Europe 2013-Day 12

September 3rd – Lucerne

Weather – sunny and very warm.

Margaret-Ann and John had breakfast at the hotel then walked across the street to the Tourist Information office and bought two Golden Round-trip Tickets to Mount Pilatus.

For the fist leg of the trip they took a short bus ride to the town of Kriens and walked about ten minutes to the gondola base station at an elevation of 1,694 feet. The gondola ride lasted 25 minutes and took them to 4,649 feet where they transferred to an aerial cableway for the final 5 minute ride to the mountain top resort at 6,800 feet. From there, they hiked for about an hour up to Tomlishorn (7,000 feet). After a quick bite to eat back at the resort, they hiked up to Esel (6,953 feet) then returned to take the 40 minute trip on the world’s steepest cogwheel railway (average grade of 38% and a maximum grade of 48%!) down to the town of Alpnachstad. After a short wait, they boarded a boat for a 90 minute cruise across the Alpenachersee (Lake Alpnach) and Vierwaldstattersee (Lake Lucerne – Lake of the Four Forested Cantons) back to Lucerne.

From their hotel to the mountain and back took a total of 9 hours. Back at the hotel Margaret-Ann and John had showers, checked their email then walked into the old town to have a delicious dinner in the outdoor area of Brasserie Bodu overlooking the Kornmarkt and Reuss River.

Another great day!

Roll the cursor over the pictures to read the captions. Click on a picture to enlarge it, then click on the back arrow button in the top left to return to the blog.