3 July ’05, Sunday.
Here we are, in the land of William Tell. Luzern is a town that is split by the river Reuss, is crossed by 7 bridges (one, the oldest, wooden, and is roofed), is lush, with flowers, trees, and other various vegetation, and is more than inviting, with the beauty of the old city, the lake, and the surrounding mountains. Today we enjoyed all of them at once… We were up early to catch a boat for an hour and a half cruise around the lake. Our destination was Mount Pilatus and the location of the “cog wheeled” tram that would transport us to 7000’ above sea level, on the steepest grades in the world. There were areas where the grade was more than 48 percent, and areas where the tracks just seemed to hang in mid air, with a huge drop to the void below. The day we chose was bright and sunny, and our hopes were of the “large” views of the Alps. Unfortunately, just like Mt. Rainier, there are days that are bright and sunny, and the mountain has a cloud that circles the top. Today, was that day. There were moments, when the clouds would part just enough to give you a peak of the total view, but those were rare. This didn’t ruin our day though, as we had lots of trails to follow, and the vistas, although local, were stunning. Our ride up on the tram was really wonderful. It took us about 30 or more minutes to reach the top, and the views looking out from the tram were great. Once we reached the top, we all searched for the first place that had the best food for our taste (and took off on a lot of hiking…most of it seemed up, but it was all enjoyable. We spent more than 2 hours at the top and then took another “modes” of transportation down. Our first, was a large cable car. That took us to the location of the “luge” ride with the most stunning view of the day, but who had time to look…we all boarded our own “luge”, and set off on the longest luge ride in Europe….winding, twisting, jumping, bouncing, going through tunnels and completely out of control most of the time… I heard Mikleane screaming a lot through the hair-pin turns!!! Exhausted, we were onto the next mode of transportation, a much smaller cable car to the next port. There, we boarded a city bus to take us into Luzern. In Luzern, our final leg of our day journey was by boat. We boarded right beside the train station, and it took us on a very comfortable ride across the lake to the campground. This was a big day, and there wasn’t one of us that wasn’t dragging our butts at the end, but we did have a great outing. Tomorrow, ….Bern….
Here we are, in the land of William Tell. Luzern is a town that is split by the river Reuss, is crossed by 7 bridges (one, the oldest, wooden, and is roofed), is lush, with flowers, trees, and other various vegetation, and is more than inviting, with the beauty of the old city, the lake, and the surrounding mountains. Today we enjoyed all of them at once… We were up early to catch a boat for an hour and a half cruise around the lake. Our destination was Mount Pilatus and the location of the “cog wheeled” tram that would transport us to 7000’ above sea level, on the steepest grades in the world. There were areas where the grade was more than 48 percent, and areas where the tracks just seemed to hang in mid air, with a huge drop to the void below. The day we chose was bright and sunny, and our hopes were of the “large” views of the Alps. Unfortunately, just like Mt. Rainier, there are days that are bright and sunny, and the mountain has a cloud that circles the top. Today, was that day. There were moments, when the clouds would part just enough to give you a peak of the total view, but those were rare. This didn’t ruin our day though, as we had lots of trails to follow, and the vistas, although local, were stunning. Our ride up on the tram was really wonderful. It took us about 30 or more minutes to reach the top, and the views looking out from the tram were great. Once we reached the top, we all searched for the first place that had the best food for our taste (and took off on a lot of hiking…most of it seemed up, but it was all enjoyable. We spent more than 2 hours at the top and then took another “modes” of transportation down. Our first, was a large cable car. That took us to the location of the “luge” ride with the most stunning view of the day, but who had time to look…we all boarded our own “luge”, and set off on the longest luge ride in Europe….winding, twisting, jumping, bouncing, going through tunnels and completely out of control most of the time… I heard Mikleane screaming a lot through the hair-pin turns!!! Exhausted, we were onto the next mode of transportation, a much smaller cable car to the next port. There, we boarded a city bus to take us into Luzern. In Luzern, our final leg of our day journey was by boat. We boarded right beside the train station, and it took us on a very comfortable ride across the lake to the campground. This was a big day, and there wasn’t one of us that wasn’t dragging our butts at the end, but we did have a great outing. Tomorrow, ….Bern….