The Golden Pass

The Golden Pass is a section of Swiss railway, that takes in some of the most beautiful countryside. It's pretty spectacular in summer, and I'd love to do it in winter. We initially did only the section from Luzerne to Interlaken, which is where all the following (partial stream-of-conciousness) came from. I'd highly recommend this train route to anyone.

To start with, a short 30 second glimpse along side Lake Brienz





Train climbing outside Giswel, strange rock formations made by humans on a rocky outcrop, almost blair witch like.

The colour of the water at kaiserstuhl – Lungernsee. Bright green.


The mountains here are not likme the Austrian ones – they are pretty, but not sheer so much, not necessarily as wooded, the Austrian ones had a much higher wow factor. It doesn’t mean as we climb or traverse more it won’t get better, and it’s still a fantastic and amazing scenery that makes me want to climb the mountains, to stand on the top, above the clouds and look down on the world. Because you feel like you could see the whole world from up there.


We’re going through narrow cuttings, barely as wide as the train, and from the left hand side, there are large channels with small narrow trickles of water that run down from the hill, i can only assume that in the spring, as the snow melts, these fill with water and would be an amazing site. I want to do this train in the winter, when everything is covered with snow.


Traditional wooden chalets with pitched rooves perched on plateaus. There's an antique and/or second hand store at Bruning-Hasliberg, right on the platform, as part of the station.

One the right, as we leave Bruning-Hasliberg, the valley just opens up, and we slowly descend downward until trees obscure the view.


Lake Brienz. Named as the very soul of Switzerland, can understand why. Photo and video probably won’t capture the beauty and the colour.



Never seen a colour like this. Closest was in Fussen, but that was cloudy, where as this is crystal clear green, and you just want to jump right into it, lay on your back and watch the mountains and clouds pass by.



Unfortunately this means we’re almost at the end, in Interlaken. I want to do the Jungfrau train –highest train station in Europe, but we need to find out how long it takes, and if our pass is valid. We’ve already agreed we’re going to have very little time in Bern, so we can get another golden pass tomorrow from Zweisimmen down to Montreaux, then across to Geneva....