Beckenried - Luzern

It was raining when we woke this morning. The forecast was for cloud, rain and afternoon thunderstorms. The live mountaintop webcams looked - well, you looked, but you didn't see. So we did what we have done several times before when the weather was rotten - we spent the day on a boat.

We hopped on the boat, but couldn't sit inside at the front because it was first class only. We decided to pay the extra to upgrade our tickets, which meant we could use the upper balcony as well. Both photos show the first class areas. The front lounge where we parked ourselves had a mirrored ceiling!

The Waldstätter left Beckenried at 9.27am, heading for Flüelen at the eastern end of the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne). The rain had stopped and it wasn't really cold. Caelli was sick again - the cold/flu thingummy that she seems to get every so often in Europe, so it was good to have nice, soft benches to sit on rather than chairs. The colour of the water was gorgeous. I wonder what it would be like on a sunny day.

We got back to Beckenried three hours later......

......but stayed on the boat as it headed to Luzern. We went through the narrowest part of the lake.

Once through the narrows, we could see Pilatus, where we went yesterday.

Caelli curled up on the seat and slept......

......whilst Phil and I enjoyed the ride.

We hopped off at Luzern to have a look around. There are a lot of Mute Swans there.

I really like the Kappelbrücke (Chapel Bridge). It was first erected in 1333, but there was a fire in 1993 that partially destroyed it, along with some of the paintings that are inside. It's still lovely.

We then went to see the Löwendenkmal, the Lion of Lucerne.  

Walked up to have a quick look at the city walls and towers.

Caelli was still feeling rotten, so we put her on the 16.12 boat back to Beckenried. That's her in the window on the far right of the upper deck (first class, remember?)

Phil and I went back to the walls and the towers, and saw a couple of lovely painted houses on the way.

The Zytturm, the Clock Tower, had some very old mechanical clocks, plus a big bell on its uppermost level.  (It struck five just after this photo was taken!)

The Männliturm had fantastic views over Luzern.

The Spreuerbrücke (Mill Bridge) could be seen from this tower, and so the tower could be seen from the bridge!  This bridge was built in 1408.

We stopped to look at the Jesuitenkirche. There was a service being conducted inside, so we listened. We have now heard services in Italian, French and (Swiss) German!

Back in time to catch the 18.12 boat back to Beckenried.

Beckenried - Pilatus Kulm

We got up fairly early for our final day of good weather. We walked to the bus stop, caught the bus to Stans, a train to Hergiswil, another train to Alpnachstad, and then the mountain railway to Pilatus Kulm. This is billed as the steepest cogwheel railway in the world, and the trip up takes about half an hour. Views are great - scenic looking down, and amazing looking up at where we're heading.

This is the halfway point where the trains can pass. The downhill trains wait for the uphill trains to go past; then they can continue their descent.

You can see the trains ahead of us in the upper left and right of the photo.

And you can see the train below us, too.

Pilatus Kulm (2132m) has some spectacular views. Although it was clear today, visibility wasn't total as there was a lot of mist and haze. We walked up to the closest lookout first.

The Alpine Choughs are amenable to hand-feeding. One landed on my hand at one point. We gave them Honey Smacks.

Then we headed for the next lookout, only to find that it was closed and the path led to a very steep staircase through the rock to a walking trail to we don't know where. Caelli and I are in the middle of the first photo.

Back to Pilatus, where a couple of chaps were playing alphorns.....

......and the paragliders were taking off.

Then off to the Esel lookout. It was a very windy path (no breeze - just bends), and many of the steps were quite wet. 

This chap was free climbing up the side of the peak. It's steeper than it looks in the photo. Much steeper.

Views from the top were spectacular, particularly over the Vierwaldstättersee and the Berner Oberland.

And lovely views on the way down again.  Can you spot Caelli and Phil?

We caught the gondola down from Pilatus. There are three separate sections. The first, to Fräkmüntegg, is in a large gondola. At Fräkmüntegg, there is a high ropes course and a summer toboggan run. You can see the toboggan track in this photo, taken from the gondola up near Pilatus.

We had two goes each on the toboggan course, which is 1350 metres long.

At the bottom, they hook you on to a ski lift and you get pulled up backwards.  Views are great!

Back on the next gondola for the two-part journey down to Kriens (a suburb of Luzern). These gondolas take 4 people each and run continuously.

Lots of wildflowers in the meadows on the way down.

From Kriens, we caught a bus to Luzern, then a train to Hergiswil, another train to Stans and the bus back to Beckenried. Huge difference in temperature between the lakeside towns and the mountain areas. A very pleasant 10 degrees in the sun on the mountain, and it makes 25 degrees at lake level seem like it's sweltering. The next three days we are expecting rain, storms and other horrible things. We're planning on spending at least one of these nasty days on boats.