Day nine - Naples to Zurich

We began today by leaving behind the stunning Il San Cristoforo hotel and the view of Mount Vesuvius behind. A short taxi ride to the station and we were off on the penultimate leg of our Interrail journey.

The journey began with a delightful route that took us north while we could still see Vesuvius, although today it was shrouded in cloud. We were lucky yesterday that just a few wisps of clouds sat below us and they didn’t obscure our view.

Heading north, the train was a little late.

As the journey continued, the delay worsened so much for Italian trains always running on time.

In fact, the train into Milan was 28 minutes late, which meant we missed our connection. After waiting a while on the station among the dozens of other delayed passengers, we were all told to head to the Locarno train on platform 6 and to change at Lugano. As you can imagine, the details got somewhat lost in translation, but we at least had seats and the swift change went smoothly, so we were only a little over half an hour late arriving in Zurich.

We sat near a German traveller who delighted in providing details of the Gothard tunnel, which was an impressive way to cut through the Alps - if significantly less of a visual treat than most of the Glacier Express.

A slightly disappointing hotel, but a delicious (completely, easily vegan) supper at Veganitas made for a very pleasant evening.