Our twilight sightseeing of Swiss landscape (1)

The sudden drop of temperature (from what I perceived looking outside from our private cabin) and the quiet but secured uphill crawling of TrenItalia in the crevasses of this mountainous landscape of the Alps - dotted with exquisite little village houses tucked-in along the footings of snow-blanketed hills and snow-capped mountains, were my indications that we were entering the lovely country of Switzerland...

After exploring several cities of Italy with a guide tour and friend, it was time to visit more cities of mainland Europe practically just by ourselves.

We enjoyed an evening of fine dinner with friends in Milan a day prior, in time for welcoming New Year. Also a couple of days earlier, we went to Milan's Centrale and attempted to reserve seats for a New Year trip going to Monaco, Barcelona, and Madrid before going up to Paris .

The plan was scraped as the train operation was shut-down January first. To make it worse, January second was already fully book for these destinations, we were told. Lesson learned: no reservation too close to any day of intended trip. A contingency quickly occurred at this time and subsequently asked ourselves: "Why don't we head out to Zurich, Brussels, Luxembourg, and finally Paris?" It worked for us and fate seemed to be in agreement to the new plan as we were able to get our seat reservations from the counter that quickly.

It was early in the afternoon when we were sent off of our train from Centrale terminal by our friends. Soon, the train started on its way. The weather was nice, but noticeably a bit gloomy.

Inside, and after settling to our cabin, I took a nap. It must be a short one because when I woke up, I noticed few feet away from us was a couple of Italian soldiers checking other passengers' documents. It was, of course, an indication we were still within their soil. Shortly, these two fully uniformed Italian military were in front of our seats asking for our identification documents. I showed them our passports. Amidst their commanding fatigue uniforms, those snugly-fitted brimless beret, the massive rifle slinged on their shoulders, or the seemingly visceral tapping sound of their boots, I, with honestly, was not too alarmed. They demonstrated an ideal way a military should approach any civilian: an amicable smile and a rather courteous request of whatever they wanted. This reminded me of Royal Canadian Mounted Police - they're known for their unique uniforms and approachable attitude as well (they can be tough when needed, for sure!).    

Can't say for sure, how long we were in the comfort of our seats, but after awhile, the view from outside became a bit darker. It must have been around twilight. I began to think of it as a nice prelude to peaceful landscape sightseeing which I was about to sketch in my mind. Imprinting them on my thought was the best effort I could make if I want to capture all the interesting pictures reeling - as fast as our moving train, before my eyes. The camera was a lesser help that time as the train had turned into a faster-moving metal beast chasing nothing but time in the occasional slopes and meandering terrain of the Alps.

Nevertheless, it still was a surreal experience witnessing all these new things: the smoke-spewing chimneys in those little village, the quaint little houses, the heavy fog spread across the hill, and some occasional solitary tree in their barest form as well as thick pine trees clustered together and side by side standing bravely in that lonely wintertime. TO BE CONTINUED...