The Grand Tour of Europe was a staple of European travel among young men of means, laying the groundwork for their cultural education at a time when mobile phones weren’t around to pull up the world’s greatest art and music at the press of a button. Lucerne, Switzerland, played host to countless English and American literary figures and aristocrats of the era by way of the Grand Tour.

Things changed with the advent of rail transportation in the mid-19th century. Few benefited from rail travel more (in terms of tourism) than Thomas Cook, a British traveler responsible for early mass tourism. Switzerland became a constant on the Cook’s Tour, starting in the summer of 1863 when the Victorian traveler left London with the Junior United Alpine Club on his first Conducted Tour of Switzerland. Diccon Bewes follows the journey himself in the book Slow Train to Switzerland, a trip he claims led to the Swiss wealth we know today and made travel possible for people outside of the privileged classes.

It’s no coincidence Switzerland went on to become the rail capital of the world. There’s no mountain, river or any other natural obstacle too cumbersome for Swiss tracks and cable cars. Mount Pilatus features the world’s steepest railroad, Mount Stanserhorn premiered the open-deck cable car and Mount Rigi opened Europe’s first mountain railway in 1871.