Pull up your chair and get ready for another vacation with Tim and Joy.  This year we are going to mark a place off Tim’s bucket list.  We are going to Switzerland!  And you can’t be that close to Italy and not stop by there, so the second part of our trip will take us to Florence and Venice.   We are flying TRI to Atlanta then straight to Zurich.  We have a 4 day Swiss rail pass which will take care of all our transportation needs along with 2 very scenic train rides.

While we have the pencil out, we might as well mark another one off the list—it will be just Tim and me.  We enjoy traveling family and friends but Tim said he was about to develop a complex because I never went anywhere with just him, so wish granted.  I can’t help it if I am a good planner and have a following when it comes vacation time.

We are departing USA on Friday, September 28 arriving Zurich on September 29 and will return on October 10.  We will start in the Jungfrau Region/ Bernese Oberland of the Swiss Alps staying in Murren, then to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn, take the Glacier Express train to St. Moritz in the Engadin area, and end Switzerland visit with the Bernini Express train ending just across the border in Tirano, Italy.  We will then travel by train to Florence for a few days before finishing out our trip in Venice.  Google maps calculates we will cover about 862 miles but this does not include the cable cars and mountain railways. 

Europe uses the metric system, so part of my research was to figure out altitudes of the places we were going to visit.

Kingsport is 1208 feet above sea level.

Interlaken is 1864’

Murren is 5413’

Schilthorn is 9744’ (a very high cable car ride from Murren!)

Zermatt is 5315’

Gornergrat is 10,134’  (cog train from Zermatt)

St. Moritz is 6089’

Check back Saturday or Sunday and I will try to have some pictures posted.