Four days in Switzerland

01

One youth pass, four days

In July 2026, I built a trip around the Grand Est Pass Jeune “Grenzenlos”. The summer offer linked regional travel in eastern France with parts of Germany and access to the Swiss network under the arrangement described at the time. The name meant “without borders”, and that was exactly what I hoped to test.

Buying it online was straightforward. I read the conditions several times and could find no residence requirement on the page I used. On 6 July I paid and received the pass. Four days later, that missing piece of wording would become the most stressful part of the journey.

02

The long way south

I left Eindhoven at six on 10 July. The plan was simple: regional trains through Germany, then Switzerland by the end of the day. It began to unravel almost immediately. A delay before Venlo broke the connections, and a wrong train sent me on an unnecessary excursion through Aachen.

After Cologne, the journey settled into a long passage south beside the Rhine. Castles appeared above vineyards; barges moved against the current. Boppard, St Goar and the Loreley passed outside the window. The lost hours had at least delivered a very good view.

There were changes at Mainz, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. By half past nine I reached Basel Badischer Bahnhof, a German-operated station inside Switzerland. The Roche towers stood beyond the platforms in pink-violet evening light. After more trains, I arrived in Oerlikon at 23:55. My friend's lights were still on. Door to door, the journey had taken roughly eighteen hours.

03

Lavaux through the window

The next day had a proper purpose: a family gathering near Lausanne. Zurich HB in the morning seemed to run like a wound clock, people flowing towards their platforms along invisible tracks.

After Bern and Fribourg, the train descended from Puidoux towards the lake. Lavaux's vineyards stepped down the hillside, Lake Geneva opened below them, and the Savoy mountains stood across the water. Phones rose around the carriage.

In Renens we visited EPFL, then spent hours over lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The family gathering was the point of the trip. Everything else was, conveniently, “on the way”.

04

Geneva as an extra stop

Geneva became the afternoon's dessert. From Cornavin I walked towards the lake and the Jet d'Eau. At the Bains des Pâquis, people escaped the heat by swimming. Sailboats and the tall white jet occupied the same brilliant blue-green water.

A tram took me to the Place des Nations. The Broken Chair stood outside the UN grounds, its missing leg making an enormous object feel vulnerable. It is a monument whose form gives you the question before you read the explanation.

In the evening I returned along the lake. At Lausanne, I made an impulsive decision: instead of going directly to Zurich, I would stop in Bern for sunset. A pass changes the way distance feels.

05

Bern, then an unwelcome fare

I reached Bern while there was still light, crossed the old town and climbed to the Rosengarten. Below, the Aare curved around the roofs and cathedral. Pink evening cloud gathered above the city; lights began appearing on the bridges.

At half past ten I boarded a train back to Zurich. Near the end of the journey, a ticket inspector told me the youth pass was not valid in Switzerland. I showed the conditions I had bought it under, but the issue could not be resolved on board.

I paid CHF 53 for the ticket and CHF 10 in additional charges, keeping every receipt. The amount was frustrating. More worrying was the remaining travel: if the pass was not accepted, the whole plan would have to change.

06

At the SBB counter

The next morning I went to the SBB Customer Center at Zurich HB with the pass, receipts, purchase record and screenshots. My explanation was simple: I had bought and used the product according to the conditions shown to me.

The staff member checked an internal notice updated on the day I had begun travelling. It addressed the missing residence information and said the pass should be accepted in Switzerland in that situation. He printed the notice and refunded the full CHF 63.

No one needed to raise their voice. Keeping the documents and asking the customer centre to investigate had resolved it. I left with both the money and something more useful for the rest of the trip: a written explanation.

07

Including the lake boats

Reassured, I crossed the country to Geneva, left my luggage with family and doubled back to Montreux. Under normal ticket-by-ticket pricing, that route would have felt absurd. With the pass, I could follow the day instead.

It was hot beside the lake. A white paddle steamer approached the quay, dressed in flags, its brass and wood carefully maintained. I boarded. As the boat left Montreux, the wind on deck cut through the heat and the hillside rose behind the waterfront.

Beyond Vevey, Lavaux appeared for the third time: first from a descending train, then from an evening train in the opposite direction, now from the water. Stone terraces, villages and the railway layered the shore. A red-and-white train occasionally slipped beneath the vineyards.

Near Lutry a rescue boat passed. Before Pully, two swans moved out of our way without hurrying. At seven we reached Ouchy in Lausanne. Dinner, another train, and a bed in Geneva completed the day.

08

The final tally

At half past four on 13 July, Geneva was still asleep. I left for the airport, flew to Schiphol and took the final trains home. This time the Dutch leg went smoothly. By lunchtime I was back in Eindhoven.

The tally was four days, 2,683 kilometres, eighteen recorded stops, more than twenty trains, a paddle steamer and several trams, plus one fare dispute resolved with a full refund. The Dutch connections, travel outside the pass area and return flight were separate expenses.

This is a record of that particular summer's journey, rather than a promise about a future ticket. What I brought home was a memory of a remarkably connected transport system—and the printed SBB notice. I filed it away because a system taking responsibility for its unclear wording seemed worth keeping a record of.