Silver around Lucerne

The lazier tourists can ride that gondola to the top of the Swiss Alps.

An hour train ride from Basel can get you to any of Bern, Lucerne, and Zurich. My first stop away Chris's comfy apartment would be to Lucerne, with Mike accompanying. The first day, we explored the city on bike and on foot. Mark showed up at night, ready for the much more exciting second day after a night's rest.

Chapel Bridge over Reuss River, opening into Lake Lucerne

Straight away after getting into Lucerne, Mike and I rented bikes and headed to a campsite which we hoped would be our shelter for the night. We got a little lost as we traveled on the bikes, but it wasn't a huge detour. The campsite turned out to be a dud, geared more toward RVs and the like. Think Old Man's Creek Campgrounds. It was possible to rent a lot, but it saved us no money compared to a hostel, so we abandoned that plan.

Hofkirche St. Leodegar

One fancy altar inside the church

We took a risk of trying to camp in Lucerne, and it backfired. Not a big deal at all, provided hostels still had beds available. Switzerland is a little light on hostels overall, compared to other European countries, so we didn't have that many options. The first hostel we tried only had a single bed available for three of us (planning for Mark's arrival later). We thought about taking it and splitting each of us up into different hostels, whatever beds we could find. The next hostel we wanted to try had a private room available at a cost roughly equivalent to booking three beds, so I jumped on that.

The most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.

One display in the very small, but accordingly cheap, Alpine Museum

Having settled our sleeping situation for our one night in Lucerne, Mike and I moved onto Lucerne's touristy features. There's not much. The Lion of Lucerne, dedicated to the Swiss Guards of the French Revolution, is notable. Besides that, there are giant city clock towers and lots of window shopping for Swiss Army knives and watches. I discovered that the knives my mom got me and my brother years ago from Switzerland cost almost $100. I had no idea my mom loved me enough for a $100 knife! The knife has held up spectacularly and I still use it with some regularity, especially on this trip and when camping. Mike debated buying a Swiss Army knife for himself. They come in all sorts of varieties, but he couldn't find one with his desired perfect set of tools.

View from a clock tower onto the suburb.

View from a clock tower onto the lake.

We walked over to the Museggmauer landmark, a city wall with periodic towers built in, some of which are clock towers. The Swiss love keeping accurate time! Many beautiful views of the city in all directions could be obtained from the top. It was a marvel to find huge tower-height grandfather clocks in these towers, open to the public. The tower interior stairs were rickety, awkward, and lopsided, making us wonder how they were open at all.

Zeitturm clock tower

A giant clock mechanism inside one of the clock towers.

We retired a little early this day, mostly because we ran out of things to do, but it was also getting a bit rainy. After picnicing through the on-again-off-again rain in a park on the lakeside, we got cleaned up at our hostel and prepared for Mark's imminent arrival.

Gazing along the Reuss

Read on for Lucerne Day 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The Pilatus gondola took us only part way up the mountain, past the boring segment.

In the morning, we chowed down on a pretty typical European breakfast in the mess hall. I heard "Nur Ein Wort" by Wir Sind Helden come up on the radio, which is one of the only German bands I know. I recognized them immediately despite not having listened to them since grad school. I still like their music. After we finished eating, we set out on a decent walk to the base of Mount Pilatus.

Getting some height above the Pilatus station.

The Lucerne tourist agencies have set up something called the silver/golden round trip when going up Pilatus. We accomplished the silver, more or less. For the silver, from downtown you take a bus out to the Pilatus cableway station, then take the gondolas to the peak in two stages. To descend, you take the cogwheel railway down the opposite side of the mountain. And finally, you take a train alongside the lake back into downtown. For the golden, you take a ferry across the lake back to downtown. We strayed from the silver in that we got more exercise by walking from downtown to the cableway and then hiking up the second stage of the mountain. The trip doesn't come cheap, running us about $70 each for the modified silver mode, and even more if you opt for the ferry to make it golden.

I'm getting nervous now. Heights get to me.

After skipping over the boring part of the mountain by taking the gondola, our hike began. Don't have much to say here, just enjoy the pictures. This was the most strenuous two hour hike I've ever done. Mike flew up the mountain - he was in great shape for it. Meanwhile... my feet are busted. Mike was constantly in the lead while I caused landslides in my wake to Mark's dismay.

The line here is for the second half of the gondola trip, but we chose to hike instead.

We stopped for lunch at a bunch of fenced off benches outside of a deserted church. Why was it fenced off? Well, to protect you from mountain goats. I changed shirts during this intermission and hung my sweaty one on the fence to dry off. A bird came along and pooped on my shirt, I kid you not. I stuffed it in a Ziploc bag after that to keep it out of contact with anything else I owned.

I'm a mountain goat. I climb cliffs and stand on rocks. It's what I do. I also scratch my butt with my horns.

We ate lunch down there at the Klimsenkapelle church.

This is why you go to Switzerland! To use these mountains! Hike in the summer or ski in the winter. The country is clean and livable, but as a place to visit, there really aren't that many attractions, especially for kids in their twenties. I mean... quiet hours starting at 10? Who wants that as a tourist? Go to the mountains. The Swiss Alps are famous for a reason. These views are unrivaled.

Two hotels sit at the top of the mountain. This is Hotel Pilatus Bellevue.

Note the railcar inching its way up the mountain.

No shortage of fog on this mountain.

After taking in the views, a snack, a rest, and an overjoyed pug, we begin the descent down the mountain via one of the last rides for the day on the steepest cogwheel railway in the world, at 48% grade. We joked how they could charge us anything they wanted for this ride, because we were too exhausted to walk down the mountain. The hike up just took that much out of us.

In the back here is the second hotel: Hotel Pilatus-Kulm

Down down down down down.

Careful not to drop your phone out the window while taking a picture, cuz you ain't getting it back.

Enjoying the slow ride down the mountain.

The steepest railway in the world understandably doesn't go all that fast. By the time we hit the bottom, it was raining. With the goal of finding food, preferably fondue, we completed out silver round trip with a train back into the city. If it weren't raining, taking the ferry was awfully tempting, even at the high price. Lake Lucerne is just so pretty and I'd love to spend time on it.

Luzerner Chugelipastetli - reminded me of vol-au-vent

Aside from the obvious dairy and derivative chocolate products, Switzerland has three food items going for it: fondue, rӧsti, and very cheap wine. To refuel after the grueling hike, we looked for fondue, but it was very expensive and we couldn't find a place that didn't feel like a tourist trap. So we ended up at some fondue-less but still haute cuisine restaurant. I had the chugelipastetli, a Lucerne specialty. Mike had something with rӧsti, which is a kind of hash brown originating in Bern. (I waited until Bern to get some rӧsti of my own but Mike and Mark were never going to be in Bern.) And Mark ordered pasta bolognese. We made fun of him for that one. After dinner we found some of that very cheap wine and sat talking by the lake until we had to catch our overnight train and bus to Munich through a quick stop in Zurich. I slept well despite the overnight travel.

Take off your shell and be free, little buddy!