After an uncomfortable overnight flight in economy class, we landed in Zurich this morning and boarded a scenic train going west towards Geneva. We chose the Golden Pass panoramic route, which is definitely not the fastest route to Geneva, but the most scenic given its path that is literally through mountains, streams, little waterfalls, sleepy and snowy mountain villages, and endless little ponds and big lakes.
Two years ago when we spent our Thanksgiving week in Germany, we did one of the most memorable museum visits I’ve ever done and went to the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, which is the biggest model railroad in the world. Miniatur Wunderland has some of the most life-like models of different parts of the world, including Switzerland. The Switzerland exhibit depicts trains coming in and out of mountains and riding along the edges of them. It’s quite ominous when you watch the little miniature trains seemingly scaling mountains. But as I found out today, this depiction is 100 percent real and accurate. There were moments riding the train today when it felt like we were on the edge of mountains and any second, we could have slid off the tracks and fallen to our deaths. But no, this didn’t happen. The Swiss rails are reliable and incredibly safe, and we had the most beautiful views during our entire train ride, which lasted pretty much the entire day. After a while, we realized it was too silly to keep snapping photos, and we put our phones and cameras down and just enjoyed the views for what they were.
Oftentimes when you see photos of cities and countries in postcards, you often think that a lot of photo editing was probably done, especially when it comes to depictions of sunsets, sunrises, and mountains. With Switzerland, it seems that everything here is fitting of a “postcard” image. Riding along the Golden Pass train and walking through its cities and towns feels like you are going through a real life postcard, except you know that this is real life in front of your eyes, and this is not made up or Photoshopped. It’s just that gorgeous here.