Ambling Ramblings #14-Ambush, Albanians and an Alpine Avalanche

The Alps are truly stunningly breathtaking and well deserve their reputation as some of the world's most. Incredible peaks. The towering, snow capped, rugged and rocky mountains, many with their peaks obscured by cloud, surrounding lakes with chalets dotted high in the hills, gushing streams with snowy banks, lovely stone bridges, curving gently over the creeks and streams, frozen waterfalls on rocky outcroppings and small towns scattered along the railway tracks kept me vastly entertained on the train trip from Italy to Switzerland.
Our journey was not without adventure though, our first train pulled up and we boarded and looked for our seats which were in carriage 9, only to discover that this train only had 8 carriages! We managed to find some other seats and settled in for the first of 3 train rides. Arriving in Zurich, our next train was delayed due to the snowy conditions, meaning we would miss our following train, which wasn't too much of an issue, as trains run that route every hour, it just made our day a bit longer! It was so nice to finally arrive at our destination in Switzerland and curl up by the fire in the home of some very kind and generous friends from years past. It was so nice to enjoy some home cooked meals and to stay in a house, instead of hotel rooms for a change! We felt quite refreshed when we left after having had a 'snow day'. We enjoyed countless cups of tea by the fire, went for a walk with our umbrellas in the snow (it was falling all day), made snow angels on the backyard and then I was ambushed with a great, big wet snowball from my lovely travelling buddy! (I got her back though and we had a good snow ball fight!) It was a lot of fun staying with a family and eating some very Swiss meals (with lots of good cheese!) as well as getting to do some washing!
Our next lot of train travel was not dull either and made for quite a day as we left Switzerland! The first train trip was without incident, however, then the fun really started! We were settled comfortably in our seats and had eaten our lovely packed lunches when the train suddenly terminated at a small station somewhere near the border of Switzerland and Austria due to the risk of an avalanche in the mountains! The hazards of travelling in winter I suppose. We were transferred to buses to take us through the mountains and then were put back on a train for the rest of the way, adding another hour to an already 4 hour long trip. This meant that we missed the next train, but managed to amuse ourselves at the station while waiting for the next one by having a picnic of biscuits and nutella (our new staple food) on the platform. We got some very strange looks from passer-bys, but we had fun with it! Getting on the next train, finding seats with enough space for us and our bags proved to be somewhat problematic, and when we finally found a compartment with enough space in it, we tumbled in, almost landing in the laps of our fellow passengers! One of these passengers proved to be a most interesting fellow from Albania who spoke very limited English, but was determined to make conversation with us. He could well have been an ambassador for his country as he was very keen to encourage us to visit Albania and reassured us that although there is violence and trouble in his country, tourists are quite safe and protected by the police.....we weren't entirely convinced and will be leaving Albania off our travel plans for this trip!
Oh the fun and adventure of train travel! Never a dull moment (especially with a travelling buddy like mine!).