The Swiss Alps

Janelle, Paul and I got into Zurich about 4:30, and took a train to Lucerne from the airport. We took the bus from the main train station through the beautiful city of Lucerne to our hotel, the Bellevue. Our rooms had balconies and the view of the lake and the mountains beyond was amazing. We crossed the street for some photos of the sun setting on the lake. We took the bus back into town for some dinner and a quick walk around the Old Town, then back to the hotel and to bed.


The next morning, Sunday, we ate our free breakfast and headed into town again. We stopped for sandwiches to pack for our journey up Mount Pilatus. Our Swiss Pass gave us a pretty good discount on admission. It was so gorgeous up there – exactly what you’d expect from a view of the Swiss Alps. The sun was bright and the clouds were few, making an outstanding experience up there. I even braved the additional steps to the very top with Janelle and Paul, who convinced me it was worth the view. Most of the time we spent up there was filled with the sounds of alpenhorns, which made the experience all the better.




We ate our sandwiches on the way back down the mountain and took the bus back to town, rushing to make the 4:15 boat that would take us to another village on Lake Lucerne. We had coffee and tea on the cruise and were able to close out our cruise as the sun was dropping behind the mountains that surrounded us. We were glad to have had a good weather day to enjoy the excellent views from Pilatus and on the cruise.




We took the train back to Lucerne and ended our day at a restaurant in the train station, where I had the trademark dish of Lucerne, the Luzerner Kugelipastete, a puff-pastry shell filled with a rich concoction of diced veal and mushrooms in a cream sauce with fries on the side. It was so good that I ate until I was literally in pain. Scrumptious!!

On Monday morning I woke up and started playing with my camera, noticing that some photos seemed to be missing. I kept trying to get the camera to show me all of the previous day’s photos, but ended up accidentally deleting them all! Devastated, I jumped in the shower to avoid screaming. Later on, Paul and Janelle made me feel a little better, as they had taken almost all of the same photos and videos that I had on Sunday. It was still a big loss to me, because you know the photos are my favorite souvenirs from all of my travels.

We planned to spend the day in town, wandering around and seeing the Lion Monument, which commemorates the Swiss Guards who died while defending Marie Antoinette in the French Revolution. We saw the lion, Janelle bought herself a Swiss Army knife nearby, we had lunch in a cute little café and then bought Swatches. What else would be a better souvenir from Switzerland? We then got back on the bus to the Transport Museum, where they had trains, planes, boats, automobiles and space travel artifacts. After looking around the museum, we saw an Imax movie about a guy who climbed Mount Eiger, 30 years after his father died doing the same. After that, we went back to the hotel to chill out for a while before dinner.





That night, since the guide book had led us to our delicious dinners the previous night, we let it guide us to another fantastic spot on Monday night. This time, we ate at a little place on the lake near the Kapellbruecke. We were seated in a cozy little room and I had meatballs with stinky (and delicious) cheese melted over them and macaroni and cheese with onions on the side. Another excellent selection. Afterward, full and exhausted, we headed back to our hotel.

The next morning we were to leave super early for Interlaken on the 6:55 train. We had been warned of bad weather, and that it wouldn’t be a good idea to go up Jungfrau if that was the case. Jungfrau is very expensive – well over a hundred euro – and we heard that it’s just not worth it if the weather is bad, because you can’t see anything up there anyway. So when I woke up and heard the snow/sleet falling on my balcony, I knew it was not to be. The train ride proved even further that Jungfrau would be a waste of time and money, since we could barely see past ten feet out the window on our panoramic train ride.





Disappointed, we headed to our hotel and were able to check in at 9 AM, then we made our way back to the train station to go to Lauterbrunnen Valley, touted as the most beautiful valley in Europe. To us, it became the WHITEST valley in Europe. It snowed almost the whole time we were walking for two hours to get to the cable car up to the little villages above. It was beautiful, but by the time we reached the cable car station we were drenched and freezing cold, and my knee was hurting after walking all that way. We took the cable car up to Shilthorn Peak, amidst the skiers and snowboarders, who had to be thrilled at the powdery, fluffy snow everywhere. We ate lunch in a small café and walked through the snow-covered village of Murren to the train, then rode another cable car back down the mountain.






After resting at the hotel, we decided to pop around the corner (thank God, because my knee was not feeling up to another two-hour walk around town) to a little pub for dinner and drinks. They had a special three-course menu – soup, steak and veggies with fries and sorbet for dessert. All three of us ordered the special and again, it was a great find from the guide book. We sat around drinking beers for a while and then went back to the hotel for our last night in Switzerland.

The trip was great, and Janelle and Paul were great company. We laughed a lot, and saw many breathtaking sights and ate many delicious meals. Basically, everything it takes to make great travels.