It was raining when we got up and didn't look like stopping any time soon. The forecasts were all gloomy, too. We sent Phil off to the Verkehrshaus, the Swiss Transport Museum. Meanwhile, Caelli and I had a lazy morning, and finally caught the 11.59 bus headed for Seelisberg (801m). We got off at the final stop - where the funicular train goes down to Treib. So...onto the train, along with a dozen other people.
The train arrived at Treib just before the Dampfschiff (paddle steamer) heading for Luzern, so we watched everyone else get on and depart. Then another Dampfschiff arrived - this one heading for Flüelen. No-one disembarking, so they didn't tie off; just yelled some greetings and went on their way.
We wandered around the area for a short while, eating our bread rolls with raspberry jam and taking photos.
We went back up on the funicular......
.......and started walking (slowly) back to Seelisberg. The idea was that the 14.31 bus would collect us along the way. It wasn't until 14.34 when we checked the timetable (again) that we discovered that there were buses at .31 past every hour except 14. So.....we kept on walking. Seelisberg sits fairly high up on a cliff with some beautiful views of the Vierwaldstättersee looking towards Brunnen.....
......and Flüelen.
The bus finally picked us up at Seeli, a small lake just outside the town.
We hopped off again at Emmetten (774m) and went up to Stockhütte (1286m) on the gondola.
We had a quick look around. Caelli couldn't resist the children's playground!
Down again within half an hour. Riding funiculars and gondolas is fun!
Some nice views from the bus back to Beckenried, too (and yes - the ubiquitous crane managed to get in one of the photos! We have seen multiple cranes in most of the towns we have visited.)
When Phil returns, he gets to write part of the blog!
Well, it was 7:30pm before I got home so after a short tea, I'm on the blog for my day's outing.
So off this morning on the bus to Stans then a train into Luzern. From here I could have caught a 6 min bus to the Transport Museum but being me I did the half hour walk (mainly because it wasn't raining at the time).
Followed a school group to the museum and when I went inside there were school kids everywhere. (A hint if you go here one day - don't go on a school day or get in early before they arrive or wait until after 3pm if you want to do any of the interactive things).
First on the program was the planetarium and the show Zodiac. Surprising being an astronomer and having one at Spotswood, this is my first time in a planetarium. The show was based on the skies over Luzern and helped me to identity what I thought was Scorpio when in Cochem. It ended up being the Great Bear, otherwise known as the Big Dipper, and it is used to find the Pole Star.
After here off to the aeronautics display which I was a bit disappointed with, as apart from some actual size aircraft, most were in small model form. There was an original Swiss fighter plane that looked similar to a Spitfire. Went into an original Swissair Convair CV-990 Coronado with original seating.
There were also helicopter and aircraft simulators, but remember those school kids I mentioned earlier - both lines were packed - so...
...onto the astronautics area which included a full size replica of the European ISS Columbus module,
British Aerospace Spacelab Pallett,
and the original Pilatus cogwheel train - the predecessor to the one we rode a couple of days ago but which uses a different cog system today.
Other than a scaled model of MIR spacestation and the fact that there is a small display of Switzerland's one and only astronaut - Claude Nicollier, four times in space, it was also disappointing.
Next was the train display which was really good with all the old Swiss locomotives - one over a pit so you could walk underneath. There was also an 1895 rotary snowplough...
...and best of all simulators with you as the driver on the modern trains. One was free so off I went . Remember those school kids again, waiting for me to finish and the next two were also full so I headed back to the planetarium to see Stella Nova. Got out in time to go through the Gotthard Tunnel show which is the story of the building of the 1875 tunnel but was not well done and at times a bit comical. When we got out it was 4:40 and no kids around so I headed back to flight simulators and first went on the helicopter, then onto the fighter simulator. (Note that the simulators do what the real planes do.)
Here I am before doing a 28,000 ft vertical climb then two 360 degree barrel rolls. Thank God for the harness when you going through 180 degrees (ie upside down).
There are cameras inside on you and displayed on the screen outside and the view that you see, so if you make a mistake, ie crash, everyone else knows about it.
Finally back to the train simulators and had a go on all three with the last one being up in the snow and I had to come down maintaining 65 kph then 35kph then 20 kph into the station. (My passengers survived.)
After closing at 6pm, walked back to the station to catch the train and bus home.
