My infatuation with Swiss Rail

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My infatuation with the Swiss Rail Network

One of my largest grievances with the United States, born from my time in Europe, is our lack of accessible transportation. It seems that wherever I’ve gone in Europe, the metro or train system blows anything we have out of the water.

Europe has the benefit of geographical density, which is a large reason the continent can pull off train travel at a high level.

And Switzerland is perhaps the best example of that train travel mastery.

On our recent trip to Switzerland, we were able to see more of the country in 2 days than I thought was possible — all thanks to the Swiss Rail Pass.

After skiing in Zermatt in the morning, we caught a noon train out of town to Bern. 2 hours later, we checked into our Airbnb and took off to explore a new city.

The next day, after enjoying Bern in the morning, we caught a train to Interlaken. In an hour, we were back in the mountains. From the Interlaken station, we explored the surrounding mountain towns before continuing our journey to Lake Como.

We then had a 40-minute stopover in Lucerne. To our surprise, the seasonal Christmas market was set up not even a 5-minute walk from the train station.

We grabbed a few things to eat and enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the water before continuing our travels.

The trains were clean, quiet, spacious, and reliable (as were most things in Switzerland).

Even delays and track closures were handled in an orderly, graceful fashion. When we ran into a track closure, we were instructed to exit the train and proceed to a group of double-decker coach buses that took us to the next station. The transition was organized and timely.

The fact that we accomplished all of this by train blew me away.

It was truly a treat to experience the Swiss Rail.

Weekly Write-up

If you want to get better at something, you need to be intentional about it.

That means devoting time to it, which can be difficult with so many things competing for our time.

Enter productivity tools.

Most are more trouble than they’re worth. And the usefulness of these tools is entirely dependent on preference. But if you’re trying to keep track of information, thoughts, ideas, and/or projects, it helps to have some tool or system to enable that tracking.

For me that is Notion.

I use Notion for everything. And that’s exactly why I like it.

Calendar, monthly reviews, journal entries, guiding principles, business, jiu-jitsu — it’s all in Notion.

And it has been a game-changer for me.

This isn’t necessarily a push for everyone to use Notion as much as it is for everyone to have some system to help them work toward becoming their best self.

The easier and more enjoyable it is to keep track of progress, the easier it is to progress.

That’s what Notion has done for me. In offering value through delight, I’m now incentivized to create and store more information. With more information and ideas written down, I’m able to build on my thinking and progress at a faster rate.

It is a balancing act because not all this saved information is useful.

I’ve had to clean it up a few times and in the process, I’ve gotten better at discerning what is worth storing.

Ultimately, it has been a huge net positive.

If this sounds like something that could help you, feel free to reach out and I can point you toward some resources that can help you get up and running.

What is your version of Notion?

Airplane Content

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

I love reading memoirs. When I was recommended Steve Martin’s autobiography, Born Standing Up, I ordered the book immediately. And I’m glad I did. While Steve’s humor might not be for everyone, his story can be. More than anything, this is a story about a kid who never gave up on a dream. And due to the comedic style, it will garner some chuckles along the way.

AI Travel Art Piece of the Week

Cheers ‘til next week,

T.O.