switzerland 1977

(Both 17.2.1977)

This is Chur in Switzerland, on a cold evening in February 1977. Yes, that is a train running down the road, and this is a sight you can still see today, although the track has been doubled in the town itself.

I'd been Interrailing and this was one of those iconic locations I'd planned to visit. The branch line up to Arosa is very spectacular and soon after leaving Chur runs into deep snow. But this was my favourite stretch of the line, the incongruity of long trains running down the road still a novelty.

This was very different from home back in Littlehampton, I was just twenty and couldn't speak a word of German, so it all seemed very foreign. It's very familiar to me now of course, having visited (and lived) in Switzerland many times since!

Innsbruck 1977

(All 31.1.1977)

These are some very cold shots taken in Innsbruck on my first winter Interrail ticket. I'd done a summer trip but winter was better in a way because the trains were quieter and I could usually get a good night's sleep!

I followed one of the tram routes out to the edge of the city - it was seriously cold! Then followed it back to the station and travelled on to Vienna.

I returned to Innsbruck a couple of years ago and it's a fantastic city, possibly my favourite in Europe. But these dull black and white pictures really don't capture it at all - or perhaps it really was more monochrome back then - Austria was still a poor country. It even had steam trains and four wheel coaches on the railways in 1977!