France, Germany and Switzerland Travels – 2012

Our flight into Paris was uneventful once we finally got away late from Charlotte at about 6:15 PM yesterday.  The weather and flights were good, and there was no real turbulence to speak of.  We did learn that with US Air, we need to look at the specific planes that are making the flights when we book the reservation to avoid what we will describe as the “cattle car” experience.

Landing in France

For transatlantic flights, US Air normally either flies newer Airbus 320/330 aircraft  or old dilapidated Boeing 767’s.  Ours was the latter.  The seats seemed smaller than our last transatlantic flight on a newer Airbus, they seemed closer together, had no in-flight entertainment screen in the seat backs in front of us, and the overhead bins were even smaller than the bins we had on the smaller plane going to Charlotte on the first leg of this trip.  In addition, the sound system for music was terrible, you could barely understand any of the words from the songs.  I guess we knew it was a 767, we just did not realize it was that old.  We would have much preferred to  pay the same fare for a more modern and larger plane.  I guess we will pay attention to that next time we have choices on the airfare.

The arrival in Charles De Gaulle airport went smoothly, we went through immigration, and then collected all of our luggage without incident  Next, we proceeded to purchase our train tickets into Paris.  We took the RER B train into Paris, and the transit took about 35 minutes for the 13 intermediate stops before arriving at our stop.  We then took the Yellow #10 metro line (subway) one stop and then walked the 3-4 blocks to the hotel.  It was nice that we had been to this hotel and area of Paris before.  Even though it was close to 3 years ago, everything was still very familiar.

Since it was only about 11:15 AM when we arrived at the hotel, and the check in time was 2:30 PM – 3:00 PM, our room was not yet available.  We left our luggage in the locked storage and headed over to the Louvre.  The line was not too bad, and within about 40 minutes, we had our tickets purchased and were heading inside.  The Louvre is divided into different wings or sections.

Inside the Louvre

The Mona Lisa

We first visited the Denon wing containing all of the art work, specifically the Mona Lisa painting.  The Mona Lisa was not as large as one would think.

There was so much art in this wing, it was overwhelming.  One could spend days looking at all of the paintings (not us though!!).  They are really pretty, but after a while, they tend to start looking the same.

We grabbed a bite to eat at a cafe inside the Louvre, and then we headed over to the Richelieu wing to go and visit some recreated apartments of Napoleon Bonaparte.  That was actually more interesting to us than the paintings.  There were also many pieces of period furniture and other items that had been part of his empire.

The Louvre

After spending about 4 hours at the Louvre, we decided to head back to  the hotel and check in.  We received an inside room on the 5th floor, and although it has a window, it looks out into an alleyway between the front and back of the U-shaped hotel. At least is will be quiet.  Last time we stayed at this hotel in 2009 for one night, we had a front room facing the street.  Oh well, it is still a nice room, a little on the small side, but about average for Europe.

Arc de Triomphe

We stopped by a small grocery store to get a large 2 liter Diet Coke for Stephanie, and we also bought two bottles of wine, priced at less than 5 euro each, by choice.  We don’t know that much about French red wine, so this will also be part of our education, wine sampling.

Circular Stairway – Arc de Triomphe

Our plan was to go back to the room and freshen up since we had been in the same clothes for about 24 hours, and then afterward, head back out for some night time photos and sightseeing.  After a good hot shower and a change of clothes, we felt refreshed and then headed back out into the Paris nighttime to see more sights, albeit difficult since we were a little tired.

The plan was to head over to the Arc de Triomphe so that we could take some pictures of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, and also of the Champs Elysees at dusk. But first, we headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral, and just made it into the cathedral before it closed at 6:30 PM.  There was a Mass going on, so most of the Cathedral was cordoned off for the Mass.  We took just a few pictures and headed back outside to walk to the metro station and head to the Arc de Triomphe. We will plan on going back to the Cathedral later in the trip, we just wanted to verify the Mass times for Saturday/Sunday.

Stephanie On Top of The Arc de Triomphe

After arriving at the Arc de Triomphe, we went under it looking for a restroom, but none was to be found.  We were planning on purchasing a ticket to ride to the top for the pictures session, and found out that the restrooms were at a level near the top of the Arc.  Also, we had to walk up stairs to the top, there was no lift in operation.  I guess that is one way to regulate uninvited persons from using their facilities, make them walk to the top of the Arc.  We did just that, and it made us a little dizzy going up the long spiral stairs.  Finally reaching the level for the bathroom, we soon found out that the men’s room was closed for repairs, so it was sharing the two stalls in the women’s restroom, and there was already a line.

Eiffel Tower Seen From The Arc de Triomphe

Finally, we made it to the observation deck, and the sight was tremendous.  There was a cloud cover in the distance, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated, and the traffic on the Champs Elysees was mesmerizing, one side being brake lights in a long row, the other being headlights.

Champs-Elysees

After finishing taking pictures, we headed to walk down the Champs-Elysees  to see all of the stores.  We only walked a few blocks, and since we were getting tired and hungry, we then took the metro back to the area near our hotel and stopped for a bite to eat.  It was a decent meal, and the wine was good.  The time was about 11:25 PM, and we were exhausted.  We never did get much sleep on the plane flight over, but our plan when flying to Europe is to always stay out as late as we can on the first night to acclimate to the time change.  We think we succeeded

Eiffel Tower With Beacon

We are heading to Versailles in the morning, trying to beat the crowds.  That is another story that will have to wait for tomorrow, the the fact that there is a weekend in Paris where once a year, it is  free entrance to every museum in Paris.  Guess which weekend that is this year, yes, it is this weekend.  Talk about planning.  From what we hear, the crowds are supposed to be BAD.

It was another beautiful day in Paris today, starting out in the upper 50’s but warming into the mid 70’s by noon.  We had some trouble again today getting off to an early start, sleeping in until about 8:00 AM before we even started to get ready.  Part of it was attributable to still getting used to the time change, another part due to just being tired, and the last part due to the really good Bordeaux wine we had last night.

We really did not have a specific plan for today, there was nothing we were trying to see on any particular schedule, so I am sure that was also part of our being a little lazy getting going.  Once we finally got motivated, we were on our way about 10:00 AM.  We did decide to go into the Latin Quarter, which is mostly the area in and around our hotel.

The Pantheon – Paris

We first headed out to visit the Panthéon, which is a really large building, originally built as a church honoring Saint Genevieve, but then converted into a secular mausoleum  that is used for “honoring the  distinguished French citizens”.  This really translates into a very large crypt for honored French citizens.  Examples of the distinguished tenants include Voltaire, Braille, and Rousseau, as well as Madame Curie.  The building was not that spectacular, or pretty, and the underneath area was full of burial crypts.

After that visit to start the day on such an upbeat note, we headed over to the Luxembourg Gardens.  On the way, we once again found ourselves hunting for some coffee.  We found a small cafe that had fresh muffins and large coffees.  It was by far the best cup of coffee we had found in Paris so far, they actually made a full “to go” cup in their espresso machine.  I had a chocolate chip muffin, and Stephanie had a raspberry muffin.  Both were excellent.  We actually carried them over to the nearby Luxembourg Gardens and sat at a bench in the park to eat our breakfast.  It was an interesting area, obviously well used as a “green” area inside of the city.  There were joggers everywhere, and many people just out for a Sunday morning stroll.

Luxembourg Gardens

Chuck & Stephanie – Luxembourg Gardens

After finishing our muffins, we walked farther into the park, finding the main gardens and reflection pool near the Luxembourg Palace.  This is the water area that is often seen in movies featuring Paris, where all of the children have model sailboats sailing in the reflection pond.  Most of these are rental boats that have no controls, just set up to sail in a straight line from one point to another.

The sailors have bamboo sticks to push the sailboats out again in another direction once they reach the side walls of the pond.  Some of the larger sailboats were remote controlled, and we even saw one child with an electric power boat.  The gardens were full of beautiful flowers.  Everyone was just out enjoying the warm weather.

Saint Sulpice Church – From the Da Vinci Code

After finding a “pay” toilet, our first in Paris, we headed over to the Saint-Sulpice Church, famous for its use in the movie and book,  The Da Vinci Code.  It was a rather average church inside, needing some renovation and cleaning (must not have made much on the movie usage).  We did see a line waiting for a trip up into the organ room on the upper level, so we waited in line for our turn to visit the large pipe organ.  This is limited to Sundays, and only during the 12:05 PM  Mass.

Organist – Saint Sulpice Church

It was very interesting to see the vast Organ with all of the push-pull knobs used to make it function.  The organ dated from the early 1800’s. On the way up to the organ, we actually saw  three sets of large manually operated foot pumps needed to supply the organ with air in the days before electricity.  Now it is supplied with air from an electric source.

We actually saw the organ being played during the Mass that was in progress when we arrived at the church.  Footnote: Once we were home tonight, Stephanie looked up the organist online, and found out he was well decorated for his field, and had been at that church as the main organist since 1985.

Chuck & Stephanie – The Eiffel Tower

After leaving the church, we headed on the metro over to the Parc du Champ de Mars park near the Eiffel Tower for some daytime pictures of the tower.  There was a women’s bicycling event going on, and there were hundreds of women cyclists out in the park area, obviously resting and eating their lunches after completion of their race.  We found an area in the grass nearer to the Eiffel Tower and sat for a while enjoying the day and taking a few pictures.

The Eiffel Tower

There were just a LOT of people nearby, and there were many buses buses for all of the race participants lined up along the road between us and the Eiffel Tower.

We sat in the park for a while before heading out to try and find a grocery store.  Our plan for lunch was to have a picnic with all of our new Parisian friends in the park.  However, we found that the grocery stores are not normally open on Sunday, at least not the larger chains.  There were a couple of really small stores open, with limited selections, so all we were able to find was a bottle of wine.  We continued to look, thinking that possibly we would find another as we walked around, but we did not.

We ended up near the River Seine near the bridge/tunnel area where princess Diana was killed several years back.  While walking there, we were in need of finding a facility, known here as Le Toilette.  We found a public toilet that was free to use, and was very interesting, and busy  It was a really glorified Port-O-Let, but it was fully automated.  Each time it was used, it would close after the guest left, and go into a wash cycle to clean the actual toilet, including a dry cycle, sort of like a car wash for toilets.   During that wash cycle time, no one could enter.  Since I was about the 6th person in line, I had plenty of idle time to figure out that it took about 2 minutes for the clean cycle, after the person left, and  roughly 3-4 minutes of total time per person.  So, although it was free in monetary cost, we waited about 20 minutes before I was able to use it, the only cost being our time.

Afterward, we headed along the River Seine back to the Eiffel Tower and beyond, still looking for the elusive grocery store.  We did find two more small markets, but neither had the items we needed for a picnic.  It was time for Plan B, eating at a Cafe.  We found one full of locals, and sat at an outside table.  It was called the Carmine Cafe.  One gentleman next to us was having a pizza, and it looked really good.  We ordered a Ham (jambon), cheese (fromage) and mushroom (champignon) pizza, and a half liter of Bordeaux wine.  The pizza was really good, and we were really hungry since it was now about 2:30 PM.

We headed back to the Champs-Elysees to walk around since we had spent so little time there when we visited the Arc de Triomphe two nights ago.  Of course, being Sunday, everyone else also had the same idea, there were people everywhere.  We strolled along the avenue, and saw the Louis-Vuitton store, which Stephanie wanted to go inside to see.  Problem was, there was a line of about 50 people waiting to enter the store.  We believe they were only allowing a few shoppers in the store at a time for security against theft.  We also saw the same thing for the Abercrombie & Fitch store.  Needless to say, we did not wait in line for either.

Enjoying Our Wine at The Louvre, (Eiffel Tower between us)

While walking  we actually got approached by a gypsy looking fellow asking for us to “take his picture”.  We declined, knowing this was one of the best known pickpocket scams, and sure enough, as soon as he left, he was heading up the street looking for another “mark”.  It was obvious he had no intention of getting a picture, or else,  he would have stayed and asked someone else.

By this time, we were tired of the crowds, so we headed back to the Louvre to sit in the park area to watch the sunset over the Eiffel Tower, and to drink our bottle of wine that we had purchased earlier.  We also wanted to take some pictures of the Louvre at night, so we had two reasons for being in that area.  It was a fantastic sunset, there were enough high, wispy clouds to turn deeper shades of pink as the sun set.

We then took  our pictures of the Louvre at night, trying to find an area where people were not doing silly poses with the glass pyramid, which generally consisted of posing so that it appears like they are holding it down with one  finger, or jumping up in the air, we surmise, to try and appear to be jumping over it.

Sunset Over the Eiffel Tower

People are funny with their poses, and even funnier with not having a clue that other people are trying to take pictures, and they just walk right in front of you and stand there, even with our large tripod set up.  I thought for one moment Stephanie might go over to them and push them out of the way!

The Louvre at Night

We prevailed, and honor and dignity was maintained through an exercise of patience, and we  finally got our pictures.

We were heading back to our section of town, but needed to make a “rest stop” along the way.  Not seeing any public facilities, we stopped in a local cafe for a glass of wine, a small  (but good) price to pay for the use of their le toilette.  We then saw several interesting food places, selling mostly “to go” items.  We stopped at one store that was making flat pita type bread on a rounded hot skillet, and it was obviously good food based on all of the people stopping there to order.  Stephanie got “the special” and I got ham, with cheese and tomatoes, as well as pickles.   They were sort of like a Libyan hot wrap and were very good.

French Engineering Institute – “Go Engineers”

Since it was now around 10:00 PM, we walked back to the Hotel.  It had been another long day, and of course, we were tired.

We were awakened by a telephone call at about 6:15 AM this morning, which confused us because we had not asked for a wake up call. Stephanie answered the phone in French, with a Oui, and got a response in French, upon which she answered Merci. We had no idea what was said in French on the other end of the line. We thought it was just a misplaced wake up call. When the phone rang again in about 5 minutes, we knew that was not the case. This time Stephanie answered in English, and through some rough translations, found out the front desk was calling and thought we had called for a taxi.  Stephanie told them we had not. We guessed it was not a wake up call the first time either. Someone was not getting their taxi, and we were woken up a little earlier than expected. Then, we did actually get an automated wake up call about 5 more minutes after that, again, one that we had not set.  After all of that sleep disruption, we figured it was time to get up. We felt sorry for the person(s) who was supposed to get those calls, they were probably still soundly asleep, missing their taxi and possibly their flight or train.

We checked out of the hotel, the toughest part of that being carrying all of our luggage down the 5 flights of stairs.  The tiny elevator had broken on Sunday, and was still not repaired. We were checked out and on our way to the bus stop at about 7:25 AM, right on schedule. Having to carry the luggage down the stairs at the hotel was another good experience that may make us give more thought to smaller and lighter suitcases on the next trip!

We were hoping that the city bus would not be crowded since it was early in the morning and not too many people were out and about yet. We walked the one block to the bus stop, and in about 5 minutes the bus arrived. It was not crowded, so we had plenty of space for our luggage. We validated our bus tickets and rode the 7-8 minutes to the Gare de Lyon Train Station, the closest stop being about one block from the station. It had been easier than we thought, taking the bus had been much simpler and quicker than the alternative three connection metro route, and we did not have to carry our bags up and down any stairs, typically found in the metro connection tunnels.

We found our train platform, and sat down nearby after purchasing some coffee for me and Diet Coke for Stephanie. We ate our breakfast consisting of some of the bread and meat left over from yesterday that we stored in our in room refrigerator and brought with us. Our train arrived and we boarded our double deck train car for the three hour ride to the border town of Basel, Switzerland, where we were to board another connecting train to Lucerne. The train was very nice, and the seats were comfortable. Our only small issue was that we were facing backwards from the direction of travel.  The train only makes 4 stops, and it was a smooth high speed train. The monitor inside our car indicted that we were going a top speed of 320 kilometers per hour, or about 198 MPH.  We passed through a lot of farmland as we progressed across France. The weather was initially overcast, similar to yesterday, but at about 10:00 AM, the sun came out.

There was not a lot to see along the way, made even more difficult by having seats that faced in the opposite direction to the way the train was heading  Stephanie did her usual  train travel activity, taking a nap, and I worked on the blog and photos until we were almost to Basel in Switzerland, which was our departure point for the French Train.  Next was our connecting Swiss train to Lucerne.  Before we could board that train, we needed to purchase our 2 for 1 Swiss Flexi Pass that will cover all of our transportation costs for any 4 out of 30 days in Switzerland.  The pass also gives you free admission to museums, and free local transportation on the buses in the larger cities, such as Lucerne.

We departed our train in Basel and exited to the main part of the train station.  We did not see any signs to direct us to the ticket offices to purchase the Swiss Flexi Pass, so we headed to the left.  It was the wrong choice.  We then headed back to the right and as we got to the other end of the station, we finally saw the ticket offices on the lower levels. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and finally got to a ticket agent.  All went well, the Flexi Pass was available as advertised for the special pricing.  We had one moment of panic when their credit card machine would not read our MasterCard card, which is the Capital One Card that does not charge us any additional “international transaction fees”,  typically 3 to 3.5%.  On the fourth try, the card finally worked.

We had about 7 minutes remaining to head back into the station and get to our Platform for the 12:04 train to Lucerne.  It was the soonest connection we could make, based on our arrival time,  but there were three trains per hour if we missed that one.  We hopped on the train and about a minute later the doors closed.

We had a one hour train ride to Lucerne, but once again, due to limited seat selections, we had to face backwards to the direction of the train travel, so we did not see that much.  In addition, we went through a lot of tunnels, and dark tunnels are not a big contributor to a scenic train ride.

View of the Reuss River and Kapellbrücke Bridge From Our Room

We arrived on time in Lucerne, and the train station was not far from the hotel.  We walked about 5 blocks, most of it across the bridge over the River Reuss.

Our Hotel – The Hotel Des Alpes

We arrived at the Hotel Des Apes and checked in.  Luckily, our room was ready, and we went up to the room on the river side of the hotel, on the 4th floor.  It had a beautiful view of the Reuss River and the famous Kapellbrücke Bridge, or Chapel Bridge in English.  Our room is the top left room with the square window openings in the picture on the right.

Chuck & Stephanie – Lake Lucerne

Since we knew it was supposed to turn cloudy later in the afternoon, we headed out to do a little exploring.  We walked along Lake Lucerne and took some photos.

The Hofkirche Church

We then headed to the Hofkirche Church.  It was pretty inside, with several different types of pews, some more ornate than others.  We wondered if there were different pews based on class or standing in the church.  There were also several gold gilded altars, including both the main altar and several smaller chapel altars on the sides of the main altar.  It was definitely worth the walk to see.

Gilded Chapel Altar – Hofkirche Church

On the outside church grounds, in the immediate walled area around the church, there were many burial vaults, and also an area where it appeared that the cremated remains of church members were laid to rest.  These areas completely surrounded the perimeter of the church property.

From the Hofkirche Church, we headed to another “tourist” sight, the Lion of Lucerne Monument, which is a memorial to the Swiss Guards massacred during the French Revolution in 1792. It is a lion carved into the side of a large vertical rock ledge.

The Lucerne Lion Memorial

It is not that spectacular, but it something that “every visitor to Lucerne must see” according to the guide books.  It was not crowded when we arrived, so we got some good photos.

Glacier Museum

We then noticed a National Museum located near the monument so we headed up to see what it was.  It was called the Glacier Garden, and it was an outdoor walking area showing all of the effects of a glacier that had moved through the Lucerne area thousands of years ago.  It was interesting to see how the various degrees of erosion take place in the stone as a glacier moves though, and to see the fossilized remains in the sandstone that formed when this area was all part of the ocean floor.  The best part of this museum was that it was included in the free benefits we received with the Swiss Flexi Pass.

Next, we walked through some of the main shopping areas of Lucerne, and visited several grocery stores looking for a few items.  There were also many other stores of all types in this area, and so we did a lot of window shopping as we walked back in the general direction of our hotel.

Relaxing On Our Balcony

We checked out a few eating establishments near the hotel, looking for possibilities for a place to eat for dinner.  We quickly found that in general, everything costs more in Switzerland than it does in a lot of other places n Europe.  We also saw that same theme indicated in the wine prices in the grocery store. However, since the Swiss Franc is closer in value to the US Dollar than is the Euro, we had to stop and think about the actual cost differential.  We always have to remember that everything bought in Euros is subjected to about a 28% exchange rate penalty with the exchange being roughly $1.28 to the Euro right now, where the Swiss Franc is close to an exchange rate of $1.11.

For dinner, we picked an Italian Restaurant close to the hotel that was located along the river.  Unfortunately, the bad weather that had been forecast had arrived, and it had just started to drizzle as we were finishing our shopping, so we headed back to the room for some warmer clothes and rain gear before going back to the restaurant for dinner.  We also wanted to relax on our  balcony, and have a glass of wine before dinner.

Stormy Weather in Lucerne

Despite the inclement weather, we did end up eating outside under a canopy, but it was a little cool if the wind blew.  On a funny note, we had to ask the waitress about ordering a carafe of wine, which we saw another couple get, but could not find on the menu. All we saw were the deciliter and 750 ml bottle prices on the menu.  We then found out that wine is especially expensive here at restaurants, and all volumes less than a whole bottle are sold by the deciliter, which is 1/10th of a liter.  A bottle of just average wine at a restaurant here seems to cost  about 55.00 to 65.00 Swiss Francs (CHF), or $61.00 to $72.00 (ouch).  A glass that is a deciliter in volume is about 7.50 CHF ($8.25).  To put it into perspective, a 750 ml bottle is 7.5 deciliters, or 7.5 glasses in Switzerland (they are really small glasses of wine).  In a normal USA comparison, there are about 4 glasses of wine to the 750 ml bottle at most restaurants, and the price is about $7.00 per glass for a decent wine. Here, if you want a carafe of wine, you just order the number of deciliters you want, there is no volume price reduction.  We were not sure why you would order it that way unless you just want to save time waiting on the waiter to bring another thimble full, or deciliter as they call it here.

We ordered a olive, ham, cheese and artichoke pizza, and a first course size serving of cannelloni pasta, stuffed with spinach and cheese. With the two tiny glasses of wine, the total bill was 64.00 CHF, or about $70.00, and this was not a fancy restaurant, equivalent to something like an Olive Garden, mostly just families eating there.  The food was really good.  The pizza was a little different, it had a tomato sauce, but all of the toppings were in separate areas of the pizza.  The artichokes were on one third, the whole black olives on another, and the ham on the other, with cheese on the whole pizza.  The cannelloni was really good, and came served in a hot skillet, so it stayed warm in the cool outside air.

Wedding at Cana Painted on a Building

After dinner, we headed over to a German Restaurant just a couple of buildings away.  We had almost gone there for dinner, but opted for the Italian place, knowing we would have a lot of German cuisine later in the trip There were a lot of people outside under their covered deck.  We ordered a couple of German beers, and a large pretzel for our “dessert”.  Beer is cheaper than wine here, but still a little pricey when compared to Germany, even when compared to Oktoberfest pricing.  We paid 9.00 CHF for a 0.50 liter beer, where,  as a comparison, in Germany, beers were 8.00 euro at Oktoberfest two years ago for a whole liter.

We wandered around taking some flash pictures of the various building with art and paintings on the outside.  One is a depiction of the Wedding Feast at Cana.  Others are just decorative.  It was now about 10:00 PM, so we headed

Painted Buildings – Lucerne

back to the room, calling it a day.  Unfortunately, it had started to rain harder, and the forecast for tonight and all day tomorrow is rain, and about 50 degrees F.

Foggy Morning on Lake Lucerne

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.

Mount Pilatus Shrouded in Fog

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.

Lake Lucerne Boat Ride to Alpnachstad

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.

Mount Pilatus Seen From Lake Lucerne

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.

Cog Railway Car – Top of Mount Pilatus

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.

View of Lake Lucerne From Mount Pilatus

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.

Chuck & Stephanie on Mount Pilatus

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.

Cable Car to Descend Mount Pilatus

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.

Enjoying the Sunny Day Back at the Hotel

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.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

As forecast, this morning was rainy when we awoke at about 7:30 AM.  We lounged around in the room, working on pictures and the blog before finally getting motivated to go to the hotel breakfast at about 9:30 AM.  We were not too excited about getting out in the cold and drizzly rain, and the mountains were obscured in the clouds.  We were not sure what to expect, but since we had passes, we could just ride up and down on the cable cars if the weather was too bad.

Foggy & Rainy Morning in Zermatt

During breakfast, we actually got a few brief periods of sunshine coming through the clouds, so we thought that maybe the weather was already moving through and we would shortly see more of the sun.  We were wrong, the sunshine was just a “chamber of commerce” trick to get all of us tourists to go up on the rides in Zermatt.  Actually, the clouds were diminishing at one point, and there were some web cams on a TV in the breakfast area at the hotel showing clearer weather at the higher altitudes.  It was short lived.

After breakfast, we dressed up in our warm clothes, and with all of our normal daily gear stowed in our backpacks, we headed out to ride the Gornergrat cogwheel train to the top of the Gornergrat peak.  The Gornergrat area has been frequented by the Swiss for over 150 years according to the guide books.

Chuck & Stephanie at Gornergrat in Switzerland

Gornergrat is at an elevation of 3,089 meters (10,134 feet).  The Gornergrat Train departs from a separate station nearby to the regular Zermatt train station, so it was just a 15 minute walk away from our hotel.

There was not much of a crowd, I suppose the weather had discouraged some from venturing out.  The train ride is about 24 minutes long, and makes several stops along the way so that hikers can depart and walk the various trails.  We are not hikers, so we went all the way to the top!!

The views from the train were spectacular, even with the cloudy weather.  Once we arrived at the Gornergrat station, we set out to look around and find a good spot for some pictures.  After we were there for about 10 minutes, it started to snow, and then there was also some freezing rain.  Undeterred, we hiked up to each of the observation points to try and get a few pictures.  The main view from Gornergrat is of the glacier field, which looked to consist of about 4 different glaciers.  It was a pretty spectacular sight, and would have been even better in the sunshine.

Gornergrat Cog Train

We considered hiking down to an area that did not appear to be too far down the mountain so that we could get a better vantage point for some pictures of us using the tripod.  Since the weather seemed to be changing, we decided not to try it.  We had considered going downhill to the first train stop down from the top to avoid walking back uphill, but again, due to the weather, we decided against it.  It was a good decision.  What seemed initially to be a quick train ride between that station and the top during the ride up, turned out to be quite longer later when we actually paid attention as we headed down, and longer based on seeing the actual trail path there.

The Gornergrat Station – Elevation 10,134 Feet

After finishing looking around at the peak, we waited in line for the next train to go back to the station in Zermatt.  It was then that we really were glad we had not attempted any hiking.  It is not something you can start and then decide to quit, it was all or nothing, and the size of the mountains and open areas seemed to diminish the actual magnitude of the hikes.  We are not hikers, did I already say that?  What were were was happy and dry train riders!!

At the bottom in Zermatt, the sun was actually breaking through the clouds.  We wanted to take the Matterhorn Glacier Express again since we had not had the time to make it all the way to the top yesterday before it closed.  We headed to that departure station, which was on the other side of town.  In looking at the ski lift map, which is what they give you to know how and where to catch the different cable cars and gondolas (these are all also used for skiing in the wintertime), it appeared we could catch two gondolas all the way to the top of Trockener Steg, where we would then catch the cable car to the peak.   While this is true in the wintertime, the lifts connecting the gondola drop off point to the Trockener Steg area were not in operation this time of year, which we did not realize until we rode the two different gondolas to the top of the peak called Schwarzsee.  This peak is actually in Italy, since the border between Italy and Switzerland is right near the Matterhorn.  When we arrived at the top, we realized our error, and had to back track down one gondola ride to get back to the station to take the cable car (the same one that had broken down yesterday) to Trockener Steg.

Heading Up the Matterhorn Glacier Express

As we were approaching the cable car/gondola station, the cable car to Trockener Steg was also just arriving, so we thought we would time it perfectly, or just miss the connection.  The latter happened, as we just missed the connection, the car was already departing when we arrived at the loading area.  Since the cable cars run every 15 minutes, we did not have to wait long, and the clouds seemed to be decreasing with each passing minute.  We took the next car up, and then transferred to another cable car to ride to the summit at 3,883 meters.  It looked like a short ride, but as the car headed out over the glacier field, the size of the mountain and the glacier field dwarfed the actual distance.  The vertical distance over the glaciers from one tower to the next was amazing, as was the actual vertical distance traveled between the two towers.

Glacier Ice – Matterhorn Glacier Express Cable Car

We pulled into the station at the top, and everything there was  actually built inside of a tunnel in the mountain.  We walked through the tunnel to an elevator that went up three stories to the observation platform, which was actually closer to 4,000 meters (13, 123 feet) in elevation.  The last part of the journey to the top of the platform was a couple of flights of stairs, and we both thought we would not make it, the air was really thin.  There were quite a lot of people on the platform, there was one group having wine and cheese, and we actually saw a couple of others smoking cigarettes.  I guess they are used to it.  Did I mention that it was cold, and a little breezy.  We did not see anything that told us the outside temperature, but it had to be well below freezing.

Stephanie at the Glacier Express Mountain Top

We stayed up on the platform long enough to take several pictures, probably no more than 15-20 minutes, and then we headed down the elevator and to the cable car loading area.  We had to wait on the next car to arrive, and it was then that you could really see how large the glacier was, and the mountain.

Cable Car Over The Glacier – Center of Picture

The cable car all but disappeared in the distance at the lowest point of the long drop between the two distant towers.  There is one picture that you can barely see the car at all, and the car is quite large, large enough to hold 125 persons, and it is bright red in color.

Once we arrived back at the Trockener Steg Station, we ventured out and took some more pictures, glad to be in the dense air at the low elevation of 2,939 meters (9,650 feet).  The sun was now almost fully out, and there were just a few clouds passing by.  Unfortunately, the Matterhorn itself was still in some clouds since it is so much higher in elevation.

Standing On Man Made Snow – Trockener Steg

After we finished our pictures, we headed all the way back down into Zermatt and headed back to the hotel to rest some and to call mom on Skype for her birthday.

We then walked over to Mass at the Catholic Church, which is in the center of town, and just a few blocks away.  After Mass, we headed out for a bite to eat before walking back to the hotel to work on this posting.  We also needed to pack some for our departure tomorrow.  We are heading to Strasbourg, France, our next stop.

Peak From Glacier Express Peak – 13,000 Feet

First thing in the morning, we plan on trying to re-do the Gornergrat train ride since it is supposed to be sunny weather tomorrow.  We should be able to do this before checking out at 12:00 PM and starting our journey to Strasbourg.  It will  be another multiple change train ride, this time three changes, Zermatt to Visp, Visp to Bern, Bern to Basel, and then Basel to Strasbourg.  We will be able to use our Swiss Pass until we get to Basel, and then we will have to purchase a separate train ticket for the remainder of the journey to Strasbourg, France.