The woman who worked at the hostel advised us against going, but I couldn't leave Lucerne without going up Pilatus. This ended up being worth every penny we spent and then some.
The weather seemed to be holding out for us on our 15 minute walk to the train station. We waited for the boat to arrive, and promptly boarded. We went to the top deck because we figured we would be able to see more. Once the ticket guy arrived, though, we all found out that this deck was just for first class passengers. Ugh.
We headed downstairs and sat down at a table inside near a window. We went outside every once in a while to take some pictures, but mostly we just enjoyed the view. It sprinkled on and off throughout our trip to the base of the mountain.
While it was kind of gray, there were bits of blue sky peeking out from behind the clouds and the clouds and fog that formed in the mountains around Lake Lucerne made a beautiful picture.
Our misty view of the mountains from Lake Lucerne
Our misty view of the mountains from Lake Lucerne
The beautiful mountains, green grass, and Swiss houses on the lake
The boat ride took longer than I had expected - we arrived at the base of Mount Pilatus almost two hours later.
There was a short walk, and then we were at the cog railway. We were the last people allowed in to squeeze into one of the cars. We ended up in a car with seven other people (it was quite a squeeze) and we began out ascent. Because of the angles of the seats, we sat comfortably all the way up the mountain.
The cog railway cars
We paused in the middle of our descent up the mountain
In our ride up the mountain, I was reminded how truly small the world is. Two of the seven people in our car were a father and his six-year-old son. They ended up being from Reutlingen!
The other five were Americans. We came to find out that they were from Illinois! What are the chances that the people in our car would all be from places that we know - places that we call home.
The ride was nice, but we couldn't see too much. The trees blocked most of our view. And then we reached the top of the mountain.
A view from our cog railway car of another car making its way up the mountain.
Unfortunately, we couldn't see very far down the mountain, but the experience was just as fantastic as if we could have. First, we walked for about ten minutes up to the top of one part of the mountain. We got a view of the hotel and visitor's center on top of the mountain, and a little bit down the mountain.
View from the highest point of the mountain
Hanging out on Mount Pilatus
Beautiful sign on our way up to the high point of the mountain. In English:
"Come and see the works of God, which are so wonderful! ... God brought you and praise, you have a work of creation accomplished with glory and beauty."
Afterwards, we decided to take a walk around the mountain some. The sign that we saw said that our walk was going to be about 40 minutes - we had assumed that the walk was round trip.
We took a bunch of pictures and just enjoyed ourselves for our walk. We even ended up seeing mountain goats!
Wandering the mountain
Oh, you know, just some mountain goats!
As we continued on our journey, we kept going away from where we had started. After we had walked about 40 minutes, one way, and once the path went from paved to rocky, we figured out that the 40-minute trail was NOT round trip. And so, in the pouring rain, we made our way back to where we started. We were freezing, wet, and ready to get warm, and we decided we would get some coffee as soon as we got back.
Just happy to be out of the rain, we stopped at a gift shop in the visitor's center. A woman saw us and asked us if we had tickets to go down the mountain by cable car. Because we had that round trip ticket, we said yes and were then informed that there would be no more cable car rides down the mountain and that we had to go, as soon as possible, to the information desk.
I'll admit it - panic started to set in. We hurried over to the info desk, where the woman informed us that there would be one more ride down the mountain, and that we had to hurry. So much for our coffee.
We actually ended up being the first people in the cable car. It was eventually filled to the max with people trying to get down the mountain the way their ticket would allow them to. As the car was filling up, I thought the situation sounded like a movie situation: our cable car was going to get stuck and we would be stranded for hours, or because of the wind, our car would detach from the cable and we would fall to our deaths.
It was slightly horrifying, despite the beauty we saw around us.
Despite my initial concerns, our ride down was mostly uneventful and actually provided us with the best view we had had all day! We got to see the entire city of Lucerne, the surrounding mountains, and the lake; everything was green and grey, and it was so beautiful.
Halfway down the mountain, we got off of the large cable car and switched to smaller cars that fit about four people. Amy, Eric, and I had one to ourselves, and we enjoyed the ride.
Cable car down the mountain
Cable car down the mountain
Beautiful view from the cable car down the mountain
At the base of the mountain, the sky was beautiful and blue, the sun was out, and we had a pleasant walk to the bus stop - of course.
We were ravenous and when we made it back to the city, we needed to get some food. I ended up eating a fajita, shared some guacamole and chips with Eric and Amy, and Amy and I split a crepe for dessert. It was so delicious and was definitely earned from all of the walking we had done.
Tonight, the carnival we had been seeing get set up for the last few days was finally open. We ended up walking through the area and peeking into the stalls for various products from around the region.
Carnival near the train station
After our huge meal and a stop at our hostel, we decided to take a walk around town. We found a Starbucks near the train station and I made the decision then that I would have to get a beverage, no matter what the cost, from this Starbucks before we got on the train.
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