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| Jesuit cathedral |
Kappelbruck |
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| View from Hotel Montana of Lake Lucerne |
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| The Lion Monument |
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| Scenes from the Promenade |
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View of upper meado |
Mary on the lake promenade |
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| View from Pilatus peak |
Pilatus peak |
Caves and tunne |
The Lucerne area is beautiful, with its lovely promenade stretching along the lake. Moored boats bob on the water while people swim, dine, stroll, and laugh along the shore. Flowers seem to be everywhere you look.
Surrounded by mountains, Lucerne is a charming tourist town nestled between Mount Pilatus and Mount Rigi. There are plenty of hotels and wonderful restaurants, offering both European and local cuisine. We tried rösti for the first time—delicious potatoes and cheese baked until golden in an iron skillet. Yummy!
The Lion Monument is especially moving. Mark Twain famously described it as one of the most mournful and moving pieces of stone in the world, and standing before it, I could understand why.
The weather during our stay was gorgeous, although warmer than expected for this time of year.
We stayed at Hotel Montana, a beautiful hotel with striking Art Deco touches and one particularly unusual feature: its own funicular. From the hotel, the little cog-style rail car carries guests down the steep hillside to the street below. What a delightful way to travel!
One evening, however, we decided not to take the easy way down. We left through the rear of the hotel and faced a very steep, roughly quarter-mile descent. We wondered whether my power wheelchair could handle it safely. I was afraid it might begin gaining speed on the way down, so my traveling companion, Mary, held onto the chair as we carefully made our descent.
Sometimes the more interesting travel stories begin when you choose the less obvious route.
To get to Mt Rigi, we had to cross the lake to the opposite shore. Then we rode in the cog railway to the top, passing high alpine meadows where Brown Swiss dairy cows grazed. There large cow bells seemed to sing us to the summit where The Bernese Alps surrounded us. We were in the clouds, truly!
On another day we took a walk through Old Town to the Jesuit Cathedral and famed flower-bedecked Kappelbrucke wooden bridge. We also climbed the steep hill to the old city walls and its “Watch” tower.
The next day we went up to Mt Pilatus by cogwheel train (45 minutes)! We got drizzly views of Lake Lucerne more than a mile below. We explored a dark tunnel to get views of dizzying slopes and zig-zagging trails far below us. It was the perfect day for hot soup in Grand Hotel which spoke of bygone days about 2 centuries ago. Grand then—grand still.
D and readers,
I apologize for displacement of photos, but Blogger platform isn’t working properly!
Elaine
www.elainestories.com