10 - Vienna - Lyon

Day 10

By now I was a long way from Spain, with only two more journeys left on my Interrail pass. To reach Spain without having to buy another train ticket was cutting it fine. I decided to return through the Alps, although slower it had nostalgic attractions for me as well as stunning scenery. My plan was first to reach Zurich via Innsbruck and then see how I was for time before the next leg. I really needed to reach Geneva today, if I was going to reach Barcelona in Spain the following day. I contemplated an overnight train to save on another hotel bill but felt a potentially bad nights sleep and the need to store my luggage during the day gained me nothing.

Goodbye Vienna.

So I was up at 5:00 and although I had been promised 'some sort of breakfast' the evening before (having paid 12 euros) an unfriendly receptionist would only give me a coffee from a vending machine. 

A point to note here is that every cheap hotel I visited had very expensive breakfasts at additional costs (usually around 10 euros) and they were pretty awful. In contrast the best breakfast I had was at an Ibis hotel where it was included in the price. So in the end cheap hotels saved little. For a good 3-star hotel with breakfast included, 60-70 euros is probably the minimum you can expect to pay.

I had no wish to linger over breakfast anyway as the train to Zurich was due to depart at 7:30 from the Westbahnhof (west station) and to get there I had to take the metro, changing once at Stephansplatz. I arrived at the Westbahnhof with time to spare, but that was largely used up trying to find a post box for some cards I wanted to post. After an hour of being sent off in various directions I found a post office close to where I had first started looking, but one floor up. However the 'up' escalator was not functioning and was cordoned off. The down escalator was functioning but moving very slowly, so I decided to walk quickly up it, managing to do so without attracting too much attention.

The Austrian Alps and a typical church.

The train was announced, so I said goodbye to Vienna and found myself a comfortable unreserved seat. Actually the seat was not comfortable at all, despite it being a modern carriage. The seat was hard and so badly designed I had to put my jacket under my thighs to give them some support. However this design failure was made up for by their very impressive simple modern toilets. They had designed the most perfect toilet, with smooth clean surfaces, large clear and easy to use knobs. The WC came with the standard stainless steel Eurotrain toilet bowl, which when flushed sounded like it might suck your eyeballs out if you go too close, but did the job. Not long after leaving Vienna the Alps came into view, a good reason for traveling this route. Once again it was a landscape dotted with quaint villages and their simple churches, but now with the additional backdrop of snow-capped peaks.

 Snow capped Austrian Alps

The mountains were probably at there most spectacular as we passed through Innsbruck, where the blue grey rock reared up into the sky and sometimes out of sight beyond the window frame. Strange as it may seem, fossils of sea creatures could be found on the tops of some of these mountains as they had once formed an ocean seabed. The journey through Switzerland was marked by an unreal landscape, it could have been a 3D video animation it was so perfect. Even the birds and animals seemed unreal. Buzzards and Kites flew close to the train seemingly oblivious to it and I was sure I saw a red fox crouching in a field of plastic cows and sheep. The well kept scene looked just like the TV adverts for Swiss milk chocolate with nothing out of place. We arrived in Zurich on time, as was to be expected of the Swiss and I changed trains for Geneva. The relatively short journey to this international capital was on a completely full double-decker train. I was lucky to find an empty gangway seat, where the guy opposite had parked a giant kite surfboard on the floor, it must have been 3-4 meters long. When he eventually got off I was staggered to see him reach for a huge rucksack and a further of piece of luggage. He gracefully negotiated the train's steep, narrow stairway and all without swiping anyone with his surfboard.

Along the way the Alps grew in size.

In Geneva I had to consider my next step. Staying anywhere in Switzerland would be expensive and having been here many times before I was not very interested in stopping overnight. France was right on the doorstep and a better alternative. As it was early evening I could still travel for an hour or two, reducing the distance I would have to travel to Barcelona. I inquired about trains to Lyon and got a suitable one only taking a couple of hours. I was also able to book a hotel in Lyon close to the station via Booking.com.

Typical Swiss landscape with road, rail and river winding through the Alps together.

The Swiss double-decker train weaves its way through the mountains.

The train was French and very basic, but comfortable with plenty of spare seats. We left Geneva and followed the River Rhone initially leaving the Alps behind. Along the way we followed various other rivers adding interest to the now flattening landscape. As we approached Lyon I was unsure where to get off, as Lyon Part-Dieu seemed to be the main station, but a passenger reassured me mine was the next stop. The train finally stopped just 100 meters from my hotel, although it required negotiating a number of non-functioning escalators to get there. I checked in and did my best to squeeze into their tiny lift, it could only take one person and preferably not a backpacker. The room was reasonable, with a small desk and comfortable single bed, and most important WiFi. The rest of the evening was spent on the Internet sorting out my final Interrail trip to Barcelona.  

The Rhone valley,  Lac Leman (Genfersee - Lake Geneva), on the descent into Lausanne was  for me still one of the most spectacular in Europe.