), go back to the railway station the next morning in order to buy a Swiss Flexi Pass (or whatever you need)>

always check Swiss Pass prices for the exact same pass sold in the U S if living there as in my several years of comparing prices here and there it has often been the case where the exact same pass is cheaper here - sometimes significantly so and if you have a pass you can take a train that goes directly thru the border and activate that pass whilst on the train.

We need to travel by train from Zurich to Milan IN ONE DAY this summer and want to understand the options. Our preference would be to take the most scenic option available as this will probably be a once in a lifetime trip. What are the options?>

In one day you go via Milan and then to Brig but from there you can eschew the new Lotschbedrg Tunnel route that is mainly in tunnel between Brig and Spiez - missing all the lovely scenery the old rail route that climbs up to the old and much shorter Lotschberg Tunnel - oinfinigtely more scenic - the Switzerland of your dreams - so since you are not in a real hurry to get to Zurich an hour earlier or so hop off at Brig (where you must anyway on mainy trains coming from Italy that terminate at the border and take regional trains up and over the Lotschberg new tunnel - passing things like the lovely Kandersteg (sp?) Valley.

The Brig-Kandersteg-Spiez old line is to me one of the most scenic main rail line in Europe - main line meaning conventional gauge- not narrow gauge. Oops goota go but more on this tremendous alternative route!

anyway from Brig take the regional trains to Kandersteg and onto Spiez where you change for Interlaken - from Brig, quite unlike faster trains that use the new Lotschberg Tunnel route where you see nothing but zigzagging yellow lines painted on tunnel walls - anyway the old line from Brig does a precipitously steep climb along an all-too-narrow ledge rising high above the Rhone River, always to me like being in an airplane flying above that valley far far below.

Then the train tracks every higher toward the old Lotschberg Tunnel and on the other end, I believe it is on that end, is the gorgeous Kandersteg Valley sloping way way up - so though this alternate route takes about an hour longer in scenery it is ten times better - well what is not better than a long long tunnel?

We *did* buy the 8-day pass. When we left Wengen, we checked our larger suitcases through to Geneve, so we had an easier time with the train travel with two more night stops. One was at a lovely hotel in charming Gruyere.