Chapter 4 - DAY 31 - Lucerne

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Well I had to venture out today by myself as Grant was a little under weather today, the bug he had been fighting caught up with him and last night’s activities didn’t help!

MT PILATUS
Since the weather had also turned for the worst, we had a change in schedule as originally we were going up Mount Pilatus by small cable car and back down on cog-wheel railway, it was too windy so it was up and back on the clog-wheel train (which suited those not comfortable with heights).

Before heading up the mountain we went to visit the famous Lion Monument (I was looking forward to this as Terence had shown us pictures from his visit) the Monument didn’t disappoint at all it is a beautiful tribute to the soldiers killed in the French Resolution. (Brendon mentioned that the man who carved it was angry about his payment so he also carved a rather crude pig around the outside- and if you look closely you can see it- but then it could be one of his Pinocchio tales)

From base one could see the mountain but the views weren’t very clear for the start of our assent it was raining lightly and by the time we went through two of the six tunnels at the 4000 ft mark everyone was getting excited as it had started to show signs of snowing. At this height there were also traditional farm buildings. As we slowly progressed higher the green landscape gave way to white and the trees looked like Christmas postcards, the higher we got the whiter our view. By the time we got to the last tunnel and we then had a complete white out and no view at all.

We reached the top and watched our steps as we got off the train- then into the warm Cafe and straight out into the cold again as for some of our Australian companions this was their first chance to walk and touch and play in the snow, Jenny was brave enough to even do a snow angel.

I went out the back of the Cafe which took me along tunnels cut into the mountain, where there were viewing gaps all you could see was white and the biting cold of the snow finding its way thru the tunnels, one could see the stalactites of ice hanging off the walls and through the normal building drainpipes. To warm up we had a most welcome cup of chocolate.

LAKE LUCERNE
Back on the bus and off back to Lucerne to catch a ferry to see Lucerne from the water, this took us right round the lake viewing homes and hotels where the rich and famous have lived or stayed, we passed the 8 ft Statue of Jesus which is said to be the model for the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
It was then back for free time – so a quick grab of lunch and medicine for Grant and to get out of the pouring rain for a few hours.

Hard to imagine that we have had such an extreme change in weather conditions .

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Photos

Famous Lion of Lucerne
A real highlight of our Lucerne visit

Fun in the Snow
For some of the Aussies in our party it was the first time they had encountered snow

Lucerne
A beautiful Swiss city, population around 75,000