RTW 2013 | Bernina Express

The Bernina Express is a scenic train that goes between Chur and Tirano over the Swiss Alps. The route is a UNESCO world heritage site, and gets tons of tourists each year. There’s also an option to continue on to Lugano from Tirano via bus.

This train ride was pretty cool because it takes you from the cool crisp air of Chur at 584m ASL to the freezing cold of the Bernina Pass at 2253m ASL, then back down to the nice mild weather of Tirano, Italy at 429m ASL. The train itself is geared toward tourists, and features panoramic cars with large windows and information over the speakers at key points. I ended up taking this train twice, as I went from Chur to Tirano, and then back from Tirano to St. Moritz. This way I can start in St. Moritz for the Glacier Express the following day.

this is what I mean by glare

The drawback to panoramic windows is that, since the windows are so large, the glare is ridiculous. On the ends of the cars in the luggage hold area there is a tiny window that opens, exposing the cold air. Pretty much all the serious photographers on each car were huddled in that luggage hold area trying to take a shot through the tiny window.

Landwasser Viaduct

Starting from Chur, the train trekked along the Albula line toward St. Moritz/Pontresina. The first main attraction along the way is the Landwasser Viaduct, which was a massive viaduct that was built without any scaffolding, and spans the Albula River. Right after that the train heads into the Albula tunnel, which is the highest subterranean alpine crossing in Europe.

After that segment, the train crosses over to the Bernina line, and makes the climb up through the Bernina Pass. At the peak, there is a white lake and a stop: Ospizio Bernina. Right by the stop is a small yellow sign labeled Wasserscheide (watershed). This is a monumental point in the Swiss Alps – it marks a European continental divide: From here, rivers flow either north (toward the Inn, Danube, and finally to the Black Sea) or south (to the Adriatic Sea via the Adda and Po Rivers). It also denotes a cultural divide. North of this pass is mostly German speaking. South of this pass is Italian speaking. In winter, when the train line was more susceptible to bad-weather closures, the remote Italian-speaking valley of Poschiavo was often cut off from Switzerland and turned itself toward its southern neighbor, the valley of Veltlin.

As the train descends to Tirano, it passes the Poschiavo valley and over the circular viaduct, apparently the only one of its kind in the world. This allows the train to climb or descend a sizeable amount in a short span. The train then makes its way into the valley where Tirano is.

On the way back north, I completely lucked out on having an empty car to myself. It was quite nice…I didn’t have to reach over anyone to snap a picture, and I had the freedom to play music and walk about the cabin more. It was pretty freeing. I was also about to take some better pictures and even capture video of the circular viaduct on the ascent.

All in all, the view from the train was breathtaking. I’m constantly amazed at the beauty of this country, as pretty much everywhere you look there’s tall trees and beautiful snow-capped mountains. Sometimes I wonder how Swiss people ever manage to move from this place.

RTW 2013 | Chur

Nestled in the east, Chur is a small town that sits on the Rhine River, and is a good transfer point for going west to Zermatt or going south to Italy via the Bernina Pass. The town is the capital of the Swiss canton Graubünden and is also known as the oldest town in Switzerland.

I pretty much came straight to Chur after landing in Zurich, as I wanted the opportunity to walk around a bit before knocking out early (jet lag is no bueno). The main reason I wanted to visit Chur is because this is also the starting point of the southbound Bernina Express down to the northern part of Italy (Tirano). The journey here from Zurich was only 1.5 hours, but the two are worlds apart. Pretty much once we left Zurich, it went from industrial city to farmland with sheep and happy cows.

My first impression of Chur was…where is everyone?? The town isn’t very big, and there aren’t many people out on the streets. The people that are out are very friendly though, and cars will always wave a pedestrian through. Just walking through the streets, there is quite a lot of Swiss pride going on. It’s possible that it’s due to being in a tourist area, but in general, I see a lot of Swiss crosses everywhere, and the flag is prevalent in most areas.

My hotel was in old town Chur on Poststrasse, and it was an incredible area to bum around in. I was able to just sit at a café and enjoy an espresso sitting on the side of the street. For dinner I ended up picking up some cheese, prosciutto, and bread at a local supermarket and bringing it to the Kornplatz to enjoy in the late afternoon before sundown. Right next to the Kornplatz, I found a little park area with a climbing structure and built in trampolines…pretty cool!

enough for lunch tomorrow too!

Kornplatz

Trampolines!!

I think if I ever came back to Switzerland, this would be a place I’d be interesting in revisiting. It’s a nice serene town and the pace of life is very relaxing. It’s a lot of happy people that seem to enjoy their lives. 

RTW 2013 | 1st leg – SFO --> BOS --> ZUR

In celebration of finally getting an american passport, I'm embarking on a round-the-world trip (well, really just the northern hemisphere) to check out a few places I would've previously needed visas/bribes to visit. I'll try to chronicle as much of it as I can (or until I get tired of typing).

So this whole crack-pot idea came about because US Airways was doing some weird miles promotion back in May. My college buddy Ernest, who is an avid frequent flyer, pointed me toward this deal as a great way to be able to circle the globe for a very reasonable price. I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation and realized that this was indeed a ridiculously good deal. This, coupled with the fact that US Airways was merging with American and will be leaving the Star Alliance soon, meant that I would have to take advantage of the larger airline network before the merger completed. I quickly looked up the individual flights needed to complete this journey, and decided on a flight plan.

The first leg of the journey took me from SF to Zurich via Boston. Sadly, I'd only be in Boston for 1.5 hours and wouldn't be able to head into the city for any adventures. On the bright side, Switzerland would only be a short nap away! I got to SFO a bit early, as I had a little bit of work to wrap up and I also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to do some plane-spotting. Of course, domestic terminal would only be limited to united express and maybe the occasional trans-continental plane, but what the heck, still pretty interesting to watch. Oddly enough, the area I decided to plop down in didn't have any planes at all! Oh well, time to catch up on work and get myself ready to board.

By the time we boarded, the gates were filled with planes. There was a cluster of the short-haul united express jets, and our 757 looked massive in comparison. Everyone in my section was preoccupied with the boston/detroit game, which was starting a little after take-off time. Half of the flight was asking for wifi or for the game to be shown on the TV. Sadly, our plane wasn’t one of the renovated 757’s that had directTV.

The connecting flight in Boston was an overnight trip on a Swiss A330. Apparently this and the A340 comprise most of their trans-atlantic fleet. It’s definitely a nice ride, and the staggered seat-plan made for an interesting flight. The alternating window seats, coupled with the staggered side/middle arrangement, meant I had quite a bit of privacy during the flight.

Swiss does a good job of incorporating the regional cuisine in its dining options, and today was no different. The meal was from the region of Neuchâtel, and I had the beef tenderloin with roasted veggies…quite tasty. It was kind of odd – when I asked the server what he recommends, he commented I don’t know I’m going to eat after you do. Breakfast was an order form you fill out specifying if you want to be woken and what kind of breakfast items you wanted for a continental breakfast.

All throughout the flight, I was watching different programming that highlighted the different things you can do in Switzerland. Basically, if you're an outdoorsy person, you want to live here. Since the country is nestled within the Alps, there's a combination of town and mountains in pretty much every glance you have, and from the plane, you can easily see that.

Landing in Zurich at 11am meant I had plenty of daylight to soak in the fresh swiss scenery. Even in Zurich, there was something different about this big city that we in the states just don’t enjoy. It’s hard to describe. After a quick shower in the airport and a look-around for the nearest ATM, I was on my way to Chur!

50 beans | first encounter: francis! francis! Y1

A few years ago, illy came out with this new “iperespresso” machine that they dubbed the Y1 Touch (the first iteration had a manual button). The machine uses a capsule that was developed by illy, one that is supposed to extract the perfect amount of crema and deliver the “perfect” espresso. Of course, I do have lingering questions regarding freshness as the beans are pre-ground and tamped into the capsules before being sealed in cans and shipped out. These would be similar questions I would have for any Keurig or Nespresso system that also use pods. Eager to promote its new machine and espresso product, illy came out with the francis! francis! Y1 touch machine at a steeply discounted price of $75, with a multi-year subscription to their iperespresso capsules.

Although I was eager to test out the new machine, I couldn’t justify making such a large commitment to test out something that I had doubts about in the first place. Plus I had already committed to the Saeco Jura fully-automatic espresso machine a few years ago, so I wouldn’t be able to get another one. Well, this weekend while I was in Miami, the hotel I was staying at had a Y1 touch in the room. Alas, my chance had come to test this bad-boy out.

The design is pretty simple and easy to understand. The little tower is where the pod goes, and where the pressure is presumably generated. The overall look and appeal is nice, the brushed aluminum look with just the right amount of illy-red accents in the right places. For a subsidized $75 machine, this is pretty nice, especially when you consider that most machines like this run in the $200-500 range (I think the entry level nespresso might be $99, but it sure doesn’t look this nice). The one thing I did notice, was the lack of a cup-warmer. I know, this might not be a sticking point for most people, but the other illy machines come with it, so I would’ve expected this machine to include the same.

The machine is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case, an easy-to-understand instruction manual was provided to guide you through the process. The first step of course, is to turn on the machine and fill the tank with water. Of course, it was suggested to use bottled water (I like the fact that the coffee is free, but the bottle of water sitting next to the coffee is $10) – fortunately I had an extra bottle I picked up in the lobby at breakfast. I filled it up and got it ready to go.

My first impression was the ease of use – of course, any espresso pod system would pretty much have to have the same ease of use in order for it to be convenient enough to justify paying more for pods. This system was no other than the keurig or nespresso. Put in the pod, push a button, and once the espresso finished extraction, the pod disposes of itself. In this case, the pod is disposed upon opening it for the next one (similar to the nespresso).

The espresso itself was pretty tasty, it mitigated my concerns about freshness; however, the roast was a bit dark, especially compared to the lighter roasts that I’ve been getting accustomed to at some of the 3rd-waved cafés, though, still way better than any shot I’ve seen pulled at starbucks though. The crema is just right, which makes me think the capsule is probably rigged in a way that will generate the foam when it comes in contact with the oils (not 100% sure though). Overall pretty decent considering it was probably roasted and ground 3-5 months ago.

50 beans | manhattan cold-brew crawl

A few weeks ago, I went out to new york with a few college buddies for the US Open and whatever other shenanigans that presented themselves. The trip started when we found this price-war between american, united, and virgin america. It was a one-day sale for SFO-EWR, so we booked it in a hurry. Good thing we were able to get it on the same week as the Open semi's and finals. And hey, while I'm in new york, why not try out the coffee? Now, most of the 3rd wave coffee hubs are in the west coast (portland, sf, seattle); however, micro-roasters have sprung up in new york, because, well, why not? It's a huge market with international residents, so someone's bound to appreciate good coffee right? So here's part one of the NY coffee crawl...these are all non-NY based coffee places that have set up shop in NY. The next trip (whenever that is...) will explore the local ones.

Blue Bottle Coffee – Rockefeller Center
The first full day in new york, Gaj and Alex were on their way to Rockefeller Center to check out the view from the observation deck. Since I had already been up there before, I decided to head on over to 5th ave to get my watch regulated at the boutique (the NY has an onsite watchmaker) and was planning on meeting the others when they were done with Top of the Rock. When I got to Rockefeller Center, they were still on their way up, so I decided to hit up blue bottle in the basement of the building and wait for them in the square below (read: people watch).

The shop was pretty small, but they managed to have two separate registers/lines. Even though they have pretty much the same roasts (e.g. hayes valley, 17ft ceiling, giant steps, etc) as the ones in SF, there was still a decidedly new york flair to the coffee shop. As it turns out, blue bottle opened a roaster in Brooklyn, and are now operating three shops in manhattan. Since it was a bit warm outside, I figured it’d be perfect for some new orleans iced coffee (cold brew, milk, and chicory).

The coffee was as expected, the chicory adding just the right amount of sweetness. The barista adds the coffee for you, and in my opinion, added a bit too much milk. Aside from that, the coffee was perfect. I parked myself on a bench outside and just watched people walk by, which was pretty entertaining. It’s funny to see just how many different types of people cycle through new york on a daily basis. I heard so many different languages and accents, saw people from all walks of life, and even eavesdropped on two attorneys next to me who are apparently defending an underground art dealer. **sigh** only in new york...

Intelligentsia Coffee – Highline Park
A coffee roaster that hails from Chicago, Intelligentsia coffee has also now set up shop in new york, with a shop in the highline hotel, and a training lab over by NYU. Located on the side of an old brownstone building, they, like blue bottle, have two separate brewing areas. The first, being a small shop inside the building, the other being a coffee truck outside – very much like a taco truck, but filled to the brim with tasty coffee.

Since we were based in midtown (51st and Lexington), this was quite a trek for us (lower east side). We had an entire day of tennis ahead of us, so Sean, Alex and I took the E train down to Chelsea and hoofed the 5 blocks to hit up Intelligentsia for some brew before making our way over to Arthur Ashe in Flushing. Gaj and Bo were meeting us there (Gaj waited in line for 3.5hrs to get us some original cronuts).

Since it was the first time I’ve seen a coffee truck, I figured I gotta try it right?? Once again, I opted for cold brew (hey, why mess with a good thing?). The brew here is a lighter roast that what blue bottle offered for their new orleans iced coffee. It’s a fruitier taste, and pretty much renders cream and sugar unnecessary.

another blue bottle sighting

After getting our coffees, we decided to take a walk down highline park before heading over to Flushing. Highline park is an old elevated train track that runs 20ft above the city streets. After this route was retired, a plan was put in place to turn the tracks into an elevated park. It was pretty cool, they have lawn chairs out there, some benches, even some coffee places (blue bottle has a stall here too). We even saw the place where my roommate Arian proposed to his wife. It’s pretty unique to new york, and a good way to repurpose obsolete equipment.

Stumptown Coffee – Chelsea
This coffee roaster, originally from Portland, established its presence in new york by setting up shop in the ace hotel, followed by another one further downtown. The midtown location was a few blocks away, so we decided to swing by on the way to the Met.

The location was much smaller than Intelligentsia, and had a line that went all the way around the corner. Unlike Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia, there was only one line and one place for them to make the coffee, so it sort of held the line up. Aside from that, the place was pretty cool. They sell all kinds of hipster coffee equipment and coffee supplies.

Since I didn’t want to break my cold brew streak, I opted once again for the cold stuff. The coffee here was quite similar to the cold brew at Intelligentsia. It too was a light roast, and the coffee was quite enjoyable.

After picking up the coffee, we headed back uptown to the Met, which featured some pretty cool 19th and 20th century impressionist paintings and 16th century Americana (e.g. George Washington crossing the Delaware). I think I’m going to come back here the next time I’m in new york.

good to know.