Today we woke up in Zurich for the first of three days covering as much as we can see of Switzerland. I had planned out our visit to take full advantage of the available. Swiss rail passes which cover all trains, boats, cog railways, aerial tramways, buses and museums that Switzerland has to offer. After testing the train service and the museum tickets in Basel yesterday we arrived in Zürich and checked in to the Central Plaza Hotel just across the river from the train station. That was all very much on purpose since I knew we would be transiting in and out through the train station for the whole of this visit. When I hadn’t realized was it it also positioned us very near a lovely walking street with many many restaurants, one of which we tested out last night with typical Swiss food of cheese fondue as a starter, and in my case, wiener schnitzel as a main dish. We woke this morning to a crisp Zürich day and headed over to the station to catch an early train to Lucerne. Once again, our Swiss rail passes worked like a charm, and we had the comfort of first class seats in the upper deck all the way and we were able to get great views of Lake Zürich in the surrounding hills through Zug. The Central station in Lucerne is right in front of the lake, which made it very convenient for the next leg of our journey.
I’d like to stop for a moment and acknowledge the Fine public transportation system in Europe in general and specifically here in Switzerland. Every city has a large impressive and very efficient modern train station right in the center of town that act as a transportation hub for trains, trams, and buses. I’m sure the part of this is driven by the high price of gasoline and the more limited space in Europe, but I’m equally certain that the cultural history of collectivism in Europe, such that the concept of one man, one horse or one man, one car is overwhelmed by the obligation to provide sound Transportation infrastructure for the masses of the population. It’d be a great thing if America could find that cultural warm spot for themselves and moving a similar direction, but I’m not gonna hold my breath just yet.
We purposely taken a slightly earlier train than we needed to, so it’s not to be rushed in finding our boat. Has it turned out? It was not so hard and we had some time to kill so we did with all Europeans seem to do at every chance, and that was to sit at the café in case of Kim and myself, enjoy a Swiss Miss type hot chocolate before we boarded the boat that would take us down Lake Lucerne to Apnachstad. Apnachstad is the jumping off spot for the Kong railway up to Plantus Klum or the top of Mount Pilatus. As we rose up the mountain have a steep 48° angle we quickly found ourselves in the Swiss mist, unable to see more than 20 or 30 feet.
Kim and I had come to Mount Pilatus 12 years ago and caught it on a clear day so we knew what there was to see, but none of it was on display for us today. We defaulted to getting lunch at the Hotel Pilatus at its Queen Victoria restaurant. The Kong railway up this mountain was built in 1889 in the hotel was built in 1890, but it seems that Queen Victoria had come up to this mountain top in 1886 on the back of a mule, so the restaurant has been named in her honor.
After lunch and after Pete and Nancy explored the mountain side caves (which we had done on our last visit), we got in line for the aerial Tramway down. The first stretch down to Fräkmüntegg it’s called the Dragon Ride in honor of the scary and steep descent it covers. The next bit is the panoramic gondola ride that goes down to Kriens, a suburb of Lucerne. These two Hill tramways are the only Transportation in Switzerland during these four days where we had to pay extra even though our Swiss Rail pass got us a 50% discount on them. At Kriens after a short walk, we took the number one bus (also covered by Swiss rail) directly to the Lucerne Central Station. The Trainer run every 30 minutes in the fast rail pass we didn’t need a reservation. We just walked right onto the next train and here we are on our way back to Zürich.
Switzerland has always been remains today an amazing country. It’s amazing and it’s natural beauty, it’s amazing and it’s continuous and sustained prosperity, and it’s amazing and it’s overall efficiency. It’s not your typical tourist destination because quite frankly it’s expensive but you can’t beat it for seeing an ex experiencing a good life can get if you have a government that organizes itself on behalf of its people. Today was the day when we tested the limits of the Swiss rail pass system by taking two trains, one boat, one car railway and two aerial tramways and a bus to see one of Switzerland‘s great natural wonders. We did that all in less than perfect weather since it was overcast and misty most of the day but the cool fall temperatures gave us a different kind of pleasure after the long hot summer that we’ve had all around the world.
Tomorrow, we’ll start our day identically to today with a train ride to Lucerne where we will pick up one of Swiss rails, iconic scenic train rides in this case the one that connects Lucerne to Interlaken. The Luzern–Interlaken Express (LIX) is the scenic direct train between Lucerne and Interlaken. The journey will take about 2 hours (Lucerne → Interlaken Ost) and runs roughly every hour throughout the day. It skirts Lake Lucerne and passes through the Entlebuch region, crossing the Brünig Pass (summit ~1,000m), the most dramatic stretch, with sweeping valley views and switchback sections. It passes Lake Sarnen and Lake Lungern, both turquoise-tinted alpine lakes and descends into Lake Brienz, running right along its shoreline for the final approach into Interlaken (this stretch is considered the visual highlight), with the lake’s striking blue-green color set against the mountains. From Interlaken we will head to Lauterbrunnen and Grütschalp by cable car which climbs steeply out of the valley for about 4 minutes. From Grütschalp we head to Mürren via a scenic narrow-gauge train along the cliff edge with continuous views across the valley to the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau, for about 15 minutes. We will find a lunch spot there and head home more directly via Interlaken and Bern.
We will have done most of the Alps in two days except for the Matterhorn and Mt. Blanc, traveling g the whole while on Swiss Rail through the Swiss mist.