Zurich
Switzerland · 47.3804° N / 8.5366° E · Fri 28 August 2026
Day 10, Friday 28 August: Milano Centrale (11:10) to Zürich HB (14:27) on EuroCity 150, 227 km in 3h 17, on an Interrail pass. Day 11 is the way home, Zurich to London, in a single day.
Milan → Zurich
I’m getting used to these later starts. Down to breakfast at eight, and nothing new added — except that today there were no biscuits.
Back up to finish the packing and do my usual search for errant items. It turns out the one thing I haven’t managed to carry all the way is my euro plug adapter, which would have been a real help tomorrow. I’ve got power banks, though. No stress.
A cathedral to travel
Five minutes across from the hotel and I’m back in Milano Centrale. This time I had the time to look at it properly: the great arched ceiling, the chandeliers, marble floors, carvings on every wall.
It’s a cathedral to travel. There’s no other way to put it.
On time, again
Like every train on this trip so far, the one to Zurich left on time. I’ve been turning up early to every station, just in case — the internet is full of horror stories about late trains, strikes and whole routes cancelled, and I wanted time to call the company that built my itinerary if it all went wrong. It never has.
Three and a half hours north, into a new country. This one is outside the EU, and it’s another I’d never been to.
Lakes the wrong colour
A single seat on the right, so nothing in the way. And the views were breathtaking. Lake Lugano first, which the line crosses on a causeway at Melide, water on both sides of the train.
Then under the Alps — the second time this trip. On day two it was the Fréjus, thirteen and a bit kilometres, opened in 1871, the first rail tunnel through the Alps. Today it was the Gotthard Base Tunnel: fifty-seven kilometres, opened in 2016, and the longest railway tunnel in the world. In through the oldest, out through the longest.
Out the other side, and Switzerland simply happens all around you. Alpine meadows running up to slopes that turn into mountains almost before you notice. A line of trees, and then a lake again — Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug, and finally the long drop down to Lake Zurich.
And that blue. It’s an almost impossible colour for a lake to be. The mountains look imposing whenever the cloud lets you see them, and today the cloud was coming down low, with rain clearly on its way.
The border nobody checked, again
At the border the train stopped for what felt like longer than usual. Maybe it was just a built-in wait before carrying on. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t border guards coming to look at my passport. Another border crossing almost missed — I only knew because I was watching the station names and knew which side of the line each one was on.
R.A.I.N.
Into Zürich HB — the Hauptbahnhof, the main station — and the rain had started. And this was not Italian rain. Well, Turin might give it a run for its money. But this was rain with capital letters. The brolly came out, the jacket went on — proper readiness this time. Out of the station, brolly unfurled, and off following our old friend Google Maps. I’d studied the route to the hotel, of course, but it always looks different on the ground, and I wanted to see as much of this place as I could in the little time I had.
Across the Bahnhofbrücke, along the Limmatquai, and up a side street to the Hotel Scheuble. Old buildings and churches everywhere, but my only focus was arriving dry. The views could wait.
The hotel is modern inside and the staff very friendly. The key is a wooden card, credit-card sized — a nice, quirky touch. The room is good, with one surprise: the bathroom walls are glass, with a frosted print of an old photograph of the hotel across the middle for privacy. Maybe a wall would have done the job. But I’m not a designer.
Out of the wet things and into dry ones. Thank goodness I paid for a good rucksack: not a drop got in.
A random walk
No idea where to go, or even what’s here. I could have spent the train ride researching, but I don’t think I want any more museums. Outdoors, for this last afternoon. A random walk.
The streets remind me of so many German towns I’ve walked through. But it’s a beautiful city, cut in half by the river Limmat, with bridges across it everywhere, for cars and for people on foot.
Old buildings with ornate carving. Clocks with faces so big they look like a bad bit of photoshop — one of them, on St Peter’s, is apparently the largest church clock face in Europe. Fountains too, though they weren’t needed today. It was only about twenty-two degrees. Long-sleeve weather, not jacket weather, which was lucky, because the jacket was drying back at the hotel.
Up and down both banks. Rowing clubs with boats outside that look built for rougher water than the calm Limmat. And of course I found a set of steps up to a high point, so I could see the city from above. Milan was the only place on this trip where I never found a bird’s-eye view. Back down another stairway, and along a tree-lined path beside the river.
Looking back on it
The clouds were darkening again, so I took a table inside at N-68: a large beer and an equally large burger. And then it rained again — harder this time, bouncing off the paving. I was very glad of the inside table. It didn’t last, and by the time I’d finished, people were venturing out again.
That’s when it caught up with me. All the travelling, all the kilometres walked — they add up, and now I was paying for them. Rather than walk the same streets twice, I went back to the hotel to get some rest before tomorrow’s long run home: Zurich to London, with a Paris metro to face in the middle.
It’s a shame I didn’t see more. But what I saw was beautiful, and this is a country I want to come back to, soon.
A shower in the glass box, then bed. There was a lot of partying outside well into the night. I hadn’t realised the Dörflifäscht, the old town’s street festival, was on.
Conditions — about 22°C, and rain. Proper rain. Brolly and jacket finally earning their place. Tomorrow: home, Zurich to London, with Paris in the middle.
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10:14 Milano Centrale, one last time, under that roof.
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10:19
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11:45
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11:55 Swiss trains, red and on time.
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12:47
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13:17 Cloud coming down on the mountains, and the green turning wet.
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13:17
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13:26 The lake, and that colour it has no business being.
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13:26
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13:26
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13:48 Flat green valley floor, with the weather sitting on the tops.
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13:48
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13:56
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15:02 Zurich, in the rain, which felt about right.
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15:04 A painted cow in a shop window, unexplained.
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15:08
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15:08 St Peter's clock face — the biggest in Europe, they will tell you.
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15:10
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15:12 The Limmat, green and fast, straight through the middle.
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15:12
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15:14
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15:14 A bronze horseman in front of the church.
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15:16
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15:19 An oriel window, painted and gilded.
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15:21
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15:23 The river again, with the old fronts lined up along it.
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15:24 A duck, going about its business.
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15:34 The city from the bridge: spires, water, cranes.
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15:36
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15:41
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15:42
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16:54 A beer in the dry.
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17:19 My last night, and the rain caught up with me again.
Not written up yet — the last day, all the way home.
The map and the figures are already right; only the words are missing.
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07:53 The last hotel room of the trip.
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08:07 Zurich Hauptbahnhof, under the arches.
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09:09 The platform, and a long day of rails ahead.
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09:37 A double-decker, and a seat on the top deck.
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09:44 Switzerland going past, doing its best impression of a brochure.
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09:45
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10:12
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10:12
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10:14
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10:14
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10:14
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10:44
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10:53 Mulhouse, and the border you did not notice crossing.
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12:13
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12:13
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12:36 France now, and the country opening out flat.
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12:36
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13:05
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13:07
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14:19 Paris. The last change of the whole journey.
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16:27 The board, and one more train on it.
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17:28 Dinner on the Eurostar, somewhere under the Channel.
