Summer trip to Zweisimmen: GoldenPass Express and Gstaad (part 1/2)
All right. Good morning everyone. Welcome to Lucerne! It's about 07:00 ... pretty early. Today I'm not here for a visit as I'm actually traveling to another destination and I have half an hour stopover here so I wanted to show you the famous bridge is what you see behind me they are that wooden bridge. I don't know how how many years old but ... it's pretty old.
If you remember last time I was here back in December when I was on the way to Bern so today we're going to repeat part of that journey. We're going to back going back to the mountains all the way to Interlaken Ost. From there we're going to a totally new destination. Let's keep it a small secret for now. Once we're there, you will see it all by yourself. Should be fun as usual. Join me. We're going to the mountains!
Here we go! Back to famous Lucerne train station. You know the drill, right? We are taking the Panorama Express train again. It's here waiting for us.
All right. So this is definitely our train. As you can see, it is going all the way to Interlaken Ost. I guess, for some of you this destination sounds familiar. Here's our train. Strange. It's looks very short for such a popular destination. Today is just an ordinary day so, I guess, they're not expecting a lot of tourists.
This is perfect. While we're waiting to board. Here's another express train. I think we also saw it last time ... but really briefly. There's a detour on the way to Interlaken. I don't know if it's a village or a city though.
It is called Engelberg. We saw this train last time. That's another Panorama Express. They have this massive panoramic windows.
You can see it all. It's a quite unique experience. Also, look at these carriages! They are so tiny. It looks like a toy train. This one is decorated. It must a carriage for be for kids.
There is a special ... parrot? I don't know. Happy people and ... cows. Globi Express. Let's board. Our train has arrived. As you can see, now it's much longer so this is pretty much what I expected. Interlaken is a popular destination so it cannot be a short train.
Do you remember this valley? It looked totally different during the winter time. It was all covered by snow. [Next stop: Brienz] Familiar station. Welcome to Interlaken Ost. This is our train that brought us here.
So now ... ... actually no. Before I say anything let's head to the station so I could show you a familiar train hope you will remember what I did last December because this is where I changed trains, remember? And ... if we go this way very quickly. See, the sign says "Grindelwald". And the train should be waiting somewhere here. Remember? That was the train. See, it says "Berner-Oberland-Bahn" and it going all the way to Grindelwald.
Back in December it was much colder than now. Today they are forecasting about +30 celsius. Pretty hot. And back then it was -13 celsius. Something like that. So, here you go. That's the train. But ... this is not our train. I believe our train is departing from platform number 8.
And it is heading all the way to Zweisimmen. if I pronounce it correctly. From this point we are continuing our journey forward around the Interlaken area. This is a very popular place. All the tourists
go here to ski during the winter time. During the summer people come here for hiking and sightseeing. So, that's another Panorama Express. It is going all the way to Montreux.
We are not going there today, but we are definitely travelling to Montreux tomorrow on Thursday. I will try to make sure we film the entire line. Right. So this is our next train. As you can see, it says "GoldenPass Express". Here is the Grindelwald train departing all the way up. I really enjoyed visitng Grindelwald back in December.
Although it was very cold. By the way, what do you think about the current trip? I totally forgot to ask. From this train on everything will be brand-new. The reason why I've taken same route to Interlaken Ost once again is to compare whether it is better to travel during the winter or summer time. Personally I think it is way better in the mountains during the winter because I was not able to see ...
... like 40% of the scenery because of the trees and leaves obstructing the view. Of course, there are no leaves during the winter time so it is way better. You can see everything. But, once we got to the lake Brienz it was way better during the summer time. You must have seen the water. It is crystal clear and the colour is amazing.
Zweisimmen is where we go. My company has booked a place for us in Zweisimmen. My colleagues from Swiss and Serbian offices are coming. We are going to spend the next two days together.
It will be overnight stay at Zweisimmen. Everyone is gathering today. Everyone are travelling via Bern ... except me. I am the only person to take a route via Interlaken Ost. I did it exclusively for you guys so you could compare winter vs. summer time especially on that particular route from Lucerne. Let me know what you think in comments.
I think it looks amazing regardless when you travel. We need to be there by 11:00 and then people will split in two groups. Oh, you probably can't see me. So the group number 1 is going for a hike in the mountains. They're crazy. They are planning to hike despite the temperature being well above +30 Celsius. I don't know how they're gonna do it but they like hiking so ... whatever.
And then the group number 2 is going to Gstaad. It is a very popular destination in this area. This is a very expensive and touristic place so ... guess which group I've selected. You know very well how I "love" climbing up the hill, right? So, yeah, we are going to Gstaad. Then, we are gathering together in the evening and staying overnight at Zweisimmen. Tomorrow we are travelling back. Again, most people are likely to go via Bern.
Maybe someone will choose to go via Interlaken Ost ... and, basically, repeat what we have just seen. But ... I will continue on this very train all the way to Montreux and then to Lausanne. And then from Lausanne back Zurich. So I will do a little circle around Switzerland.
If I'm not lazy I'll show it on the screen now so you could see my entire entire journey and how I'm planning to travel. Technically, in this trip I am switching three panoramic expresses. There was one from Lucerne. Golden Express is the second one.
And there'll be a third one. I think it will be different company though so probably the train will be different okay yeah but it makes sense so that will be a completely different route operated by different company called "MOB". I will look it up. So that's a rough plan for this trip. So now they've changed the locomotive and it says "MOB".
This is where the line begins. From here it goes to Montreux. Originally we had a different locomotive from "BLS" and it was all green-ish. They must have connected those two lines together but the historic route to Montreux actually starts from Zweisimmen station. So that must be the first class. See, it says "Prestige" so it must be that really short section where you probably pay some ridiculous amount of money, but then you can really enjoy the privacy. I think we can cross here, right? Okay, nice and safe.
Here is a postman coming. You definitely need these things here. – Hello! It's an invasion. Yeah, everyone must have traveled on the same train.
I mean, we still probably have more beds than people so we should be good. – Oh, no! The invasion of the nerds! All right. Welcome to Gstaad! Look, they have a little castle at the top. It's probably a hotel. It's almost like from that castle from Disney movies.
I know, the original castle is in Germany. So we're heading to the village center back to train station. Actually, Gstaad is pretty small. It must be super expensive
as you can imagine. I bet, this house is a quite old. See, it's all made of wood. Maybe 17th or 18th century? I don't know.
I mean, some of them have dates at the rooftop. I don't know if we can trust what is written. Maybe it's a date of renovation or something like that. I don't know Just look at this retro train! This is us travelling in style back to Zweisimmen. Yeah, super retro! And this must be the regional train most of the guys took this morning.
See, it is being operated by "BLS". [Same company that brought me here] The Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon-Bahn (BLS). I really like the colours. It's an interesting combination of lime and silver. I haven't seen trains like this before. [Dinner time]
2023-09-05 06:33
