Okay, so I love Switzerland. The people are a bit cold but, well, it is Europe. WE invaded THEIR space with our rude and obnoxious behavior, but to be fair their main industry IS tourism. Just saying.
So today we went to Luzerne, which is home of an amazing lake and an impressive view, following our morning church service. After two train rides that added up to about three hours we arrived in town, got tickets for something we didn't know much about, and headed off. All we knew was that we had to take a bus, gondola, cable train, and boat. Do you see how many things could go wrong here?! We managed to make it off the bus at the same stop (all 28 of us) and get up the narrow street without getting run over, which was a miracle in and of itself. The gondola, as it turned out, was to go up into the alps, and quite high into those alps I might add. The initial glass cage we were trapped in--I mean invited into fit four people with surrounding windows. The views were marvelous, and I don't think pictures quite did them justice. Let me try to convey the awesomeness of those mountainsides. The trees were taller than our cables in places and thin as a five-year-old, the faces of the mountains were jagged like they'd been sculpted with a razor, and the height climbed into the clouds. We did NOT get off at the first stop because apparently the goal was to get to the top of Pilatus, the mountain we could not see due to clouds. We got off at the second stop where the small gondolas turned around (the bottom was out of the question-- we were going on bravely) and were crammed like sardines into a bigger, standing-room-only car with glass from floor to ceiling. For the record, when that car crests the first ridge in that mountain, it accelerates as well as swings. There was a shriek from inside the car that nearly deafened me. Then we arrived at the top of Pilatus--7,000 feet up.
The visitor center was spacious, and there was an outside viewing area upstairs. It's kind of freaky to watch the clouds roll through a platform, not gonna lie. There was this set up of rings and mats that we guessed (accurately was for a gymnastics show. Soon the whole platform was split in half by caution ropes. First some old yodelers sang (good, but soft-- I don't think I got them yodeling on video, just them mouthing the words). Then some gymnasts warmed up. Finally, they performed. Oh man. They were good and the guys were all hot and worth seeing. Doesn't hurt that they were setting a WORLD RECORD with that show. First gymnastics team to perform at that altitude. They beat the record by a couple of thousand feet.
Next was the cable train down. Good pictures, funny (sleepy) friends, and the gentle rocking of the car made for a wonderful ride. There were several tunnels chiseled out of the mountainside, literally. It was quite impressive and very dark with the occasional rustic window. Four of us Americans ended up sitting next to four German-speaking Europeans. They laughed with us when one of our friends fell asleep on the rolled-down window and inadvertently nodded into the glass. Priceless. Anyway, we eventually did pull up to Alpnacht... Alpennacht... Oh, I don't remember. Something like that.
We got off the train, thanked the attendants, and ran to the boat, making it there about two minutes before cast-off. Apparently the ticket place where we bought the Pilatus tickets didn't think we'd make the boat. Well we did, so, ha! We took lots of pictures and had a grand old time on the second floor until the ticket collector gently reminded us that we had second-class tickets... and therefore did not belong there. Eh, downstairs was crowded, but the water was so wonderfully clear that I did not mind as much as in a muddy-brown lake somewhere in America. It was then that I listened to the Moonlight Sonata, or Bach's Sonata 14 in C# minor, with the lake that gave it its nickname. It was quite stellar, I gotta say. Sure, it was daylight and not moonlight, but what could I do?
We got off the boat after almost an hour and ended up back at the train station in Luzerne where we had started. Our leader showed us this old bridge from like the 15th century (well, it has been rebuilt because wooden bridge plus plethora of smokers = not good for preservation)with beautiful flower-boxes, paintings, and old stone tower included. That was worth the walk. I hope the pictures turn out.
Well, unfortunately our time had run out. After (unsuccessfully) trying to find groceries for the LONG train ride tomorrow, we met up at the rendezvous point and headed back to Bern. Y'know, you'd think we'd be tired after this long day of adventure, and you'd be right. We went straight back to the hotel after finally finding our groceries and started making plans for bed. Then my mom got this bright idea to find apple strudel since this was our last night in Switzerland. She found it near the bear pit (long story as to why this was funny that I might tell at another time) and as she was discussing it with our desk-lady (who furnished us with bus tickets our first day here) the lady called the restaurant and made us reservations. So the clothes went back on and the group headed out for late-night strudel.
It was delicious.
