Day three in Luzern was Mount Pilatus day! Now there are two ways to get up to the top, besides hiking (we were a bit early in the season and there was still a lot of snow at the top, but we did see a fair number of people walk up from town). You can either take a bus out to Kriens and take the cablecars to the top or take a boat to Alpnachstad and take the world's steepest cogwheel railway. Or, if you are there May-Oct, you can go up one side and down the over and make a loop. So we definitely did that! Must see everything!
We decided to take the bus out to Kriens first
And take the cablecars up
You are in small cable cars for most of the ride to the top, just me and Raymond were in one, but then you have to stop and switch to a larger gondola which is much larger and holds lots of people
Views from the station where you switch
We could have gone on one of those metal toboggan tracks! But alas we chose not to as we weren't sure how long it would take/if we would have enough time. Maybe next time
Now it is just going to be tons of photos of the mountains/views from the gondola and the top! It was seriously gorgeous up there. We had perfect weather - sunny with no clouds. Beautiful!
At the top
There are tunnels you can walk through and spy out
People playing alphorns at the top
There were a couple of trails you could walk along to viewpoints, but not all of them were open yet because of snow
World's steepest cogwheel railway
Exploring the tunnel
The tunnels were really cold. We had brought jackets and such with us as we weren't sure how warm it would be at the top of the mountain, but it was super nice up there.
There are a few restaurants so we decided to have lunch and enjoy the views before heading back down
Raymond had cheesy noodles and I got this asparagus salad which was...odd. It was like they blended the asparagus into a paste and served that with the salad...
Then once we were ready it was time for the steepest cogwheel railway down the mountain!
We got seats in the very front
We had to pull over to the side and wait for the cars coming up to pass (it was only one track except for this part where we pulled off)
It really was very steep
You can take your photo at the bottom with a fake train car!
There is not much in Alpnachstad, but there was a restaurant so we stopped for a snack and beverages before catching our boat back to town
On the boat
A few clouds coming in over the mountain
The boat makes a couple of stops in small towns along the way
Before heading back to Luzern
For dinner we tried Opus as they had some vegan options and were right on the water in Old Town
First up another asparagus salad thing that was also weird...I don't know what they do with the asparagus, but it was just okay...
Then we tried the asparagus curry, which was just their curry with two small pieces of asparagus on top. It was good, but needed more asparagus!
And stir fry noodles. Also tasty
The next day I was super tired (I was still getting over my sick that I came down with in Zuirch and doing all the things every day probably didn't help), so we had a relaxing day. We hung out in our room until lunchtime and then went back to Tidbits! This place is so good. I really do wish we had something like it here in Berlin. It wasn't vegan day, but as you can see I still had plenty of food to eat!
Then we sat by the lake most of the afternoon reading and relaxing
And finally dinner at Restaurant Helvetia for some Swiss rosti! This was delicious, but then again it is fried potatoes so how can you go wrong? Topped with tomatoes and wilted spinach. Yum!
That wraps up our time in Luzern. It was a beautiful town, we had a lot of fun, but something about it was just okay to me. I don't know why I didn't love it more, but definitely worth a stop if you are traveling through Switzerland because it is so gorgeous.
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