My First Day Chasing Trains In Europe

This famous saying from Forest Gump, comes to life in one country, Switzerland, famous for their chocolate and cheese with holes in it. I guess the cheese is pretested by mice and certified yummy!

After departing Kenya on the African leg of my world steam tour, Malcolm (Arnie) Holdsworth and I hopped on a plane for Zurich. There we would rendezvous with three of our other friends, Robert (Rags) Kingsford Smith, John (Bazza) Allerton and Jim (Night) Carter for a 3 month tour of Europe in a Commer Campervan.

Two of our crew chat with some curious onlookers outside our Mobile Home. Definitely not a Winnebago!

We arrived at Zurich Airport, passed through customs and met our comrades who had driven non stop from Winchester in the UK. I was handed the keys and asked to drive us through the night towards Lucerne, a beautiful city on a lake.

Up until this point, I had driven in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Africa, in all of which you have right hand drive cars driving on the left hand side of the road. Suddenly here I am with a right hand drive car driving on the right hand side of the road.

I managed to get clear of Zurich and we headed for a border crossing as we had to pass through West Germany. At the border I pulled up next to the guard house and whoops! I hit it with the left hand mirror. I was rather scared, and they were very amused, it gave them a good laugh.

Our first sunrise in Europe was spectacular. Lucerne was picture postcard perfect with the lake looking like glass. Onward to Brienz, and the famous rack railway that still runs with steam locos.

At Brienz, we parked the car and took the train up the hill. It is a spectacular place that reminded me of the “Sound Of Music”. At the top of the hill, we spread out for the shot and then headed to the café. It was lunch time and we were getting hungry.

Switzerland was very expensive, especially for food. We were all on a tight budget, and ate many meals in the campervan because of this. Anyway while waiting for our food, we noticed some chocolates and bread sticks on the table. Being hungry Aussies, and knowing that at home anything placed on the table is free food, we dug in. When the bill came, there was a charge of about $5 per chocolate (at least $25 in today’s money), so we left with empty wallets. A lesson learnt.

Apart from that it was a great day for our first outing in Europe.

Here is a video taken in 2018 of the trip up the mountain.