We arrived by bus in Basel Switzerland, after breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and Ubered to the train station for our trip to Lucerne Switzerland. After arriving we made our way through the train station and found our hotel just a few blocks away.
After unpacking we set out to visit a popular site in Lucerne. We crossed one of the two nearby famous wooden pedestrian bridges that cross the Reuss River that spills into Lake Luzern just inside the city. We headed to The Lion of Luzern which is a monument just outside of town. The lion is carved into the face of the vertical stone wall in a pleasant shaded area. There is a pool of water separating the lion from the viewing area. The mournful lion is carved in relief into the stone wall. He is laying down mortally wounded with an arrow in his back. Carved in 1821, the monument is a tribute to the Swiss Guard who fought and died in the French Revolution. Mark Twain remarked upon visiting the Lion that “it is the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world”.
The next day I hadn’t said much to Janet leading up to the activity I had planned for our one full day in Lucerne. I was worried that her fear of heights might be an issue. Once she agreed, I went to the hotel desk to find information on visiting nearby Mount Pilatus, medieval folklore claimed dragons lived in the jagged peaks. Overlooking Lucerne Mount Pilatus is composed of several peaks the highest of which is 6,983 feet. There are two options to visiting the top if you don’t count climbing as one of them. You can take a ferry some twenty miles up the lake to the base of the Pilatus Railway, from the dock at Alpnachstad. It is the world’s steepest cogwheel railway, opened in 1889, which takes you directly up to near the summit. The other option is a four seat gondola cable car halfway where you transfer to a larger aeriel cable car to the summit. I decided we should take the “Golden Round Trip” which involved a ferry to the train up the mountain and then down via the Cable car/ gondola combo. On the mountain top there is a large souvenir shop with a few options for drinks and food. There is also a hotel with a fine dining restaurant. We had an excellent lunch, cold open faced roast beef sandwich with a dilicious dressing on thick rye bread. We made our way to the tram to make our descent. We took a taxi the five miles back to our hotel.
We walked across the river on one of the two wooden, covered pedestrian bridges to the old town for dinner. We were treated to a brief concert by a local Alpenhorn club. These are the long wooden horns used before modern communications to converse across the hills of Switzerland.
The next day we were booked to take a Gottard Panoramic Train to Lucerne. The trip started with a ferry ride across lake Lucerne to Flugen where we would disembark and board the train for a ride through the 9.3 mile long historic Gottard Mountain Pass to Lugano, Switzerland near the Italian border. Known as the King of Passes, the tunnel was built in 1882 to connect Southern Europe with Northern Europe. It was a beautiful and interesting ride.
After spending a day in Lugano exploring the streets and waterfront promenade, we took a train to Milan, Italy’s Malpensa Airport where we would spend the night at the adjoining Sheraton hotel for the flight home the next day.
