The Alps

Now I feel like I’ve been to Switzerland. Verna decided to stay home. Her cold was still bothering her. After breakfast we took the tram to the main train station. We bought our combination ticket to Lucerne. It included round trip from Zurich to Lucerne, a city bus ride and the cable cars up the mountain. We got on the 10:10 train. Of course it left on time. It was a 40 minute ride to Lucerne. After asking where to go we made our way across the street, but using a stairway down under the street. We found the #1 bus and went on our merry way. We had no idea where to get off for the cable cars. Rudy asked a man near us and through pidgin German and English he said he was going there and to follow him. So we did. He had an accordion with him and was going to play music at the top. When we got off his wife and another man got off with us. They led the way up what seemed like a trek up the Grand Canyon. It was almost a mile up a curving road. I took many rest stops and finally made it. The gondola place was among a neighborhood of homes and restaurants. We didn’t realize we had to exchange our tickets for gondola tickets. Several people came to our aid and we got sorted out. At first we were in a gondola for 4 people. Down below it was a cloudy day. We went up through the clouds and then the sun was shining. We had to get on another bigger gondola at 4650 feet. We first went outside and took a few photos. Then got in line for the bigger gondola that held about 20 people. On the way up we had seats that looked out over where we’d been. Suddenly we were at the top. It was really bright outside. Rudy wanted to walk the path all the way to the top which he did while Betty and I took in the beautiful view from the large overlook. I’m pretty sure it was just clouds but it looked like a glacier in the valley.. it was so bright I had to just point the camera and shoot. Pictures turned out OK. There was a place on the other side of the mountain that had a tunnel carved into the rock. It was open to the outside with a low wall and railing. There were cutouts along the way where there was a nice view. A little below us was a small church and on the crest of the nearby hill was a cross. It was very picturesque. We came back in and had a muffin with coffee and cocoa. One nice thing about the chocolate here is that it’s warm but not scalding. So I could drink it right away. Rudy joined us. On the way up Betty called her son, forgetting it was 5:45 AM in Ottawa. He was very groggy! Later she called again on FaceTime and showed her granddaughter where we were. After a final look out to the beautiful Alps, we made our way down the mountain. This time we knew the way. We passed a school with some iron bars attached to the trees. There were dozens of hearts hanging from thebars. It looked very pretty.

We got on the bus and got off at the main train station. Across the way was a Christmas Market. We walked over but it was only food and drinks and no ceramic mugs. It wasn’t very big but was near the Lake so we took pictures of that before we left. Then It was back on the train and we were home by 5ish. We met for dinner in the hotel bar which is also a cafe. We all got free drinks for electing not to have the room cleaned for a day and we had a nice dinner. I had tomato soup and a margherita pizza. They were both delicious but I could only eat half the pizza.. I set a record in steps today for this trip-8,181. Mostly up that lousy hill!!

Photos: some city shots of Lucerne, with the lake , then lots of mountain pictures. I see I forgot to include a lake photo. If I remember, I’ll show it tomorrow.