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Published: September 22nd 2009
Alpenhorns
The Alpenhorn players wait to play during the outdoor church service.I’ll just come right out and say it. I had a blast today. All the stars were aligned for a great day on the road - majestic scenery, interesting people, beautiful weather…
The day started out at the low point with my training run. It’s an off weekend this week (so no 20+/- mile training runs) but I still had to put in seven miles. The run is over with; that’s the most positive way I can put it.
After cleaning up at the hostel, I set out for some brief touring of Lucerne’s old town before going on the day’s main event. Along the 10 minute walk into the old town, I picked up a small pastry and while looking for a place to eat it, I saw a large crowd congregated around a man speaking some sort of Germanic language. Off to the side stood 14 Alpenhorn players (like the guys in the Ricolah commercials). I walked up towards them to get a better view.
In the
Cogwheel
A view of the cogwheel rail and the mountainside from the ferry. mean time, I figured out that this was taking place outside a church. It was an outdoor church service with Alpenhorn players instead of a choir or organ. Just then, the minister turned the stage over to the Alpenhorn players, who immediately captivated the crowd with the strong yet smooth sounds that emanated from their horns.
After their performance, I continued to walk around and came upon Spreuerbrücke, the oldest covered bridge in Europe. The Spreuerbrücke (or Mill Bridge) was constructed in 1408 and is lined with red flowers along its outer wall. The inside has a number of 17th century paintings that depict Lucerne’s history.
With my metabolism still burning from the morning run, I was hungry again. I found a sandwich shop and picked up a soft pretzel and a salami sandwich on a soft pretzel. They love their pretzels here. They also love butter, as both were coated with it.
I ate my nutritious meal along the lake as I waited to board a ferry and embark on the day’s main event.
I came to Switzerland in general and Lucerne specifically to take in the beauty that the region offers. David, an Aussie
Riding the cogwheel
A view on the way up. roommate of mine at the hostel, suggested I check out Pilatus, a nearby mountain top whose peak sits at 7,000 feet above sea level.
The ferry was the first leg on the trip there. It was a 90 minute ride along Lake Lucerne and offered captivating views of the various peaks, grassy hillsides, old homes and villages and towering mountains that plummeted into the lake’s edge.
On the ferry ride, I met a couple from Chicago, Kevin and Jan. They were visiting Zurich and decided to come down to Lucerne for the day to go up Mount Pilatus. We spent the entire ride talking about our travels, the hostels, their family, his work, my thoughts on future employment… all the while taking in the scenic beauty that surrounded us. It all made for a very enjoyable trip to the base of the mountain.
The weather on Lake Lucerne was perfect. There was no need for a jacket. In fact, it was really too warm for one when the sun began to shine brightly through the clouds. Throughout the ferry ride, the temperature kept rising and started to burn off some of the cloud cover that had blanketed
Me with the Alpenhorn players
I should have asked to try and play one. the highest peaks.
When we arrived at the base, we boarded the world’s steepest cogwheel railway to ascend the mountain. The trip up lasted about 40 minutes but time flew as both sides of the steep railway were coated with lush pastures, grazing cows, Alpine forests, large cliffs and magnificent views of the lake below. The grazing cows shook their heads as we passed by. Their cowbells rang making me chuckle thinking of when we had Geiger get a cowbell when he kept disappearing at work several years ago.
Along the way, we could feel the temperature drop significantly. What I would imagine was about 70°F on the lake turned into 45°F at the top.
With jackets now on, the first thing that caught our attention was the three Alpenhorn players who were playing for the tourists. In between songs, we all got our pictures taken with them. At this point, I parted ways with Kevin and Jan as they went to meet up with some others in their travel party.
The views from Pilatus were incredible. With many of the clouds burnt off, I could see far down into the valleys from which we came.
Above the clouds
These clouds would soon roll in and hinder our views. I decided to get an even better view from the tops of some of the peaks but was distracted by a sign boasting the “highest beer taps in the heart of Central Switzerland”. This was enough of a sales pitch for me to tap my own Eichhof beer and enjoy it while overlooking the mountain’s edge.
By the time I finished it, some new clouds began to move in. I still ascended one of the peaks and waited for the clouds to dissipate. They eventually did although never completely so I could not see as far as Lake Lucerne. But I still had some phenomenal views of the other peaks, the Pilatus restaurant and hotel and the deep valleys that rested below.
Cloud cover came in again while I was ascending the highest peak to get to 7,000 feet above sea level. Waiting around at the top, the clouds eventually passed by and the peak offered many more scenic views.
After a couple hours exploring the top, it was time to head back down. The way down was by gondola. The clouds rolled in again so there wasn’t much to see until we arrived at our first
Looking down
It's a long way down to the bottom. transfer. The transfer sight was still well up the mountain and served as the location for a ropes course and a land luge course. The luge wasn’t running but I did watch a few people navigate portions of the ropes course.
I continued down to the next transfer sight which was where people could get off and hike various trails and bring their own food to barbecue. I hiked one of the trails, eventually getting off the beaten path (intentionally) and used a fallen tree to help reach the top of one of the hills in the surrounding Alpine forest.
After making it back safely, I took the final leg of the gondola ride down and caught the bus back to the city.
The only drawback on the whole thing was the massive group of teenagers that I kept running into on the way down. They were all smoking inside these gondola cars (which I assume is allowed given that all the locals smoke pretty much anywhere and everywhere). I’m amazed how many of the teens smoke over here. Maybe they do at home, too, and I am just oblivious to it.
When I got back
Pork sausages and sauerkraut
I feel like I'm home in Pennsylvania Dutch country. into the city, I grabbed dinner at a restaurant which overlooked one of the waterways leading into the lake. In a twist on the whole bread with your meal tradition, the bread was accompanied by three tubes of mustard - one plain, one Dijon and one spicy. All were very good, especially the Dijon.
For my main course I dined on pork sausages and sauerkraut. I felt at home in Pennsylvania Dutch country again.
Again, the only drawback was the cigarette smoke, as I could actually see the smoke drawing towards me like metal to a magnet. You’d think a people (the Swiss, I mean) that consider themselves to be so enlightened would tone it down on the deathsticks.
After dinner and what felt like my second pack of cigarettes, I realized I still hadn’t had any Swiss chocolate (and I was still hungry) so I picked up some dark chocolate ice cream. Whoa, that was good.
I made a few phone calls home and while I was talking to Sarah, the strangest thing happened. I looked up and there were my roommates from the hostel in Nice. They had just arrived and will be in
Didn'tCatchHisName
Didn'tCatchHisName poses with his Guinness. This would make a great ad. I wish I got his name. He was fun. Lucerne before heading to Oktoberfest.
I had expected to call it an early evening and hit the rack at a reasonable hour but a better offer came along. David, my roommate, was getting a group together to go get drinks. I was a
come with guy. We were joined by Didn’tCatchHisName, another one of our roommates who is Nigerian and lives in Italy, Mona from France and Jenny from China.
Finding an open bar on a Sunday night proved difficult. We made our way down to the more touristy area (where I had dinner) and found an Irish pub that was open. We walked inside and I caught my first glimpse of football this year. They were playing the Bills/Bucs game.
We each got our drinks (a Guinness for me) and found a table outside. We broke out the cameras and started taking pictures of the drinks and Didn’tCatchHisName started to pose with his. So we all started doing poses with our drinks. Didn’tCatchHisName was still the best. We should send it to Guinness and have them put it on a billboard.
Eventually, David brought up the topic of cultural differences between our home countries and Switzerland. He started off with how the Swiss obey the traffic signals at all times, even when waiting to cross a street without traffic. We were both joking around how the people looked shocked when we had jaywalked. I remember getting across that street and waiting for a beating from the cops since I think I might have become a felon.
We also all observed how expensive Switzerland is. From an American standpoint, it’s crazy. The US dollar and Swiss Franc exchange at about 1:1. But I remember seeing a burger and fries at a restaurant for 25 francs and running shoes like mine that go for $110 in the US were advertised for 220 francs. And what brought the conversation up in the first place was the $9.50 pint of Guinness.
When we left the bar after one drink, we started walking back through old town. We came upon a fountain in the middle of a plaza and figured, why not take a picture? You’d think that would take a few minutes but it turned into a free-for-all, ending up with us trying to leap in the air while the picture took. This took many attempts. We must have looked like a bunch of drunks.
Tomorrow I leave Lucerne for Innsbruck, Austria with a brief stop in Zurich.
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