Tom and I have been working hard to get settled into our apartment so we can get on with just living here. Since most shops are closed on Sundays, we worked hard last Saturday and took Sunday off. We took our first local Swiss outing. Yes, we're residents here and tourists too. Some day we may be sharing what we find with folks who come visit (hint, hint).
Here's the level where we parked our car. We planned on hiking to the top. With a noon start and already puffing when we got to the sign that said the hike to the top was an estimated 4 hours, we headed back and bought train tickets. We may try again once we're in better shape for hiking and with an earlier start. There is always the train or cable car option and there is no shame in either. We took the train to the second to last stop - hike of only one hour. It was plenty.
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| cafe outside ticket office - Lake Lucerne |
Cable car only goes part way up the mountain, but these cog trains go the whole way. The cog helps them from gathering too much speed on the way down too.
There were several stops on the way - people actually live up there with only this means of access other than feet. Can't imagine it.
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| No shortage of beautiful views |
I had to sit down and just happened to take a picture of this family out for a hike. The gaiters and lederhosen are so cute!
See the antenna in the picture at right? We're not at the top yet, but we'll get there.
This gives you an idea of the incline of the hike to the top. Red vehicle is one of the cog trains. I thought the building looked like huge Hershey kisses which surely do not belong in Switzerland!
We heard music coming from the final train station and had to go find out where it was coming from. We found this alp horn player. We didn't go close enough to see if he had a basket out for collecting coins or was just playing for fun.
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| several people chose the spot for para-sailing |
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| The Swiss like red! |
There are actually some hotels up on the mountain. They offer pick up at the train station and this could be your ride.
I
lost my sunglasses early in the day, but by now Tom had helped me
recover them. Since the trains only go up to the top and come back down,
we had a chance to ask if anyone found them. So lucky. So why don't I
have them on? I have no answer to that.
Tourist or not, it was a beautiful day and we had a great time. We actually met someone originally from NJ in the parking lot before we left! He saw our NJ license plate. He's lived here for 20 years and loves it. Don't worry - we won't be here that long.
