that I really did need to find something to eat though. It was gone 10pm; I’d been wandering for an hour already. For simplicity I stopped at a small Turkish cafe and had a surprisingly delicious meal based on chicken kebab, which is something I very rarely eat.

I packed a lot into the day but it was a really interesting one. I collapsed into bed just before midnight.