On 1st August 2024, my mother, sister, husband, nephew, 6-year-old, 3-year-old and 2-year-old left St Pancras International on the Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord.  We had 2 buggies and a lot of luggage.

The toddlers were excited, the station staff were friendly and gave them bottles of "Hadrians Spring", henceforth known as "Security Water".  They could walk through the train and were enthralled by the Cafe.  The breakfast was excellent value at 8€ for a coffee, large croissant and orange juice.  They slept a little bit, and woke up in Paris at 10:19.

The Olympics made the interchange to the RER a bit busier than normal, but it was a brief journey to Gare de Lyon.  We met my friend and her beautiful baby daughter.  We had a lovely lunch in Bistrot Mariusz, Le Tren Bleu can wait for another trip with a smaller group.

Our journey was not direct because of the landslide in the Maurienne Valley in 2023, which has now been cleared. 

The 12:22 to Basel was very busy, with lots of interrailers / eurrailers who had not played much Tetris, which would have helped with arranging luggage.

We didn't expect to make the connection for the 15:37 from Basel to Zurich as our train from Paris was scheduled to arrive at 15:26, and was on time, yet we did, without rushing.  The hour-and-twelve minute journey was uneventful and on a commuter-type train.

The train between Zurich and Lugano was magical.  It had a family carriage, which was designed for small children to play in, and my toddlers were so keen to play there that they would not have been disuaded by the presence of the older family, all in their  70s with their picnic banquet.  We did not stay and play there because I worried that looked passive-aggressive!

My children loved the views of the rivers and mountains.  The cafe had excellent wine and fabulous cheeses.  My family was happy.

From Lugano, we had an enchanting twilight train ride through the lakes to Milan, which was a beautiful hour and 17 minutes.

When we arrived in Milan, we took a taxi to our hotel then went for a walk to have a pizza and gelatto.

The following morning, we had a walking tour of Milan.  My children laughed at the shirtless man by the Cathedral, who was told off by the police!

Then we had lunch and boarded our very comfortably air-conditioned Frecciarossa.