Eurotrip Day 13: "Climbing" Pilatus (9/27/13)

Got up early to get a head start on the day and bought a “Golden Ticket” for the Pilatus exploration from the front desk before walking to the boat dock in front of the Hbf to wait for my ferry across the lake; while I was waiting I got into the provisions I acquired the previous day making myself a meat and cheese sandwich and having a nectarine. Met up with K and S (a new guy who was from China but studying for a year in Germany) and hung out as we were all taking the same trip. Boat went to a stop or 2 before our final stop at Alpnachstad. 

I found my launch for the tour. It was decently well organized to minimize mess ups in navigation.

Looking back on the city from the boat. 

Swan swimming in front of a beautiful hotel. 

Here we go on our epic adventure into the great unknown.

Had a friend on the boat take a pic of me and the beautiful scenery. Included in the scenery - shirt from brewery back home.

First village we stopped at on the journey across the lake.

Castle with some houses up on the hill side. Still fighting the morning mist a bit.

I love sunrise/set times in the mountains. Shade changes the picture for the better.

Sky clearing out a bit. Love that reflection!

So many mountains, so little time. Great to look at though!

There we get on the cogwheel train that takes us to the top of Pilatus. Once we get to the top, as I step foot outside the visitor center, the strong winds instantly kick in the heights induced anxiety I am all too familiar yet still uncomfortable with. First stop is Esel peak, which offered some great views from the 360 degree turret opening up there; they had placards saying which mountains you were looking at in each direction. I then went back into the visitor center to chill and have lunch (more of the same as breakfast) before heading back out to check out the sights from oberhaupt and chriesiloch before heading over to the final point of the day for me, Tomlishorn.

Part 2 of the transportation trip to/from pilatus - old rail car going up the mountain. 

They built houses on this hill side. If you want to get away from the city, I would imagine this area is one way to do that.

Finally made it to the top. Cant wait to disembark and explore a bit.

The pilatus dragon front and center as you get off the rail. 

Climbed up one of the peaks and looked down on the base camp. Cant imagine bringing all that building material up that mountain to make all these places for people to eat, sleep, etc.

Plaque identifying the mountains in the distance. Nice info to have. I could spend days looking at this view.

Who is that handsome devil distracting me from the beautiful mountains???

The guy was just sitting there saying "Sax-O-mo-Phone" in a really deep voice. Not really but makes for a better story than him playing music with it. 

The rail car we came up in. That trail is the hiking trail for those who want to hike up the whole way. Aint nobody got time for that! (At least not on this trip)

Hike over to a different peak/lookout (there were a few different paths up there)

Clearly I either really like views or I am the only stupid person on this mountain 

I got company! Just a guy and his bird checking out some beautiful sights while taking some respite from way up.

I erected a sign with my initials on it. :) 

This was the hike up to the view I was at. If you read any of my previous posts, you know my heights anxiety during this part was off the chain. 

I saw S for a while here, however this peak was really messing with me so I enjoyed the views as long as I could and then slowly made my way back down to the visitor center to catch the funicular back down the mountain. On way down, stopped in Frakmuntegg to do the toboggan thing they have (essentially you get to ride a lil cart down a bobsled course). As I went down the first time, I wiped out going through a corner and when I got to the top the guy felt bad for me so he let me go again after some brief instruction (so I got a 2 for 1 that day, not bad). Some way down the track, there is a speed camera so you can see how fast you are going; both times my speed measured 41km/h. After the second run, I went over to the rope park that was nearby and it looked like it could be a lot of fun given the time to properly explore it. But since I had neither the time nor the will (was all “heightsed” out by then), I took the funicular the rest of the way down to Kriens to catch a bus back to the Hbf. I then went by the grocery store, got some dinner to make that night and a bottle of wine to enjoy as I pack to move on tomorrow.

After a bit of peak exploration/claiming, I take the cable cars down (the other way up/down the mountain). What is that serpentine thing on the mountain?

Toboggan run? Makes sense. Time to luge down the mountain.

Beautiful countryside to enjoy some lugging.

No steering. Just break. If you want to use it...

I went too fast and wiped out mid-run (sign said to break, but of course who listens to signs?).

Seriously beautiful countryside. 

Walking down to check out the rest of the stop's attractions. Got stopped by this view. 

Tree lounge? Yes please!

Another attraction at this stop was a tree obstacle course. They also has group training exercises and what not. I did not do this stuff as I was all heights-ed out by then. 

Cable car to take me the rest of the way down.

Back to town we go. Can see it in the distance (if you look really hard)

In a previous life, I was a postcard photographer. Found some flowers as I was walking around town trying to get back. 

Small beach on the lake in town near the hostel. 

The park across the street from the hostel has a lot of pretty gems to check out. This bridge being one of them. 

I packed and went down to have a glass of wine and hang out, and there I saw K so we hung out and chatted for a bit until i got hungry and it was time to make dinner. While I was cooking, J came back from his day of shopping (he collects starbucks mugs and had suitcases full of them) and joined us for a bit. Everyone but J was leaving in the morning so we all went up after food and drink were over and started getting ready for bed.

Money saving 101 - wine + pasta+pasta sauce = dinner of champions when going out is prohibitively expensive.

Eurotrip Day 12: Exploring Lucerne in the rain (9/26/13)

Woke up early as I had a lot of exploring to do, however there was a slight drizzle. This makes sense cause the umbrella I bought in AS was accidentally left in M since there was no rain while we were there and now I didnt have the umbrella the rain returns. Since it was just a slight drizzle, I decided to move on with the plans and just go until it opens up. First went and saw the lion in the stone for which the city is famous (one of the reasons I should say), and then the glacier museum which had a house of mirrors that was small but I enjoyed being in it. 

Beautiful castle on the side of the hill. I say castle, its probably just someone's home. :)

Fountain in the middle of the old town.

Front of the train station.  

Front of the post office. Wish Post offices back home looked like this. 

The famous Lucerne bridge with watch tower. Tis pretty.

Bridge grows flowers on its side. Nice little addition if you ask me. 

Castle from before. Without all the other things distracting your attention.

Another pedestrian bridge. Such a pretty city.

The underside of the bridge has stories from within the catholic church.

Looking back along the coast of the lake.

Lucerne Lake. Not too shabby of a view. 

Yet another beautiful church in another European city. Sounds sarcastic, but I do enjoy seeing these old buildings (incl. churches).

Interesting building. I am pretty sure this was a hotel of sorts.

The famous Lion of Lucerne. Started raining so had to find shelter.

Glacier museum it is. These rock faces were apparently smoothed by glacier moving over them.

Times like this, I wish I was traveling with someone. :)

Little model of the city. 

Got a nice view from the museum. Just one city sight to appreciate.

How many Tre's do you need in your life? I think we all agree, that many is too many. :)

Realizing glaciers arent reason enough to visit a museum, HALL OF MIRRORS!

Fountain created using mirrors (only one wedge is physical.

After that I went to the panorama museum which was really impressive and had a little bit of history with it, which is always nice. After this museum, I was museumed out and decided to go explore old town and its many bridges/old buildings. After grabbing a quick sandwich, I was back walking around the town towards the museggmauer, a wall with towers you can walk up into.

Went in to the panorama museum. It was cool. Not sure if it was worth the time, but still cool to learn the story/history and see how it was laid out.

Found a statue! I win!

Post card or picture I took? Good question.

Many of the buildings had cool designs painted into them (this one with vines and people).

More of the cool painted buildings.

Flowers are the main theme it seems.

Hotel with some awesome Greek art.

Another massive and impressive church in the central area.

Walking up to the wall with towers. Starting to see some signs of nature :)

Fun little road to walk up to get to the tower (its trying to poke out from the trees).

Thar she blows! The Towers!

Climb a hill and some stairs and you get this view? yes please!

View down the wall of the different towers.

View from the other end of the wall. Do you recognize that castle on the hill? Yeah me neither.

Tower map showing which towers you can still go up. 

Walkway on the wall.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! (view of the city from the wall)

Bell in the clock tower.

Clock of Clock tower. That bell in the top looks familiar! Pretty face of the building.

Had my typical heights-induced panic attack climbing down one of the stairwells that was exceptionally rickety (I find it kinda counterintuitive that for as much as I dislike heights, a lot of my traveling around cities is me climbing up buildings on old staircases to get good views of cities/areas). That being said, the towers were pretty cool to see (they had exhibits about how some of the clocks work and what not) and they did offer some great views of the surrounding area so a little bit of uncomfortableness is worth getting to see great views and experiences. As with all life altering experiences (by life altering I mean I did something :) ), I determined I earned a beer after finishing the climb, so I went to Stadtkeller and had a delicious dunkel. After that I continued on a miniature beer tasting crawl and next wound up at Rathaus and got their special bier, which wound up being a typical weiss bier (good but I dont know why it was called special bier instead of weiss bier). After that I made my way out of the old city and stopped at a cafe on Hapburgerstrasse to have a Luzerner bier (I believe this was the historically local type of beer).

Stopped here for a beer. Believe they had a comedy show happening so I had to sit at bar (didnt buy admission).

Then went and got another expensive beer near by. Turned out to be a nice reward of walking around all day. 

Gotta try the local beer right? When in rome!

Got back to the place and set stuff down before heading to the nearby grocery store to grab food supplies for my climb of Mt. Pilatus the next day. Put the bags back in the room and was about to go explore the park across the street when the drizzle became a full on deluge. So I chilled with some bunkmates (J and K from Singapore and Taiwan resp.) and once the storm let up, we went over to Treibhaus which had an interesting decor/feeling to the place.

Grabbed some beers with some other solo travelers from the hostel at a lil dive place a walk away from the hostel.

Had heard they had decent food but when we got there, only lunch was being offered (was still good but was hoping for some of the dinner selections), so we got some paninis and explored the beer options while talking about our travels and getting to know each other; was kinda cool having an in depth conversation with people you just met instead of the usual “hey what's your name where you from” interaction. After finishing up there, we headed back to the place as I had to get some rest for the day of hiking tomorrow.