This is the start of the most hectic part of the trip. Lots of trains to catch and there was effectively no margin for error. The Swiss trains leave ON TIME and wait for no bunch of Russells. So early start back to Zurich HB to catch the train to Chur. No reserved seats on this one and it took a bit of figuring out what platform and what carriage to get into but we did it. Passed some beautiful areas which reminded us very much of Queenstown or Wanaka.

Once in Chur, we had exactly six minutes to find our connecting train which luckily (after a mad scramble) was directly beside the last one! Jumped on and off we went to Preda! This was the start of the scenic route that the Bernina Train takes (which we’ll use tomorrow). We climbed up and up through the mountains, through tunnels and over viaducts, seeing more snow as we climbed.

We eventually arrived in the beautiful town of Preda, completely surrounded by snow. Our AirBnB was a 10 minute walk down the hill, where we dumped our bags, got changed into more appropriate gear and headed back to start our sledding adventure! Hired all the gear, picked up another train pass and very quickly learnt how to sled.

The sledding course runs from Preda down the mountain to the previous town of Bergün, about 6km. The trail at times runs right beside the train track then weaves over bridges and underneath it through the viaducts. At the end of our first run, we took the chairlift up to La Diala restaurant to order lunch mainly via sign language and garbled Swiss German. Feeling way to confident, we thought we’d take a crack at the Darlux - Bergün sled track (the “crazy” one). This one is 4.5km of sheer madness. Alex and Craig had the good sense to give up after the first turn and take the chairlift back, but the speed freak and I had gone too far already. So I gathered my nerves and led us down. My legs stung with having to constantly brake and I nearly thought we were going to meet our maker when we went over the edge - Benjamin had gone ahead and was struggling to slow down for a corner… I panicked and followed him however being somewhat heavier, I kept going over the edge. Thank goodness it was just a very steep but wide slope, so we finally came to a stop by bailing out. I’d like to say we took it easy from then on, but we didn’t have a choice, it was just a matter of getting to the end of it!

After that, the nerves were shot so walked to the train station to get back up to Preda. The sun had set by then, so we had a night run (the track had been lit). This felt a lot faster than the first time we did it and visibility wasn’t nearly as good. I followed speed freak once again and we clocked at least 29km per hour (helpful speedometer on one section). We noticed the next day that Benjamin actually melted some of his shoe soles from the friction of braking. My hands were frozen and stinging by the end so we waited for Craig and Alex to turn up so we could head into town to find dinner.

Bergün is a sweet little town 1367m above sea level. The buildings are decorated with painted motifs and we noticed that the farm animals were being kept in the basements as it was so cold. We had to carry our big wooden sleds through the town and unfortunately, Benjamin slipped on the icy road and his sled fell on his hand so there was screaming in the street. Luckily there was an ice bar about 25m away so we plied him with hot red wine to numb the pain. Strictly medicinal purposes but I needed one too. We also needed dinner and everywhere was fully booked. Thank goodness the fifth place let us in. Hot food and decent light to survey the damage and our day was done. Back on the train home to cuddles with Butterball (the dog at the gasthaus) and a well deserved sleep… because you’ll never guess, there was another early train to catch tomorrow!