Advertisement
Published: August 24th 2009
Edit Blog Post
[youtube=sGEKrY85fPw]
Luzern
Main Train Station Hi guys,
I am back from Turkey. That was a great, unique and somewhat magical trip for me.
I was able to see my family (who were on vacation there in Istanbul) after almost 3 years! That is a long time, I know.
Now that I think about it, I am not sure how I could really handle this long period. And defintely harder for my family specially my parents.
I will try to write a separate post about that trip. I am sure it is not that easy since I was mostly enjoying my time with my family and not necessarily the environment (which actually was very nice and had a lot to offer).
Anyhow, in this post, I am going to talk about the Pilatus Mountain located close to the city of Luzern.
Although I had been in Luzern before for the Luzern fest, I did not have the chance to do the famous Golden Round Trip.
This Trip starts from the Lake Luzern (very close to the Luzern main train station). The boat sails on the Luzern Lake for almost 90 minutes to the city called Alpnachstad. Then, one can take the world's steepest cogwheel railway
Luzern Lake Park
Flowers for you. all the way to the top of the Pilatus Mount. Then, either you can undo the trip or you could make a round trip by taking the gondola cableway all the way down and finally bus Nr1 which takes you back to the Luzern main station.
Weather is a very essential element to this memorable and stunning trip. I had checked the weather forecast on Saturday for Sunday. Sunny and warm. That's what I was looking for. Perfect!
After arriving to Luzern after a 50 minutes travel in train from Zurich, I got frustrated by the fact that all the sky was completely cloudy!
I thought I should forget about it and go back and not waste my money.
But, I decided to go there, no matter what. And I did not regret it at all.
On the boat, I was keep looking at the sky and keep track of the clouds and wind direction. Nothing made sense at all. It did not seem that it would be clear sky soon.
But once I arrived in Alpnachstad (after 90 minutes), the clouds started disappearing. I guess this was somewhat a local effect (by the Lake Luzern and the surrounding
Luzern
Luzern Lake mountains). Lucky me!
In almost 30 minutes, the whole sky was clear! Yay! That's what I am talking about. Awesome.
Now, I was waiting to see the world's steepest cogwheel railway. I had heard about it before from a friend of mine Peter.
A lot of people were in the line to get on the train. It was amazing! Seeing this small train going up the mountain on such a track.
It took almost 30 minutes to get to the top.
On the top, there were few spots where people could easily see the gorgeous view. Now, I could realize why this should be always done in a clear sky and sunny day.
I am sure the pictures and the movie will speak much better than I do. It is worth mentioning that one is able to count more than 70 mountain peaks!
I decided to check around. Having looked at the signs, I figured out that there was a short 40 minutes hike to another spot. I decided to go for that. To be able to catch the last cable car, I had to be fast. So, I finished the trail in only 20 minutes. Not bad!
There was much better in a sense that fewer people were around. 4-5 people at a time.
After relaxing there for a while, I headed back to the Pilatus peak. A lot of people were lying under the sun and enjoying their time. An ice cream is not a bad idea at all.
The last cable car was at 6pm. I decided to go with 5:30pm to avoid any risk of staying up there for the night!
There was a two stage cable car. In the first one, there were almost 30 people. It only took 5 minutes to get to the first stop. Here, we had to use another cable car. This time only 4 people were sitting in each cabin. It also took 20 minutes to get down. The interesting point was that all the way down (and obviosly up), the small cabins were continuously running with the distance difference of 50 meters. Considering the time took us to get down, that must have been a lot of cabins. For sure few hundreds.
My cabinmates were a couple speaking Italian. And I am not sure if they were Italian or coming from the Italian part of
Switzerland.
After leaving the cabin at the final station, we had to follow a lot of signs standing every 50 meters or so next to each other to get to the bus Nr1. That would bring us back to the Luzern main station.
Once I arrived at the main station, it was around 7pm. I originally had decided to head back to Zurich. But, again the Lake (river!) walk grabbed my attention. That was fascinating! Much more beautiful than the Zurich one.
I started walking and enjoying my time there for almost one more hour.
And finally, I decided to have dinner there in an Italian restaurant right by the lake. Lasagna. I am full now for the next two days.
That was my Sunday. A great one I should say. If you had any chance of going to Switzerland, do not miss this one.
Pilatus Mount.
Ciao,
Momo
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb