Exciting Toboggan Run from Preda to Bergün in the Albula Valley

(This post created and published on January 25, 2026. This outing took place in February 2014, but I am currently reminiscing). 

Thursday February 27, 2014 -- Today we went looking for snow, and this is what we found!

This 6-km sledding track along the Albula railway line is very popular and is specially maintained for this sport. In summer it is an alpine pass road, but no vehicle traffic is allowed in winter. The track starts near the train station in Preda, and you end about 1½ km from the train station in Bergün, so you have to pull your sled back there again each time. In winter a special sledding train runs back and forth between the two stations. We ran the track 3 times, and it got faster as the day wore on. Our maximum speed was 35 km/hr (there is a meter near the end which displays your speed). No crashes! It took us 3½ hours to get here from home, so it was easily a day trip.

(At the bottom of this blog I added a video I made from piecing together the various videos I took as we raced down the track. It's a bit wobbly because I had a small hand-held camera, but it's fun to watch!)

Heading along the Albula Railway Line, a world heritage site. On the way from Thusis to Tiefencastel we pass the Punt da Solis bridge over the Albula River. This is one of many beautiful bridges in this region. 

VIDEO:

The train heading toward the Landwasser Viaduct on its way to Filisur!

(Note: Not great Quality)

The train approaches Bergün, which is where the sledding run ends. 

VIDEO:
The train leaves Bergün and starts to make its way up the valley over several bridges and through several 360-degree tunnels. 

This is Preda, where the the sledding run "starts". Well, actually, you have to pull your sled for about a kilometer first before the actual downhill starts, but the landscape is pretty! We started on our first run here at 11:30.

A map shows how the sledding trail goes down the Albula Valley. It takes about 45 minutes to do one "run", which includes walking about one kilometer on each end.  

Current (2026) description of the Toboggan Trail on our Switzerland Mobility Map. 

One single photo from the first run down the trail. On the first run, it was kind of warm and the snow was soft, so it wasn't a very fast ride, but got faster as the day went on and more people used the track. 

At 12:15 we were back in the village of Bergün and headed for the train station to take the special sledding train back up to Preda. 

The train between Bergün and Preda crosses several such viaducts. You can just see the sledding trail down below, as it passes under one of the arches. 

A good look at the prepared sledding trail from the train window (as the train crosses one of the viaducts). In summer, this is a vehicle road. Unfortunately, this first part is level, and you have to pull your sled for about a kilometer (or 1.5 km) before the downhill section starts. 

A look at a couple of the viaducts that we pass under with the sleds. As it is a weekday, there are not too many people here. 

Back up at the Preda station now at just after 1 p.m., ready to start on the second run!

We actually brought our own sleds on the train (from home), but did not bring helmets, but that is recommended. You can rent the sleds up here at the little station in Preda. 

Enjoying the views on the first 1-km section where we have to pull our sleds. 

You have to pull the sled for the first 20 minutes or so, before the road dips enough to ride the sled. This here is about where we could finally start "sliding"!

Here's the little "sledding train" (pulling just one wagon where everyone just piles in with their sleds) heading back to Bergün to pick up the next load of sledders. 

View up the Albula Valley as we head down on the toboggan run now. (I stopped once in a while to take photos, and also some videos!)

The track runs beneath the arches of the train viaducts! This is the way tobogganning runs should be!

Here the train makes a 360-degree loop inside the mountains, that's why you see more than one bridge. 

A cargo train heads past slightly higher up

Urs follows behind to keep an eye on me! He's way more cautious than I am.

At 2 p.m. we are back in Bergün again, and making our way to the train station for the third train ride up to Preda for the third and last run down the mountain (no additional photos).

I laugh every time I see a sign like this! "Crap" means "Rock" in the local Romantsch language. 

VIDEO:

I didn't take photos on the third run of the day, 

but here is a video I put together of the videos I took on one of the runs! 

It is not great quality because I had just a small, handheld camera.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The red line is the railway, the blue track is the sledding path.

By 3:10 p.m. we were done the final run, which was pretty icy by then and we clocked a maximum of 35 km/hr! his is what the mountains to the north look like, as we started on our way back home. 

Heading back toward Thusis after crossing the Landwasser Viaduct from Filisur. 

Here's the approximate location of the Albula Valley withing Switzerland.

Here is an idea of how it looks in summer. The trains makes several loops in tunnels to gain altitude. (The Swiss are master tunnel builders!) You can see the road on which we ran the sleds.

"Industry Espionage" Tour in the Sernf Valley: Glarner Feingebäck Bakery

(This post published on September 23, 2024)

Wednesday February 5, 2014 -- We spent the morning at the Glarner Feingebäck Factory in the Sernf Valley near Glarus, which is a bakery (employs 30 people) that makes specialty pastries on request, and is one of only a few, if not the only bakery in Switzerland that bakes kosher products. The history and explanation of the works and the tour as well were very interesting, and of course we got to have coffee and cookies too! (Tours were offered for free at a variety of industries in this region, to promote knowledge of the history of industry in Canton Glarus. We could also have had a tour of a weaving factory, for example, but this was the tour available on Wednesday, Urs' day off).

After the tour we took the bus to the end of the Sernf Valley to a town called Elm, but it was very cold and windy with low clouds, and not a single restaurant open. So we just had our picnic lunch at the old train station while waiting for the bus. (Wednesday was "rest day").

In Elm there is a very special hole in the mountain called the Martin's Loch (Martin's hole), a 15m diameter hole through which the sun shines for a couple of minutes directly on the church tower, on only 4 days each year (March and September). After that the sun disappears again and rises 15 minutes later above the mountains.

Here is a time-lapse video someone took of the sun shining through the Martin's Hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27yGfqGPpm4

An ugly day for an outing, but we are going to get a free tour of the Glarner Feingebäck bakery in Engi in the Sernf Valley, so worth a trip anyway. 

First we all were ushered into the meeting room for coffee and cookies and an introductory explanation of the history of the bakery and its operations.

We all had to put on special hair nets and coats to prevent contamination. 

Production area

This is where the handmade chocolates get made. 

The chocolates are all made by hand. A large variety of chocolate slabs are produced like this. There is a real science to how this is done, especially temperature and consistency. 

Yumm, we all got to try the dark chocolate and hazelnut chunks. 

These pastries are called Beignets, and it is all done by hand!

VIDEO:

The production of the beignets, all done by hand.

Packing the beignets (or that is what they called them)

Then we moved on to the production of the popular "Birnenbrot", a pastry with a filling of dried pears. 

Birnenbrot, ready to be packaged

VIDEO:

Packaging of the Birnenbrot 

After the tour of the Bakery, we got on a bus (in front of the building) and took a ride up valley to the town of Elm, where we had hoped to look around at the pretty houses for a bit, but it was so icy cold, and visibility was poor, so we just sat in the waiting room in the former train station there (there was a train line in this valley from 1905 to 1969) and ate our lunch, while waiting for the next bus to take us back out of the valley. 

Waiting at the bus stop across from the Glarner Bakery in Engi, for a bus to the back of the valley. The weather there does not look inviting, but we figured, since we are already here, let's go have a look. 

Some nice houses in Elm. We don't see much of the mountainous backdrop, though.

Walking near the church in Elm

Past those houses to the mountains in the back is where the Tschingelhorn range with the Martin's hole is supposed to be. 

We would have liked to at least have lunch in a restaurant while here, but it looks like Wednesday is the day off for restaurants in Elm in winter, so we sat at the former train station (train line is no longer in operation) and ate the sandwiches we brought along, waiting for the next bus out of the valley.