Today the journey was more the goal than the destination, as we purposely took longer routes in order to see the Swiss alps (some more, since we had already seen them on the way from Salzburg.) The train had enormous windows, designed to allow a better view than the average train and the view was nice indeed. Unfortunately half the route between Interlaken and Luzern was closed for maintenance and we had to take a bus which wasn’t nearly as nice as the train and didn’t offer as good of views. Right outside Luzern we stopped at Alpnachstad where we boarded the steepest cog railway in the world. As we ascended, we could feel the air getting colder and see the slopes getting snowier. A half hour later we made it to the top of the mountain where it was at least 30° F cooler and there were deep snow drifts. The view at the top of the railway was absolutely spectacular! We hiked a bit further up some icy/snowy steps to get an even better view of the surrounding landscape. We headed back down after taking plenty of photos and boarded our train to Milan. Once in Milan we walked past the cathedral, which was quite large and spectacular! We decided to take a slightly later train the following day in order to have time to see the inside of the cathedral and do some necessary shopping. At our hostel we were given a complementary drink and apertivo (we learned that this is a common occurrence in Italian bars and hostels– it’s like happy hour, but better). We chatted with a British traveler for a couple hours and then went to bed.
Breathtaking!