We woke up this morning ready for an Alpine adventure and Switzerland delivered. We were headed on Lucerne’s golden tour. After grabbing our tickets from the helpful tourist desk we headed to pier two where our boat journey departs.
Pilatus railway
The boat ride was nice but it was long (90 min). In retrospect we might have skipped the boat or done the path in reverse. We got off at Alpnachstad and got our pass for the the Pilatus railway. This is the worlds steepest railway in the world. In writing this post I just read that Wikipedia article. If I had seen the phrase The line still uses original rack rails that are now over 100 years old I might not have gone.
The train ride was a lot longer than I expected and the track goes on some high ridges. After 40 minutes we made it to the top of Mount Pilatus
There is a hotel and restaurant where the train lets off. Additionally there is a gondola that goes down the other side. The weather was perfect for our visit.
We took some short hikes around the top. One took us through some caves to the other side of the mountain. On the other side there were trails all the way down to the bottom. As usual Devin found the most dangerous place to stand.
The flower trail
We found the flower trail on accident. This trail kept going around the mountain edges and we eventually realized it was taking us to Tomlishorn which is the highest peak (7,000 ft) of Pilatus. We met some older women from Pittsburgh and had them take our photo at the top. The landscape was jaw dropping.
Alpine roller coasters
We made it back to the hotel and headed back down in the gondola. When the gondola was almost to the station we saw an amazing sight.
Yeah the picture sucks but we were too excited to snap any decent pictures. It’s an alpine roller coaster. You go down on individual sleds in a steel half pipe. It’s actually quite redneck.
When you reach the bottom you stay in your sled and they use a modified chairlift to drag you back to the top!
Very flattering picture of me. I see why Devin went first. After the coaster fun we headed back to the gondola station where we got back in another smaller gondola and made it back to Lucerne.
