Switzerland is, without exaggeration, the easiest country in the world to see entirely by rail. The network is so dense and so punctual that you can plan a two-week trip down to the minute — and then actually have it run on time. Here is an itinerary that strings together the best of the Alps, the lakes, and the cities, all on a single Swiss Travel Pass.

Days 1–3: Zurich and the east

Start in Zurich to shake off the jet lag. It is walkable, lake-side, and a gentle introduction to Swiss prices. From here, take the day trip to the Rhine Falls — the largest waterfall in Europe by volume — which is barely 40 minutes away by regional train.

On day three, ride east to the Glacier Express route's quieter cousin and overnight in the Engadine valley near St. Moritz. The Bernina line here is a UNESCO World Heritage railway, and for good reason.

Days 4–7: The Bernina and Italian Switzerland

The Bernina Express climbs to 2,253 metres without a single rack-and-pinion section — pure adhesion railway engineering — then drops you into palm-fringed Lugano on the Italian-speaking side. The temperature swing in three hours is genuinely disorienting in the best way.

After two years of evenings, three failed PCB revisions, and one small fire, I finally have a laptop I built entirely from open hardware. Schematics, case STLs, firmware, and the keyboard matrix are all up on the repo under a permissive license.

This started as a protest project. I was tired of soldered-down RAM, glued batteries, and laptops that become e-waste the moment a single component fails. I wanted to prove that a genuinely repairable, fully documented machine was possible for a determined hobbyist — not just a corporation.

The hard parts

Power delivery nearly killed the project. Negotiating USB-C PD while charging the cells and running the panel meant the first two board revisions browned out under load.