Bernina Express, Switzerland

This very nice card arrived as an official earlier this year. The sender lives in Germany but she was on holiday in Switzerland and picked up this card from there. I'm not complaining, it's very pretty and for once I don't really mind it being a multiview.


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The Bernina Express is an express train connecting Chur (or Davos) in Switzerland with Poschiavo and Tirano in Italy, by crossing the Swiss Alps from north to south. For most of its journey, the train also passes along and through the World Heritage Site known as the Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes.

The train is operated by the Rhaetian Railway company. It is not an "express" in the sense of being a high-speed train, but, rather, in the sense that it provides a one-seat ride for a long duration trip. The Bernina Express itself is composed of panoramic coaches with a piped multi-lingual commentary, and a small supplement and seat reservation are both obligatory. The train is popular with tourists, and connects in Tirano with the Post Bus service via Lake Como in Italy to Lugano in Switzerland.

The Albula line and the Bernina line on the Bernina Express route were jointly declared a World Heritage Site in 2008. The trip on the Bernina Express through this World Heritage Site is a 4 hour railway journey across 196 bridges, through 55 tunnels and across the Bernina Pass on the highest point at 2,253 metres in altitude. The entire line is 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) (metre gauge).



This card was mailed from Germany. The stamp on the right was issued in 2006 and represents 'spring'. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it's from a set of 4 stamps depicting the four seasons. The other one is one of those automated labels, this one showing Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.