Today has turned out nicely , sunshine and no clouds to be seen , time to find the top of the mountain , Mt Pilatus that is . And this is it , as viewed from our hotel verandah .
Breakfast doen , we headed up to the train station for a quick ride into Lucerne , before coming back to Kriens . Ironic that we go into Lucerne by train , before coming back to Kriens by bus , and end up about 3klms from where we are staying . The walk up the hill to the cablecar station was a steep one , but had some views of the old , with the new .
We walked into the cable car station , walking straight through and bypassing all the people lined up for tickets , getting toward the front of the line . The cablecars only seat 4 , gradually we made it in and away we went . We had a couple from America to chat to on the way up , they were hoping for a car by themselves , but got stuck with us - as it happened they didn't stop talking for the whole ride !
We went through one station , but didn't have to get out , then the 2nd station Frakmuntegg , where we had to change to a bigger cablecar . There were numerous activities here , a high ropes course ( part of it is pictured ) , a toboggan ride , and you could do hikes from here as well .
This is the next leg of the trip up to Pilatus , if you follow the cables up the mountain , you can see where we are headed . There's one stanchion on the first ridge , then the 2nd is at the top of the mountain .
There were more people wanting to head up , so there were a few more in the cablecar this time . The cablecar cleared the 1st stanchion and the valley dropped away - it's been described as like being in a helicopter , and was probably an apt description - what a ride !! This is the view back down toward Lucerne on the left & Lake Lucerne in the middle , with clouds wiping away in between us and the ground.
Up on top and the sun was out , a beautiful day . Looking ahead we could see tracks leading up to the top of the mountain - that's where we needed to go , so we headed up .
This was the view down to the left of previous photo - not such a bad view !!
There was even a Swiss gentleman there to play the alpine horn .
This next one shows the cablecar terminal on the middle left , to the right is the hotel where you can stay , below the concrete concourse is the cog train terminal and info centre , as well as access to food & drink & souvenirs .
Looking down from the highest peak , we found a small church below , seemingly perched right on the edge of a cliff .
This is looking toward the suburb of Horz , we are staying just to the right of the 2 construction cranes .
After that lookout , we headed across along another track giving us this view . There are walking tracks down the mountain , and the cog railway goes from the right hand side of the buildings , it follows the line the bottom of the cliff .
This track looked to end , but it went into the mountain to a steep staircase , taking us down to this view.
We heard from some people that the track just went down to the church below , so we had a look and Lyn headed back up , while I went for a further investigation . From there the track was a little rough & ready , but passable , leading to tracks down to the little church , but also around to the Dragons Path Walk . I scampered back up to catch her , but by the time I got back up the steps , she was at the top and further back down . This is the view of part of the Dragons Path Walk .
Deciding it was time for lunch , we headed back to the main buildings and the hordes of people . We then chose to go and find the other side of the Dragons Path , which came out near the buildings , through a tunnel . Wildflowers were in abundance .
We found the track , and walked through the 20m tunnel that went through the mountain and opened up to the northwestern side of Pilatus , where we found a seat and had lunch . It was like walking through a freezer and it didn't warm up much after going through either ! After lunch we walked through the tunnels leading back to the buildings , there were many viewing holes to look out over all the countryside .
Pilatus was though to be a dragons lair , with many dragons living there in the various holes and crevices .
There was another track we wanted to go up , it was on the other side of the terminal & hotel . A zig zagging track leading onwards & upwards again , the views were very rewarding . Here's just one with a zig zag walking track going down the mountainside .
Here's a shot of the cog railway going down , we had to queue for almost an hour to get back down the mountain . The ticket we bought was for a round trip , we should have done the cog railway first in hindsight , and avoided the queues . It was still an interesting ride back down though .
Upon reaching the bottom of the mountain to Alpnachstad , we transferred to the train back to Lucerne . Well , that was our day , we enjoyed a good 5 hours up on the mountain , hope you enjoyed it as well . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1-GCdOpSN0QDemTksK_Ktih3g5XfOKPA&usp=sharing
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