Sept 6th we headed up the Switzerland. We stopped at Lake Lugano and ate out lunch, then continued on to Luzern. Everything in Switzerland is super expensive, (the swiss are rich!) so rather then pay $200 for a cheap hotel, we paid $50 a night to camp.
The city of Luzern is beautiful, lot’s of half timbered buildings, next to a lake and surrounded by mountains. The first morning we walked around town looking for tourist info to decide what to do. Chapel bridge in Luzern is the most photographed monument in Switzerland. Built in 1333 it has 17th century paintings depicting Luzern’s history.
Near Luzern is Mount Pilatus, there is a gondola that goes up to the top but they charge an arm and a leg for the ride so we decided to hike it. We wanted to get up to the view and to Switzerland’s longest summer toboggan run. After over 3 hours of UPhill, I think we were regretting that decision! It was a beautiful day, you could hear the cow bells ringing from the pastures all around.The view from the top was amazing and the toboggan ride was a thrill, Jonah even got to ride down with me. But we were totally exhausted and we still had a two hour walk down the mountain. We pretty much killed our legs for the rest of the trip.
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| Here we are starting our hike….we had no idea. |
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| At the top. |
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| There’s the stupid gondola. |
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| The toboggan ride |
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| Coming back down a steep part |
The next day we decided to take it easy. We ate some swiss Chocolate, walked around town and saw the Dying Lion monument commemorating the hundreds of Swiss Gueards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the mob stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
Interesting fact for you…in an attempt to maintain neutrality Switzerland has strategically placed explosives around the borders that when activated, because of all the mountain passes would make access to Switzerland impossible by road.
