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Published: June 28th 2013
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Cheese specials
Cheese pie, camemzola chees and bread. Don't you love the paper characters? The day started with food on the agenda. Gertrud had recommended the local cheese pie and we had seen a scintillating variety of cheeses at a shop down in Gersau. These were bought for tonight's dinner.
We headed off from Gersau in the car this morning to do the rather long way around to Alpnachstadt where the Pilatus Bahn leaves from. To tour from Gersau, we went to Brunnen, then to Flueulen at the end of the lake and back towards Lucern on the far side of the lake. Much of the journey is in tunnels, one of which was over 9km long. It is certainly not the way to sight see because on autobahns you see very little except the baffles along the road sides.
The weather is looking much better but still not warm or clear. We got a round ticket and then straight on to the cogwheel train with the hoards of others coming off a boat but they soon dispersed onto various trains as there are only two carraiges to each train. Pilatus Rail is the world’s steepest railway with a gradient up to 48%. The views are magnificent as you go from lake level,
Mountain flowers and signs
There are many plants on the path labelled like this little primula through pastures, then high pasture and vertical sided cliffs with massive rocks everywhere. You finally arrive up above the tree line to a narrow plateau with large buildings at 7000feet (whatever that converts to). There are still peaks above this level to view from but today the tops are clouded. We opted to leave the large viewing building and head out on the track to Tomlishorn. It was freezing cold and we were glad we had brought all our warm gear. This track runs along one side of the ridge with steep drop offs to either side. Amazingly, this time, I managed the whole walk without a vertigo attack. Along the track are numerous little signs on dozens of alpine plants and flowers. There are many flowers out right now and they are like miniature versions of what we have in our gardens. It was a very peaceful place to stop with virtually no sound at all. Unfortunately, we could not see the high alpine peaks in the distance as we have before. We could see the valleys below the cloud line and everything looked like a make believe scene of green pastures, soaring mountains and small buildings.
On
Pilatus train station
Shows the steepness of the line gradient to the station the way back along the track we stopped for lunch and were immediately targeted by the mountain crows who were in no way shy. They sat right at our feet and behind our shoulders waiting for any small morsel that might come their way.
Back at Pilatus Kulm and inside we had hot chocolate and were soon toasty warm again. We headed down from Pilatus on the other side of the Pass in a cable car going steeply down and then changed to gondolas the rest of the way down for 30 minutes. Under the cloud the views were stunning looking out over Lucern, the lake and to the mountains.
At Kriens we boarded a bus taking us to Lucern Hauptbahnhof (railway station). We had time to spare – after all we are on holiday – so did a short visit of Lucern Zentrum for an hour or so. There seems to be a music festival happening over the weekend as there were speakers, stages, flags, and food and drink stations being set up. That would have been fun to stay for. But no.
We then returned to the train station and got the train
back to Alpnachstadt where we had started. All in all an excellent day and good value doing the round trip. We figured that our half-fare card is now, after a week, starting to pay for itself, so it’s worthwhile using even though we have a car.
Back home in Gersau, we are indulging in Camemzola cheese (YUM), bikkies and wine followed by a local speciality of Kasse (Cheese) Pie with salad for dinner. Then a dessert of peaches and Movenpick chocolate icecream. We’re doing well!
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