Our last morning in Lucerne we checked out of our hotel and drove to the Mt Pilatus gondola station. We purchased tickets for the gondola to the Tram, then the Tram to the top. For our return trip we took the incredibly steep cog railway down to the town of Alpnachstad, a railway ticket from Alpnachstadt to Central Lucerne and a bus pass back to the Mt Pilatus gondola. If were not going to the Swiss Alps in Lauterbrunnen later today this would be a nice experience. It is completely dwarfed by the experience of visiting the Swiss Alps so I don't think I would do oit again. With that said, it was still a fun morning.
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| Smaller 4 passenger gondolas take you to the Tram |
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| Leaving the gondola station and parking lot |
We boarded a small 4 passenger gondola which surprisingly also makes one stop on the way to the Tram station. We saw a local resident get off in the car in front of us. This is an interesting way of going into town to get groceries and supplies. We finally get off at the tram station where a 140 person Tram takes the next leg of the journey to the top of Mt Pilatus. We had a short wait for the tram to return from it's previous trip which also serves to bring people back down. While waiting the 4 passenger gondolas keep coming filling the platform. The turnstiles keep count of the number of passengers and won't allow anymore than 140 onto the platform. The rest get shuttled to a waiting area. On the way to the top in the Tram I noticed a tiny church perched on the mountain top. I wonder who this was built for? It's a little bit out of the way for a regular congregation
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| View of mountain top church from Tram |
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| Church perched precariously on the mountain top |
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| Little Swiss Church |
Once at the top, the view of Lake Lucerne and the surrounding valley is spectacular.
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| Lake Lucerne from Mt Pilatus |
Once disembarking from the Tram there is the option of climbing even higher. Of course, I had to go up the narrow stone path to the top. There appears to be an observatory with several domes up here as well as an assortment of antennae and instruments.
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| Tram Station at the top |
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| View from the stone path to the peak |
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| School Group resting on the trail to the peak |
After exploring around the top for a little bit and discovering some relient wildflowers perched on the top of the mountain, we went to the cog train to take the steep rail ride down to Alpnachstad.
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| Cog rail tracks descending from the tram station |
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Mt Pilatus cog train descending the mountain
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Swiss transportation is amazing. There is a vast array of well connected vehicles to move people up, down and sideways. Once we got off the cog rail in Alpnachstad the Swiss Rail station is right there. We boarded a comfortable train which runs along Lake Lucerne to go back to the Lucerne Central station.
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| Waiting for the train to Lucerne |
At the main train station in Lucenre there is a highly organized system of tram platforms taking people all over the city/ We were making our way to platform 1 to go back to our car which is parked at the Mt Pilatus gondola station. It was a short tram ride across the city to the Mt Pilatus stop. At the tram stop after we got off we found a small farmers market set up on a plaze. We purchased some bread and cheese for our lunch on the drive to Southern Switzerland and the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Libbie is getting to know the names of the local mountains and of course we had to find cheese from the mountain region where Glarus is situated. She found it at a vendor and purchased Glarus cheese.
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| View from Main station. The number of bicyclists on the streets is amazing |
