Europe - The Bernina Express

The famous Bernina Express is one of the world’s most beautiful train journeys. It’s the highest railway in Europe, it’s also one of the steepest, an engineering marvel of the early 1900s. The train descends from an altitude of 1,864m in Saint Moritz to 429m in Tirano, reaching an impressive 2,253m at Ospizio Bernina.

The part of the Bernina Railway that goes through the Brusio circular viaduct as shown on the opening image, was particularly impressive - a 360-degree spiral enables the train to descend 10m within a length of 110m - a gradient of 7%.

We were pleased to have seen the peaks around Diavolezza, as our morning on the Bernina Express was overcast with low cloud, nevertheless still spectacular views of the mighty Alps, valleys, lakes, and glaciers, as we travelled back to Italy. We hope for better weather on the Glacier Express in a few days.

Below is a short 2 min video of the same journey in better weather.

In a blink of an eye, we had travelled from majestic snow-capped mountains and 6 degrees in St Moritz, to the rolling green hills of Lombardy and glistening Lake Como under sunny skies and 23 degrees, which is the next post on this series of my travels through Europe.