Day 14: Innsbruck – Zurich

by bretzelitos

The crossing over Arlberg pass presented the highest altitude point in our 15 days round trip at 1260 meters above sea level. We had a very enjoyable ride in ÖBB’s railjet in business class – passing through three different independent European countries today, namely Austria, Liechtenstein and Schwitzerland.

In Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries worldwide, we took the whole amount of available public railroad kilometres in one go – without stopping even once between Feldkirch in Austria and Buchs in Switzerland.

The passing of the Arlberg area was impressive again as the Inn valley became narrower and narrower and the mountains around higher and higher. The summit is passed inside a tunnel – which also marks an European watershed between the Danube (Black Sea) and the Rhine (North Sea).

In Switzerland, we passed by two large alpine lakes, Walensee and Zurisee, prior to arriving in Zurich after close to 3:40h travel time.

In Zurich, we had our hotel around 800 meters away from the Central station, mainly due to budget reasons as Switzerland is pretty expensive in comparison with Germany, Czech Republic or Austria. Our hotel room was great and we enjoyed it. However, be aware that Zurich is not really a calm city at night, so you need to choose your hotel carefully.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk along Zurisee and had dinner in the traditional restaurant “Zeughauskeller” – with local beer and excellent swiss local food.

After a glass in a small bar in Zurich’s center area, we returned to Hotel Scheuble just after sunset.

Tomorrow, we have our last ride inside our 15 days continious INTERRAIL journey this year – the return to Paris.