Switzerland is beyond beauty!!!
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2008
1
51
65
Trip End
Dec 08, 2008
Lucerne,
Lucerne,
Switzerland
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I left Verona with a tag a long. Well I asked him to come, Manny from Perth in Aussie. He had no plans to go to Switz only because it was going to be so expenisive and he was running out of time. After explaing what my plans were going to be, he was sitting next to me on the train to Lucern.
Lucern was our first stop and I had no idea how beautiful the country was going to be. I had seen, like I have said so many times, so many churches, palaces and parliment building I was really looking forward to seeing some of the great outdoors. When we arrived in Lucern I was home. If felt like being back in the Rockie mountains. Fall has to be one of the best times to travel this great country only because the weather has changed to brisk and the trees have all changed colour. From the moment we stepped off the train you were overtaken by beauty.
Our hostel was right on the endge of Lake Lucern and we had a great view off our balcony. Manny the poor guy was not ready for the cold weather seeing it was close to 20 degrees in Italy and with only a 3 hour train ride the temp dropped to about 10. The Aussies just aren't used to the cold weather and I wasn't really either. I had been in Croatia, Hungry and Italy for the past 3 or 4 weeks and I was getting used to the 20-25 degrees daily. The cold weather hit us hard especailly once the sun went down. The first stop was gloves and scarfs.
We hit the streets in the evening just looking for a place where we could buy some warm clothing without breaking the bank. Switzerland is known for their expensive ecomony and it wasn't proving to be a let down. The Canadian dollar is close to 1 for 1. The problem is everything was twice as much as in Canada. Gloves for 45 swiss franks, scarfs for twice that. Did I mention Mcdonalds. 12 Swiss Franks for a Big Mac meal. I knew from that moment I was going to be hitting the bank manchine quite a bit on my tour.
A couple small purchases just to keep us warm and a quick tour of the city made for a pretty early night. The hostel was dead, I guess most travelers are scared of the cold too. I was glad to have Manny there because there really was no one else in the hostel. I thought for sure it was going to be busy due to the fact that Lucern really only has one hostel, but NOPE. I made an awesome dinner of Microwaved Lasanga, had a few beers and a chat with another Aussie couple and we crashed for the night.
The next day was really cool. If I could choose anyone to travel Switzerland with it would be an Aussie. Everything is so new to them. The mountains, the snow, the cold. Every time I turned around, Manny was whippin out his camera just because he saw another new mountain peak. We decided to take the trek up one of the mountains in the area. Well when I say trek, the train took us most of the way. Mount Pilitus is one of the highest peaks in the Lucern area. We had to take a quick train out to the bottom of the mountain and catch the cog way up the mountain face. A steep 49 degree climb made for the steepest train in the world. Climbing only to 700 meters put us above the cloud line and then it all cleared up. The Alps were right in front of us looking us straight in the eye. The train continued its 2600 meter climb to the top. Looking backwards from the car made for the uneasy feeling of this train falling straight down the side of the mountain.
We arrived to the top and unfortuanlly we were not high enough to have any snow but Manny was still more excited to see the most incredible mountain range. I was pretty impressed too. We have some of the most incredilbe mountains in BC but it just felt different. It was cold the wind was blowing and all you could see was snow covered peaks. We climbed to the top of one of the peaks where it got even colder and those 10 frank gloves were coming in really handy. Manny had the great idea to go for coffee while we were up there. Only 10 Franks for Coffee and 6 Franks for a muffin. I guess they feel like they have you, seeing you are stuck on the top of a mountain. We decided to hold out until we got back to town.
We had to take the gondala down to the next town and then bus it back into Lucern. Overall it was was a great experience and like I said a better one being there with someone that really appreciated the beauty of the ranges. We thought for sure the hostel was going to get busier but we were wrong, still really dead, so we decided to head to the bar for a drink. 10 bucks for a pint and grocery store beer was looking really good. 3 Swiss Franks for a can of beer and a night at the hostel was good enough for us. Only 2 nights in Lucern so we were off to Interlaken the next day. People told me it was a great place to chill out and climb a mountain. I thought I was impressed with Mount Plitus but it was nothing compared to Jaunfrau in Intelaken....................
