Zurich; Sunday, 19 August, 2007

Up early and out to the train station to catch one of the earlier trains to Luzern. I arrived at 9:30 and headed straight for the steamship ticket office. Part of the reason for coming to Luzern is to go on what is called the “Golden Rundfhart” a round trip that takes in a paddle steamer, the worlds steepest cogwheel railway up to Mount Pilatus and then a cable car and bus return trip to the city centre. By getting to Luzern early I was able to get a ticket for the 10:15 sailing.

I had about 30 minutes to spare, so I had a quick look around the city centre, including a walk across the Kappellbrücke, a wooden covered bridge, which goes part way across the river then turns at an abrupt angle to reach the shore. In each set of roof beams is a painting of a religious scene. Most of the paintings and wood are sadly replicas due to a fire in 1993, but you still get the effect of this 14th Century masterpiece. I had a quick look around the rest of the city centre, and then wandered back to the quay.

The boat sails across the lake that Luzern lies on, crossing backwards and forwards to make several stops, before finally arriving at the change over point at midday. From here there is the usual tourist scramble as people try to make it to the train station ahead of the crowds. The train ride up is very spectacular, if only for the angle at which it climbs, given that there are no wires or pulleys hauling the train up, it’s all done on it’s own little engine, it gets up gradients of 48% (effectively a 45 degree angle!) through a low cloud bank and up to the summit of Mount Pilatus. The whole journey from Luzern to the summit takes about 2 and a half hours, the journey back down can be done in 45 minutes.

I had a wander around the summit for a while. In addition to the usual gift shop and restaurant there are also two hotels, so that you can stay up here if you wished to. There are several walks around the top of the mountain, but given the fact the cloud had really closed in, to the extent that you could barely see 10 meters in front of you, I thought that might not be such a good idea, so after having a final look around, I joined the queue for the cable car down the mountain.

The journey back down is in three stages, stage one a 25 person cable car that takes you down to a small sports and activities park, then 4 person gondolas that take you down to the bottom of the mountain, and then a 15 minute bus ride back into the city centre. The only problem is that the first cable car section only runs every 15 minutes, but the hourly trains bring up about 100 people at a time, meaning that there is always a queue. I thankfully managed to get onto the second car, having only waited about 20 minutes.

I arrived at the sports and activities park and decided to have a go on the toboggan run. This is a metal slide, which you go down on sitting on a plastic toboggan. It was really great fun, so fun in fact that I had a second go down, got over confident, went to fast and very nearly crashed on a bend. I thankfully managed to keep myself and toboggan on the run, but it was a close thing. By the time I got back up to the top, I decided it was probably time to take the second cable car back down to Luzern.

After swapping onto a bus at the bottom of the mountain I arrived back in Luzern just before half three, and went straight to one of the main attractions in the town. The Löwendenkmal. This is a monument to the Swiss solders who died trying to defend the French royal family during the French revolution and is of a fatally wounded lion carved into the rock. Next door is another rock carving, but this is slightly older.

The glacial garden was discovered in the late nineteenth century when the areas owner was clearing the ground ready for an extension to his wine cellar. He came across strange marks on the rock, and further excavations revealed the rock record of where a glacier had once moved across what is not Luzern. The area has been preserved, including several pot holes that were formed underneath the glacier by melt water at high pressure, and they look like perfectly carved funnels.

After looking around the glacial garden I headed back across town to catch the funicular up the hill to Château Gutsch. The Château itself is now a restaurant and hotel, but the views from the balcony over the city and lakes are stunning. I took these in for a while, before heading back to the station to catch the train back to Zurich

The last time I had come to Zurich had been just before Christmas, and the weather meant that it had been impossible to get a good view of the city from the hills above it. Today I intended on correcting that. After arriving back from Luzern I hopped straight onto the S4 and headed up to Uetilberg. From the station I walked the short distance to the viewing tower and from there was rewarded with stunning views of the city centre, the lake and out across the mountains. In the distance, and with the use of the identifying chart on the railings I could make out Mount Pilatus, and almost directly behind it the Jungfrau, Eiger and Mönch. I climbed back down from the viewing platform and took the train back down the mountain, heading part of the way into the rapidly setting sun. I stopped in town for a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel for some sleep.

Weather

Sunny Sunny
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Hot (20-30C, 68-86F)
26ºC/79ºF