Funiculì, Funiculà!

July 9, 2010

I decided to spend this day in Lucerne, since both my brother and the Lonely Planet described it as one of Switzerland's highlights, and only an hour away from Zurich by train. I amazed myself by getting up early enough to finish a blog post and still make the 8:35 a.m. train. I participated in the following touristy activities:

1. Tour of the mountain Pilatus ("said" (whatever that means) to be haunted by Pontius Pilate). Apparently, I toured Pilatus in the manner of the geriatric and nearly infant, since there was no one on my trip even close to my age unless accompanied by a screaming toddler. I took a short trainride to Alpnachstad, and from there the world's steepest cogway train to near the mountain peak, ate a quick sausage and beer lunch (up to 5 sausages now), and took a 40 minute round trip hike to the actual peak, somewhere around 3100 meters. I was excited to have made it, but still felt ashamed to reach the peak out of breath followed by some very grey haired folks and children who did not appear to be at all winded. I blame it on the altitude. On the way back down to the station at the top of the mountain, I saw some old guys in traditional Swiss dress blowing Alphorns. The other tourists were very amused.

Here is a picture of some cows grazing on the mountain on the way up:

Here is a picture of the view from the top:

Here's a picture of some of those traditionally dressed Swiss guys, some older people, and a kid:

I took the gondola down, and then due to the bad directions of the lady working at the station at the bottom of the gondola, I walked 45 minutes into the Lucerne city center.

2. Again, I walked and down the river, and across the several historical bridges.

3. I ate a banana split and wrote post cards.

4. I visited the Lucerne Lion, which was surrounded by Asian tourists. The Lucerne Lion is a giant lion carved into a rock face.

5. I got tired and took the train back to Zurich.

Rob and I went to dinner at this great place near Longstrasse, had steak tartar, spicy pasta and veal (I think it was). This was followed by a BBQ on the roof of his friends' A and N's apartment, and then two Swiss clubs. The first reminded me of the sort of thing I might see in LA (super crowded, kinda douchy crowd, DJ doing that thing where they play 10 seconds of a hit song, switch to another, etc.) but the second was a bit different -- fairly interesting electronic music in a basement looking place. Neither the sort of place I'd normally visit, but super fun for vacation. Haven't been out until 5 in quite a while!