Next Stop: Lucerne

After three wonderful days in Lauterbrunnen, Justin and I hopped on a train and headed to Lucerne. One of the first things we noticed about our home for the next couple of days was...

... the swans!

These guys were everywhere! I have never seen so many swans, ducks, and unusual little birds before. There were literally hundreds of them, and they didn't have one feather's worth of shyness in them. 

We also noticed that it really was a very pretty city. With a sparkling lake surrounded by picturesque mountains, what's not to love?

After dropping our bags at our unremarkable hotel, we set out to explore. We walked around town taking in the beautiful wooden bridges, peaceful views, and bustling outdoor cafes. 

Lucerne also has rain, and lots of it, which we discovered later that afternoon and evening.

The next morning, however, we woke up to something almost unrecognizable. We kept looking out our dusty window, squinting between buildings trying to see if our eyes were deceiving us. We finally, and joyfully, accepted what it was: the SUN! Thus began the first day of our entire trip without rain.

Not taking it for granted that the weather would remain nice, we hurried out to enjoy the day. Since arriving in Switzerland we had been wanting to go up on one of the mountains, but each day we had watched them become covered in clouds, blocking any view we might have had. We were determined that this day would be different - we would get to a peak before the clouds came in! With the early morning sun spurring us on, we began our journey to Mt. Pilatus.

To get there, we caught a boat that took us on a beautiful one hour trip to the foot of the mountain.

Willing the pesky clouds to give us just a few more hours, we stepped off the boat and onto the world's steepest cogwheel railway for the journey to the top.

This was definitely a highlight of the morning! Not only did the little train go up at a 48% gradient, but it provided gorgeous views. Pictures just didn't come close to capturing the beauty of the crystal lakes and rolling hills surrounding us.

The little red dot near the middle is the train ahead of us as we neared the top.

And here is the one behind us. Beautiful views!

 It took us about 30 minutes to reach the top. By the time we got there, the clouds had begun to settle on one side of the peak, but the other was perfectly clear. We had a great time hiking up to the different vantage points and seeing the view until the clouds took over.

When the clouds did eventually claim the mountain, it was hard to see anything! We could hear people around us but wouldn't see them until they suddenly appeared 10 feet away from us.  It was a little bit eery!

This man was yodeling and playing his alpine horn while we were up there. It was great.

We explored the caves, rumored to be the former homes of dragons!

After a few hours, the view had gone and we decided to take our chilly selves back down. The return trip required a series of gondolas down the mountain. 

When our scenic ride burst through the clouds, we were greeted with a beautiful day! 

On the way down, we noticed a toboggan run on the side of the mountain. "That looks fun!" we thought to ourselves. By the time we reached our next stop, we had decided to give it a try.

Advertised as the world's longest summer toboggan run and surrounded by the most breathtaking sights, we hiked to the top of the hill and eagerly awaited our turn. 

We're glad that we took the time to do this because it was a lot of fun! 

We caught our final gondola to the bottom of the mountain, where we took a bus back into town. 

We spent the remainder of the day exploring the Nine Towers, which are part of the original city walls built in the 1300s, and walked around enjoying the pretty day.

Of course, we had to enjoy some chocolate while in Switzerland. We splurged on those that evening as a nice little farewell treat!

We enjoyed our trip to Lucerne and made some good memories while we were there!