Lucerne, Switzerland – September 20, 2012

Today we planned on doing the Golden Round Trip to Mount Pilatus.  We were planning to try and make the 8:40 AM  boat ride on Lake Lucerne to Alpnachstad, Switzerland, and then take the cog railroad to the top of Mount Pilatus.  When we awoke this morning, it was very, very foggy, with visibility being less than a quarter mile.  Not a good start for taking a scenic boat ride on Lake Lucerne.

We proceeded to go to breakfast thinking that there was a possibility the fog would lift before the scheduled departure time, all along thinking the back-up plan was to take the next boat at 9:40 AM.  The only reason that we did not just go ahead and make the decision to postpone to the later departure was the worry that the crowds might increase the later we went.

Once we finished breakfast, we realized that we would need to rush to get to the ticket line, purchase tickets and board the 8:40 AM boat to Alpnachstad.  It was at least a 10 minute walk to the boat station, which is right across from the train station, and on the other side of the bridge from the hotel.  Since the fog had not lifted at all, and we were running a little late getting everything together, we just decided it was fate to go on the later 9:40 AM boat.

We walked to the dock  and purchased our tickets.  The Swiss Flexi Pass enabled us to purchase the tickets at half price, although we wondered if we could have even gotten them cheaper using the pass for the boat ride, and the bus ride at the beginning and end, and just purchasing the tickets for the cog railroad, and gondola ride portions separately.  These passes are nice, but they are difficult to figure out with all of the rules on the pass types, and on what is free, and what is partially covered.

Nonetheless, we went ahead and just purchased the half-fare tickets, and waited on our boat to arrive.  It was a little cold and windy, and although we were dressed for it, the thought of sitting outside on a boat ride in the cold, foggy weather was not very appealing.

The boat arrived on time and we boarded.  We decided to sit in the stern, which was outside and open, offering more flexibility for picture taking.  To help block some of the wind, we picked some seats close to the rear entry way to the stern portion of the inside seating area.  We were about 5 minutes from departing when we saw a group of what appeared to be 6-7th grade kids coming on board. They all proceeded to run to the stern area where we were, and try and fight for the remaining seats, screaming and yelling the entire time.  We gave up our seats to go inside, both to be warmer and get away form the chaos in the stern,   We barley stood up when a group of about 6 students rushed to our bench (room enough for 4 max) before we could even get out of the way.  We thought it was going to be a long lake ride.  The boat proceeded to the first stop, about 10 minutes away, and as quickly as the chaos had started, it was over, the students all got off of the boat at that first stop.

We proceeded to go back outside, and since the wind was from the stern, the relative motion of the boat just about neutralized the wind.  Luckily, at about the same time, the sun started to break through the clouds.  The weather really turned nice as we headed across the lake, and the fog started to lift.  We made a couple more stops before we got to Alpnachstad, our departure point.

The cog rail cars were just across the street from the ferry boat dock, and we were able to make the next set of cars that were going up the mountain.

It was a really nice ride.  We sat in a car with a couple of guys from the US, one of them was living in Switzerland with his wife and four kids, and was located over here working with his company, which was a accounting firm.  They both worked for the same company, and had met when they both worked at a one of the other company locations in the US.  The friend was over in Switzerland on a “business conference”.  The one living in Switzerland had been on this tour in April, and was able to give us some advice on what to do once we got to the top of the mountain.

After about a 25 minute ride, we reached the summit.  The weather was beautiful at the top of the mountain, it was initially a little cloudy, but then it cleared up completely.  There were about four different trails to climb to various peaks on top of the mountain, and we were able to get some great pictures.

The altitude was about 7,000 feet, and we could certainly feel it as we climbed up some of the steep trails and steps.

We spent about 2.5 hours at the summit on the various trails, and then we partially descended down the mountain in a large cable car.  From there, we got onto four person gondolas for the remainder of the trip down.  We shared ours with a couple who were originally from Boston, but now lived in Florida on the west coast.

They were fun to talk to, they had done a lot of traveling in Europe, and we shared some stories as we descended.  They were headed to Cinque Terre in Italy, after they spent a few more days in Switzerland.  It was pretty funny,  because since we were all talking, we did not notice that were were at an intermediate stop, so we all proceeded to get off of our gondola.  Realizing there was nowhere to exit once we were out of the gondola car, we finally figured out that we were not supposed to get off yet.  We all quickly got back on before the doors closed, all of us laughing about the mistake.

We arrived the bottom, and then had to walk a few blocks to the bus stop to ride back to the Lucerne Train Station, ending the journey.

We went back to our room and dropped off some of our gear before heading out to pick up a couple of souvenirs.   We went to a couple of more shops before going back to the room for happy hour on our balcony, trying to soak up some of the last sunny hours in Lucerne before we leave tomorrow morning.

We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was on the bottom floor, and right along the river.  The food was some of the best yet, and we really enjoyed our meal there.  It was then back up to the room to finish packing for tomorrow morning’s departure.

We plan on taking the 8:00 AM train out of Lucerne, changing once in Bern, Switzerland, and another time in Visp, Switzerland before arriving in Zermatt, Switzerland.  This will be our first “two change” train ride on any of our travels to date, so it will keep us on our toes to try and make the short connections, typically about 7-9 minutes from the time one train arrives until the next one departs, and usually requiring a quick change in Platforms in the station.