Summer of 2015 (Train Trip)

12. Juli 2015
On the way to Gerra Gambarogno and something about SBB and public transport in Switzerland

Next Destination: Gerra Gambarogno, our favourite holiday village.

To Gerra we will take almost every time a train. Train network in Switzerland is just amazing. When I was living in Finland, I didn´t use public transport, because I had a car, and also that I didn´t like to use that for some reason. For me in Finland car was so much faster choice, to work with my car took 15 minutes and with train and bus 50 minutes, that is a big difference. But in Switzerland I love to use public transport, and also I have to, because I don´t have a car. Most of the time public transport in Switzerland works like a dream, I´ve never had a problem. SBB-CFF-FFS is the name of the train and railway system in Switzerland, it´s owned by the covernment of Switzerland since 1902.

In my phone I have a free SBB-mobile app, which is awesome. You can get it for IOS, Android and also for Window Phone. App is very easy to use, and it tells you pretty much everything you need to know. Just write to the app from where you are leaving, to where you are going and which time, and app gives you all the options and timetable. It tells you also all the track numbers from where your trains are leaving, that´s very helpful information for me. If you have to chance the train, sometimes you might have only two or three minutes to chance, and it´s good that app will tell you to which track you need to go next. And app is also including busses and trams too. The most important feature for me, is that you can buy the ticket straight with your phone, payment method that I use is Visa, and of course you have to register first and give your informations. After purchase there will come immediately an electronic ticket (QR code) to your e-mail and actually straight to your phone. One nice habit here in Switzerland is that you don´t have to show the ticket to the driver if you are going inside the train or a bus, you just have to show it if someone is asking, I like that. I´ve never had problems with SBB electronic tickets so far. If you don´t want to use SBB-mobile app, you can buy tickets also from ticket machines at the railway stations or if you are using a bus, driver will sell you a ticket.

To use public transport in Switzerland is not cheap, about double or even triple comparing to Finland. For trains you can also buy first class tickets for extra price, in trains SBB have always first class and second class cars. First class gives you maybe a little bit more privacy and better seats and tables, and of course you can charge your mobile devices there. Actually sometimes there is charging option and small tables also in second class cars. I´ve never tried first class, but maybe someday I will. If you are staying longer in Switzerland and you will travel a lot, you should order a half-price card, which is personal. you can get it for one, two or three years, it costs about CHF180 per year, then you will get all tickets for half price. Switzerland is separated to different zones, and when you will buy a ticket, you need to know in which zones you are travelling. But with SBB-app you really don´t have to care about that, because it gives you automatically right ticket with right zones. You could also buy a card which is valid for the whole year in every public transports in the whole Switzerland. For tourists SBB is offering different options which you should check from their web pages: www.sbb.ch

So, there was something about public transport in Switzerland, my opinions and experiences. Next some "out of the window"-pictures from our train trip to Gerra.

First days in Switzerland (030515)

Sonntag 3. Mai 2015

Driving to Ticino and back..

Saturday 2.5.2015 at 9:30 local time, I finally arrived in Switzerland. I was waiting for almost half year of that moment. First day was really nice with the welcoming committee and spending time with the family and the best of all, with my girlfriend. Last time we saw face to face, was three months ago.

Next day, after good, long sleeping I got a mission: Brake your spine in Ticino.

Ticino is a very beatiful, nice canton in Italian part of Switzerland. Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Our job was to take one big and heavy cabinet to the summerhouse of my girlfriend´s family, to the second floor by the stairs, of course :-). That house is located near the border of Italy and Switzerland in Gerra (Gambarogno). We rented a big car with my GF´s brother and drove there with the cabinet, it took about three hours to drive. You could also go to Ticino with the train, but it takes longer. Actually that wasn´t my first time in Ticino, last time we went by train. I like to go with the train because landscapes are awesome. Train is going between the mountains and through the long tunnels. Ok, landscapes are awesome also with the car. The longest tunnel was about 17 kilometers long, if I can remember right, the name was Gotthard Road Tunnel.. Funny thing was that outside the air temperature was about 16 degrees, but in the middle of this tunnel it was about 35 degrees. Outside the weather was cloudy and it was also raining a little bit, and between these mountains, those clouds were very low.

Here´s some "through the car window" pictures from our road trip to Ticino.

Only 100 kilometers to Milano.

Arriving to Ticino

Gerra Gambarogno

After we arrived, to take that cabinet upstairs to the second floor wasn´t that hard, it was much easier than we expected, or maybe we are just so strong. Little bit later we went to a nice family restaurant, Ristorante al Portico, for a dinner. For starter I took snails, like always, and for the main course I took Cordon Bleu, for dessert I took mango sorbet und kaffee mit milch. My friend took salad, gordon bleu and ice cream, and for both we took big classes of ice tea with ice to drink.

Next morning it was time to drive back, but before that I took some early morning pictures of the lake Lago Maggiore. BTW, the most part (167 km²) of that lake is in Italy (45 km² in Switzerland). So you could swim or go by boat to visit Italy.

The view to the lake from the second floor balcony

The view to the lake from the third floor balcony

I´ve been in Italy many times, and when I came to Ticino for the first time and I saw the lake, I was thinking that it´s looking just like Garda Lake in Italy, which I also like very much. In the morning there was nice misty feeling over that lake..

So, it´s time to drive back home. Let´s hope that traffic is not so bad. In holiday seasons traffic could be very bad, because of these long tunnels through the mountains. In some tunnels there is a rule, that you have to keep 150 meters long distance to the car in front of you, but I can say that it´s almost impossible. And they are also controlling traffic with traffic lights before tunnels.. They won´t let go too much cars in to the tunnel at the same time. And an accident in the middle of the tunnel ,that´s really bad.