Switzerland - The Rhaetian Railway in cheerful red

At night we wake up to thunder and lightning. It rains like cats and dogs on our Felix. As beautiful as the evening was at sunset, the other side of the mountain weather shows itself fiercely during the night and in the morning.

So it is quiet in Felix, windows and doors stay closed, the candle creates some cosiness and we think about what to do. The weather forecast is very pessimistic - only rain and wind for the next few days.

I can spoil right away: Everything, or almost everything, is wrong at Meteo!

We set off, Graubünden is still our destination. And we haven't come far, we haven't left the canton of Bern yet. So we are speeding up the pass road to the Susten Pass, suddenly the wind blows the clouds aside and the sun blinks out. The car radio plays fun 80s music and we are back on the road. What more could a woman want? After the Oberalp Pass, we go to buy Bündner Nusstorte at our favourite café and nibble our way through the chocolate samples on the shelf.

As a museum lover, the railway museum on the Albula Pass is on our (my?) wish list today - nor do I believe the weather forecast.

Here we start our visit in the sugary museum café. We sit on old first-class poster chairs, sip Grisons barley soup and now find rainy days just fine.

The museum has it all: it shows us the history of the railway in Graubünden. We discover old railway paraphernalia, films and models. In the simulator of the famous Crocodile locomotive, you can even drive a locomotive yourself over the Albula line.

600 exhibits tell more than 100 years of railway history. They remind us of the courageous people of Graubünden who made the railway possible. The exhibits also show how the railway changed the landscape. Old railway stations, historical documents and construction plans tell the story of the special railway line between Thusis and Tirano, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Of course I got the children's tour: with puzzle booklet and whistle! My girlfriend is once again a little irritated at how much I let my inner child out and try out the whistle extensively. If not in the railway museum, then where else?

What I can promise now already: For the next few days of our holidays, we will be accompanied by the Rhaetian Railway, which, as we learn, is painted a cheerful red. Is there anything more beautiful than discovering a cheerfully red-painted train in nature?

The Landwasser Viaduct, the tunnels in the Albula Valley, the glacier mills in Cavaglia, the highest and steepest railway line in Europe, the circular viaduct in Brusio, the only restaurant that can only be reached by train, and much more: the UNESCO World Heritage Site has so much to offer that it is impossible to visit it all in one day.

And yes, we will also do a little tour with the Zügli. But more about that later. After all, we are travelling slowly and still have a few days to go.

But already now it becomes clear that the weather forecast is not correct, because as soon as we leave the museum, the sun is shining and we drive the second part of the Albula Pass and also the ascent via Pontresina to the Diavolezza campsite mostly on dry roads!

As soon as we arrive, the rain starts again and we make ourselves comfortable. Here we finally use the eggnog we got as a gift at our lecture (thank you, dear ones!). Unfortunately we didn't have any eggnog glasses with us, but necessity is the mother of invention.

Grisons, we are ready for you!

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

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