I just left Lucerne – currently on the train going to my next stop : Lausanne.
I spent a day and a half in that city. As if left the central train station, I felt a bit disappointed. The only reason why I made this part of my itinerary was because it was highly recommended by the staff from the Swiss embassy, so I thought it was going to be gorgeous.
The city itself had average attractiveness. The buildings were the usual old architecture that one would see in most parts of Europe, at least those that I’ve been to. The lake was fairly pretty, but not as breath-taking as the one I saw in Salzburg, Austria.
I was about resigned to just catch up on much needed rest in Lucerne when I saw the city brochure with their recommended activities. Most of those recommendations involved going up the mountains. They had 3 major mountain attractions – Mount Rigi, Mount Titlis and Mount Pilatus. I decided to explore one of them and settled for Mount Pilatus, mainly because it was easy to understand the directions going there.
The Swiss transport system, by the way, is soooo complicated! The European Railway system is hard enough to follow by a non-EU traveler like me. The Swiss transport system, which is comprised mostly by buses, is horrendous! To make matters worse, their ticket machines are not user-friendly. I actually got caught by a bus “conductor” holding the wrong ticket and was given a fine of CHF 8.
Anyway, as I had arrived in Lucerne at around 3:00 pm already, I decided to just go up Mount Pilatus the next day. I bought the round-trip ticket for 36 euro and left the city at around 9:00 am. I arrived in Kriens, where the cable car station was located, about 30 mins after and immediately climbed inside the nearest cable car.
As the cable car went higher and higher, I began to see the breath-taking views I expected of Lucerne. And it really was breath-taking. The panoramic view of the Alps was worth all those euros they charge for it. The staff said it would be even better during summer, when the mountains are in full bloom. But hey, to me, it was gorgeous even in winter.
Upon reaching the top, I went to the highest peak and there were mountain ranges everywhere! It was awesome!
After taking my fill of the view, I climbed back on the cable car to start my descent. Halfway down the mountain was another station called Frakmuntegg where you were supposed to change cable cars.
Aside from that, however, the station also offered snow sleds which you can use to go down to the cable car station near the foot of the mountain. I had an hour to spare so I thought – why not?
I did give it a try and it was a thrilling, hilarious, and body-bruising experience! Never having done it before in my life, I had no idea how to control the sled, so I kept getting thrown off the sled every time I went through a sharp curve. A couple of times, I was thrown face first into a deep bed of snow, and when I tried to stand up, I found myself knee-deep in soft snow.
I was scared witless every time I saw a steep slope coming up, especially when my sled was going too fast and I had no idea how to stop it or at least slow it down. Good thing most of the other tourists who also used the sled had already passed me by and nobody saw me flying through the air and landing in a snow-bed every so often.
But I wouldn't have missed this experience for anything! Even though my entire body hurts and I was wet through my 4 layers of clothing, it was definitely, definitely worth it.
I finally reached the cable car station, tired, bruised, wet, and freezing cold, about 30 minutes later. I was about to go up the slope and into the office building to return my sled when I slipped and fell flat on my butt. I didn't notice that I had stepped on black ice. And as I fell, I even heard my teeth snap together. My neck actually snapped back a bit, so I still consider myself lucky for not having broken it. It was probably also a good thing that I have a big butt – it probably cushioned my fall. Haha.
Anyway, it was a great time spent in Lucerne. Maybe someday, I would get to go back during the summer and see if it would be better than what I’ve seen so far. I wonder what the rest of Switzerland has in store for me…
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