Lucerne. (Luzern)

 Lucerne is an extremely scenic city.  You are walking on a central city street; you look up, and there is a rugged mountain peak, or a series of lush hillsides, or boats out on the wide waters of a lake.  It is listed as the #1 summer tourist destination in Switzerland.  We are staying at Hotel Central, a boutique hotel (our favorite type of accommodation) only two blocks from the bahnhof, which makes everything convenient. Trains, boats, and busses are easy to reach, yet we are able to keep our hotel room window open and the evening atmosphere is quiet.

Central Luzern; the bridge in the foreground is named Rathaussteg.  The prominent building is the Jesuitenkirche.

A typical scene looking out on Lake Lucerne surrounded by mountains.

 

Our first day trip was to Rigi Kulm, a mountain top with hotel to the east of Luzern, where Dawn’s sister worked for a summer in her college days.  We had been there before, but the hotel had changed in the intervening years. The excursion required a boat trip across the lake to Vitznau and a cog rail train to the top. Great views at a 6000’ altitude with no clouds to obscure it.

View from the top of Rigi Kulm.  Not a tall mountain; there are cows grazing in this area.

Photo taken from the cog rail train just above Vitznau.  Notice how placid the lake is; not sailing weather.

Vitznau promenade with hotel & marina.  The sign in front of the hotel advertised rooms at 1195 CHF per night, about $1300.

A clear view of Pilatus.  To get to the top, we took a steep cog railway up what you see as the left-hand side of the mountain. then a series of three cable car systems descends on the right-hand side of the mountain.

Next was a day trip to Mount Pilatus, to the south of Luzern and somewhat taller at 7000 feet.  We first took a boat to Alpnachstad, then boarded a very steep cog railway with the train seats stair-stepped inside the actual cars which are ascending at a 40-degree angle.  Descending required a series of gondolas: very steep, moderately steep, and then a more normal incline.  We skipped the lower one and walked the last few miles, stopping to enjoy the scenery as we walked.  These mountains seem tall, but we are still at an altitude more than 500 feet lower than our home in Colorado.

There is a trail, if you choose to hike up the entire distance to the top.  Look closely (or expand the photo) and you can see the trail and tiny figures ascending.

               Gondola descending in the first stage from the top of Pilatus.

Gondola on the lower slopes of Pilatus.  Instead of taking this convenience, we elected to hike to the bottom.  Just when we reached the bottom, a rain cloud came through, but we had each packed an umbrella in our back packs and kept dry.

Still hiking but at a lower level.  Our hotel was located about where you see the left end of the lake.  We took a city bus the last few miles to the hotel.

For a change, today we rented e-bikes to ride in the countryside.  Since we are staying in the center of Lucerne, we rented our e-bikes from the SBB train service at the bahnhof and took the bikes on the train to the outlying smaller town of Zug.  Zug is on the shores of a lake, Zugersee. Our bike path brought us to Rotkreuz before we elected to turn back. The weather continues mild; people were boating and swimming along the shore. Pedaling our bikes takes us right through parks, fields, and neighborhoods on a beautiful Fall Day.

Famous sculpture hewn into the native stone just a few blocks from central Luzern.  It commemorates the Swiss Guards killed in the French Revolution. Note the broken spear in the side of this dying lion.

We were allowed a late checkout at our hotel on our final day in Luzern and took one last lake cruise to a small village with a cable car system linking it to a luxury resort on a high plateau, Burgenstock, overlooking the entire region. They had condominiums for sale, but I am sure that they are way above our pay grade.  Dawn wants to return and live near Luzern for an extended period.  You need a visa to stay more than three months.

View from luxury hotel atop a plateau a thousand feet above Lake Lucerne.  Rigi Kulm is in the background.

We are loving the Swiss Travel Passes we bought.  Very convenient, providing free or discounted costs at many points, and allowing freedom in planning.  If we do this e-bike rental again, we will take the train to one town and then get picked up at a different town after biking between them.  There is a bike trail that crosses Switzerland from Lausanne to Zurich in 13 stages.  It is named the Herzroute.