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We left Lucerne on a paddle steamer on the first leg of William Tell Express from Lucerne to Fluelen at the southern end of Lake Lucerne or Waldstattersee as it is known locally. We collected a box each containing guidebooks, lunch vouchers and a free gift which was a Swiss army knife.

Waldenstein is one of five identical paddle steamers that are used on this route or the reverse route and lots of stops in between. This part of the journey takes a leisurely three hours criss crossing the lake and stopping at picturesque lakeside villages and in the winter they become ski resorts. The first one of these is Weggis which has a cable car up to Mount Rigi at 5,800 feet, or the less scary alternative is from the Vitznau stop, where there is a mountain railway. There is a commentary in 3 languages announcing the stops and explaining points of interest.

Lunch is included with a first class reservation so represents good value as the reservation wasn’t expensive. Lunch started at 10.30am so a little early for the pasta that was included, and in hindsight the later connection may be better. The snag is that drinks are not included and do work out ridiculously expensive so I would advise taking at least water with you.

At the Uri part of the lake sheer cliff faces surround you at 10,000 feet. While sitting dreaming on a calm and peaceful lake we are told that this beautiful part of the lake can be rough and unavigable and to demonstrate this fact we can listen to a piece of The William Tell Overture by Rossini so that we can close our eyes and imagine we are in the middle of a tempestuous storm. Am I missing the point, personally I would prefer the idyllic calmness of the lake!

The three hours passed very quickly and we arrived at Fluelen where we transferred to the William Tell Express train leg of the journey. Once we were on the train it climbed very steeply past the Schlossberg glacier. And within minutes, instead of looking up thousands of feet, we were now looking down into valleys, gorges and alpine villages.

Once through the Gotthard tunnel we arrived at Airolo at 3,747 feet, the first is Italian. Once we reached Faido the difference became even more apparent. Houses are brick instead of wood, with elaborate wrought iron balconies. Lilac, hydrangeas and sunflowers replace the small alpine flowers seen on the mountainside. Catholic stone churches replace the distinctive Lutheran domes.

Our chosen destination was Lugano so we had to change in Bellinzona. That was painless as it was on the same platform, so after a short journey on a local train we arrived in Lugano...in style!