As we all know, the Swiss love their clocks, their cheese and their chocolate. They also adore their railway. The trains are clean, comfortable, convenient and you can set your (Swiss) watch by them.
The system is 175 years old this year, a fact recently celebrated by the running of the world’s longest train through the Swiss Alps. It was quite a feat and took years to plan. The 1.2 mile-long train comprised 100 carriages and passed over 48 bridges and through 22 tunnels during its 15-mile journey, setting a new Guinness World Record as it did so.
If you’re exasperated by British trains with the constant strikes, delays, cancellations, melted rails, frozen points, leaves on the line or the ‘wrong type of sunlight’ (do you remember that one?), then do consider giving Swiss trains a try, if only to see how the world’s finest public transport system works. It is a complete and utter joy – whatever time of year you go – with cancellations or delays unheard of.
Mrs Ray and I are just back from a brief Swiss sojourn where we did just that. Having flown to Geneva, we then let the train take the strain, travelling to and fro along the north bank of Lake Geneva (aka Lac Léman) and up beyond Gstaad as far as Zweisimmen. We got off here and we got off there. We hiked in the mountains, we swam in the lake (well, the missus did), we sight-saw, we pottered. And, goodness, we ate and drank like kings too.
The minute we arrived in Geneva, we bought our Swiss Travel Passes. Although not cheap (they start at £209 per person for a three-day pass or £333 per person in first class), they are wonderfully punter-friendly, giving you unlimited travel throughout the country for three, four, six, eight or 15 days by train (including the premium panoramic ones), bus and boat. And guess what? The whole system, part of the world’s densest traffic network, is synchronised, so that when you arrive by train at whatever destination, your onward bus or boat is waiting. And ditto when you arrive by bus or boat. Oh, and the pass gives you entry into more than 500 museums and galleries too. It’s really quite marvellous.
The whole system is synchronised so that when you arrive by train at whatever destination, your onward bus or boat is waiting
Our train east from Geneva was a double-decker and a delight, passing through the Olympic city of Lausanne before offering glorious views of Lake Geneva on our right and forests, mountains and the vineyards of Lavaux on our left. They’ve made wine here since forever and the ancient terraced vineyards that hug the lakeside are a Unesco World Heritage site. The wines they produce – mainly whites from Chasselas/Fendant – are a tongue-tingling joy, by the way.
We changed trains at Montreux (the strains of Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water swirling inevitably and irritatingly around my head) and took the Golden Pass, with its vast picture windows, to Rougemont. The line twists and turns as it heads high into the mountains and one minute the great lake is on your left, the next on your right. It’s dramatic, if not a little confusing. We based ourselves in Rougemont’s Hôtel de Commune, a typical, chocolate box-pretty Swiss chalet of simple but genial comfort.
We took the train further east to Zweisimmen (the onboard announcements and the conductor’s affable chit-chat changing from French to German halfway along) and then west back along the lakeside, hopping on and off at such towns and winemaking villages as Cully, Grandvaux, Riex and Vevey (famously beloved of the likes of Charlie Chaplin – whose statue overlooks the lake – James Mason and Graham Greene).
We took the cable car 2,200 metres up La Vidamanette for a lung-busting hike and a well-earned beer. We strolled around Château-d’Oex and had vast platters of homemade charcuterie, a fine fondue and exquisitely uplifiting Swiss eau de vie at locals’ favourite pit-stop Le Chalet.
And then, the highlight. Having teed ourselves up nicely the night before with a supper of roast veal, golden rosti and scrumptious apricot tart and sorbet at Le Cerf, a 100-year-old family restaurant bang opposite our hotel, we had one of the finest, shirt-popping meals of our lives at La Table de Valrose, a Michelin-star restaurant in the small hotel that sits on the platform itself of Rougemont station.
A seven-course tasting menu with matching wines (many of them local) was eye-wateringly, outrageously, inappropriately pricey (full disclosure: we were being comped), coming in at around £350 per head. Needless to say, it’s a venue for a very special occasion (or an unexpected windfall) – but so good that it’s worth the trip alone. I’m still dreaming about course number four: blue lobster cooked in peach leaves, lettuce and sage. The veal loin with sweetbreads, smoked rice and mirabelles was pretty darn fine too. Even the three different butters – from cow, sheep and goat milk – served with the homemade bread had Mrs Ray purring, as did the dozen very different cheeses all produced at farms within 15 minutes of the restaurant. I bet they were delivered by train.
For more information on Switzerland click here, and for more information on the Canton of Vaud click here.
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