Have you ever walked in the clouds before? No? Yeah, I hadn’t either until today. What a crazy experience we had hiking up Mount Pilatus… It was raining when we woke up, so we almost called the day a rest day but I’m glad that we didn’t. I would have had a pretty sad boy on my hands if his day was a wash.
We headed out past Lucerne to the train station at the bottom of the mountain, and then rode the steepest cogwheel railway train in the world at a whopping 49% grade up. It was crazy…the view was incredible…and the temps were a bit chilly…
Once to the top of the mountain, we hiked to the peak. Along the way we saw a bunch of wild mountain goats — the babies were adorable — and they were very close to us surprisingly. Onward ho, the last stretch of the hike was so hard, but so worth it. This was Kevin’s second peak he’s ever ascended but it was my first and it was liberating. You are on the highest ground looking in all directions (almost 7000 feet high). Of course, with the rain, there are clouds which on one hand meant we had limited views, but on the other hand, it meant we literally walked in the clouds for over an hour. It was a surreal experience.
On the way down, we rode the gondola (holds 55 people) to the luge track which was closed =( soooo sad about that, but it’s a summer activity and we came two weeks too late. So obviously we will return to Switzerland for that some day. We returned to the gondola (this one only holds 4 and we had a car to ourselves… terrifying I know). This one offered beautiful views of the city below us.
The rest of the day we explored a bit more town history, and decided that we probably cannot afford to live here. The Swiss Franc to US dollar is pretty much one to one, but everything costs twice as much here. Want a whopper from Burger King? 15 CHF. Want some gelato? 3.50 CHF a scoop. We will happily settle in France or Austria and just visit sometimes.S
Since heading back to our hotel room absolutely exhausted, I don’t think we’ve moved from our spots for fear our feet will fall off. Until tomorrow..
