After a very good breakfast at the Errepo Hotel, I cycled to Milan rail station wearing normal clothes. It was morning rush hour, and there were plenty of other cyclists. (I may have mentioned this before, but my impression of Italian cycling infrastructure is that it is very good within built-up areas, but non-existent for interurban.)

I found the platform for Tirano easily enough, and when the train rolled in I started to load my bike in the back coach, but was asked to move it to the front of the train, as the platform at Tirano was shorter than the train, and my first choice would have required a jump to disembark! The route went along the eastern shore of Lake Como then along the River Adda valley, and was really quite beautiful.

At Tirano I bought a panini and a bottle of coca cola for lunch later, then walked with the bike across the street to the Swiss railway station (Tirano is very close to the border), and boarded the first of three Swiss mountain railway trains to take me to Chur. As you would expect, all these trains were clean, punctual, and had plenty of room for passengers and bikes. As the first of these trains pulled out of the station, it then went up the middle of the street, like a tram. Soon after it was heading up the valley, and at one point the track made a big loop, crossing over itself to gain height without exceeding the gradient that can be tackled with normal steel rail adhesion (It was not a rack and pinion railway.) See photos of this section.

I got talking to a German chap who was on his way home from a walking tour of the length of Italy, right from its heel!

Two ticket inspectors came round (I think one was a trainee), and the senior one seemed very surprised at the cheap price for a day cycle ticket on Italian Railways (3 Euros) compared to Swiss Railways (15 Euros). I tried to explain to him that cycles went free on many other European rail systems, but I'm not sure he understood!

We went along the West shore of Lago di Poschiavo, then there was a lot more zig-zagging to get to Alp Grum at the lip of the Bernina pass, with fantastic views to the South. From there we progressed along the East shore of Lago Bianco, then followed the Ova de Bernina river to Pontresina where a change of train was needed. This next train took us a short way to Samedan, on the River Inn, where we changed again. This last mountain train headed North-West via lots of loops to follow the Alora/Albula river via Filisur to Thusis, then North via the Rein Posteriur to Chur (on the Rhein). At Chur station it was a simple change of platform (no stairs) to catch the regular fast train to Zurich, where we were greeted by the sound of a large Oompah band in a marquee inside the station. Definitely on the North side of the Alps now!

I got a city map in the station, and cycled off to the Youth Hostel, which was a few km South of the city centre, on the West side of the lake. It was starting to get dark by now, so rather than hunt around for a restaurant, I put the bike in the hostel's secure bikestore, and had dinner in the hostel. Later I went for a walk up the hill and found an Irish pub where I had a beer to celebrate the end of a worderful day's rail travel.