Gotthard Panorama Express 圣哥达全景观快车

July 17, 2022

We re-visited Zurich's Old Town this morning before we hopped on a train to Arth-Goldau to start one of the Grand Train Tours of Switzerland, the Gotthard Panoramic View Express. We toured the Zurich Old Town two months ago as soon as we got off the plane at the beginning of our trip. Although it was only a few hours of sightseeing, Zurich's beauty still impressed us. After visiting ten countries, we find Switzerland is the best of all.

Our European trip planning included the famous Grand Train Tour of Switzerland, covering most of the Swiss scenic train lines. However, when the two weeks in Switzerland ended at the beginning of June, we experienced most of the Swiss main scenic train lines included in the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland except the Gotthard Panorama Express. Today, we would make it up and bring our trip to Switzerland to a satisfying ending.

The Gotthard Panoramic View Express usually includes a sightseeing river cruise. Because we had taken the same river tour before, this time, we decided to take the train directly from Zurich to Arth-Goldau, where we boarded the Gotthard Panoramic View Express. We arrived at Arth-Goldau a couple of hours earlier, so we had lunch at a local café, and the spaghetti was delicious. Then we walked to Nature and Animal Park. Since we didn't have much time left to explore, with a 25 CHF admission fee each, we felt the money wasn't well spent and didn't go in. We turned around to went back to the train station.

Shortly after we got to the platform, the Gotthard Panorama Express was pulled to the station. We boarded our coach and found we were the only two on this particular coach. We wondered what was going on. Then the train tour guide walked in and asked us to move to the other coach since there were no other passengers on this coach. We agreed to move since it would make their job easier and more efficient. Because the windows in the panorama cars of the express were closed, the Gotthard Panorama Express added the photo coach in the center of the train for all passengers to use during the journey. The windows in this coach can be opened so that passengers can take better photos without reflection from the windows. While riding through the long tunnel, they projected a video of the tunnel construction's history on the tunnel wall. We thought that was cool.

The express ride took three and a half hours, climbing two mountains and passing through the longest tunnel of the 19th century. After 4:30 p.m., the train arrived in Lugano, a resort city in southern Switzerland on the border with Italy. The scenery by the lake was beautiful, but we felt a little unbearable under the scorching sun after walking for a long time. We quickly found a place to have dinner. The tour guide on the express train recommended we eat risotto from an Italy restaurant when we were in Lugano. We ordered seafood risotto, which tasted very good. The waiter was attentive and served the salad and risotto we ordered in half for each of us. We didn't stay any longer after dinner and hurried back to the train station to catch a train back to Zurich. On the return trip, we took a regular train, which didn't have to climb the mountains. Instead, the train went directly through the world's longest tunnel - 57 kilometers from the bottom of the mountain, shortening the journey to less than two hours. Our two-month tour of Europe ended here, leaving us with great memories, and we will be back soon.

欧洲游第五十八天：今天一早去苏黎世老城景区“旧”地重游，二个月前一下飞机就赶来这里，虽然当时也就是几个小时的走马观花匆匆一游，但还是对苏黎世的美丽留下深刻印象。走了十个国家之后今天再次来到这里，仍然觉得瑞士最美。

当初计划这次欧洲游是从著名的瑞士环游火车之路(Grand Train Tour of Switzerland)开始的，准备走完大多数瑞士观光火车线路。五月底六月初在瑞士的二周，很遗憾大部分都坐了，除了圣哥达全景观快车(Gotthard Panorama Express)。今天正好有时间把它补上，也让我们的瑞士游画上一个圆满的句号。

圣哥达全景观快车一般包括游船，因为我们以前巳坐过一段游船，这次就直接从苏黎世坐火车到Arth-Goldau，在那里登上圣哥达全景观快车，整个行程三个半小时，爬过二座山穿越十九世纪时最长隧道，铁路两边景色不错，典型瑞士高山风光。下午四点半后到达卢加诺（Lugano), 瑞士南部与意大利接壤的一个度假城市。湖边景色秀丽，但在烈日炎炎下，走了没多久就觉得有点受不了，赶紧找个地方吃晚餐。火车上的服务员告诉我们到了卢加诺一定要吃意大利的risotto。我们要了海鲜烩饭（seafood risotto), 味道特别好，服务员也特别热情细心，把我们点的色拉和烩饭分成两半送上来。饭后没再多留，而是匆匆赶去火车站坐火车回苏黎世。回去时不用再翻越高山火车直接从山底下穿越世界上最长的隧道-57公里，把整个行程缩短到二个小时不到，顺利回到旅馆。我们的欧洲二月游也到此结束，给我们留下了美好的记忆，在不远的将来，我们会再回来的。