Europe 2016 — Luzern, Switzerland
Day 4, 19 September 2016
We’re glad to be leaving Paris. We’ve covered everything that we wanted to do and the food has been very disappointing. Maybe we went to the wrong places, but it seemed like wherever we went the food was always the same bland stuff. While there are lots of other museums and such we could see, I don’t think we’re feeling lacking. We’re not really museum people.
Travel to Switzerland involved two metro lines in Paris and a high speed train, the TGV. I was amused that the french country side looked exactly as I expected it to be — soft rolling hills of grass with the occasional clump of trees. These trees were all pretty small by Canadian standards and all about the same height which is something I noticed.
We arrived in Geneva at lunch and had subway in the station. It is exactly like in North America except for 6" and foot long sandwiches, they have 15cm and 30cm. From Geneva we took a direct train to Luzern. I had hopped to take part of the Golden Route, a scenic train route but the tickets we got was for the high speed express. This is probably good because we were all tired, we would have had to change trains in Montreaux, and we got into Luzern late anyways. It wouldn’t have been good to take a longer train.
Getting into Luzern we went to the tourist information centre to ask about the things we wanted to do in the following days. The first thing she asked us was if we had a Swiss Rail Pass, which we did not have so we were sent upstairs to the rail office.
We had three options to choose from: 1) An unlimited pass that cost 349 CHF, 2) a 1/2 pass that cuts all trains and most attraction costs in half, and 3) to do nothing. Yuki and I crunched some numbers with the help of an excellent woman and were able to determine that the unlimited Swiss Pass wouldn’t save very much but the 1/2 pass would save around 400 CHF. In reality, we underestimated the number of bus trips so we saved less, probably around 300 CHF. This also didn’t include the ticket from Geneva to Luzern, which at the time we didn’t know about the passes. Still, we were able to save some money, book all of our Swiss tickets then and there, and get our departure ticket to Venice. This was only possible with the friendly and very helpful service agents that helped us out.
By the time we had all of this figuring out it was pretty late so we took a bus to our hostel. There’s something to say for Luzern buses because they don’t have a metro system. The buses themselves, however, are extra long with 5 doors and are very wide. Yuki and I had fun pointing out all the benefits of the buses over Translink buses in Vancouver, such as doors that open outwards, comfortable seats, lots of space to get around people so no one’s ever blocking the exit, quiet, and so on.
Once we dropped our stuff off at the hostel we took the bus back to Luzern and ate at a Korean restaurant. As we would find in Switzerland, food is expensive and everything closes between 5–7, including some restaurants, and grocery stores. The Korean food was good and wonderful to have rice after all the terrible bread in Paris. The downfall was that a 1.5L bottle of spring water was 12 CHF (~18 CAD). For a country that is filled with glaciers and supposedly has some of the best drinking water, we couldn’t get free tap water at any restaurant. The next night would cost 2.50 CHF per glass. Wine is about 6–8 CHF but only Yuki’s dad likes drinking it. This is compared to water in the grocery store for 1.50 CHF.
Day 5, 20 September 2016
I had high hopes for today. The reason we went to Luzern was because Yuki found out about tobogganing in the Alps which is taking a small trolley down a slide on the mountain. Through that, I found a blog, drunk with caffeine of a Singaporean girl who’d gone to Luzern. Our itinerary was planned nearly identical to what she did, including going up Mt. Pilatus.
Mt. Pilates is a series of peaks on a mountain, the highest of which is 2,128m. It is a popular tourist destination and has legends about dragons. We started the day with an excellent breakfast of egg on rice served by the Korean hostel. Then we went across the street to the supermarket to pick up food for lunch because it would be much cheaper than dinning out. To get to Mt. Pilatus, we took a boat across the lake. We arrived an hour too early so we walked around a Museum to take some photos. The museum itself was closed so we weren’t able to see the inside but we admired the outside which is an excellent example of modern architecture.
I suppose the great thing about having another structural engineer for a girlfriend is that when you see cool buildings and bridges you can talk about the technicalities of the structure. After the museum we went to the Chapel bridge, probably Luzern’s most well known landmark. This covered bridge is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe and the world’s oldest truss bridge, dating back to 1333. The tower in the middle was a prison, torture chamber, municipal archive, and now a gift shop. The interior also has several paintings on the interior frames but some were destroyed in a 1993 fire.
On the other side of the bridge we found a small farmer’s market. All the vegetables and fruits looked wonderfully fresh and tasty, something that we don’t get back home.
The boat across the lake Alpnachstad was nice. The weather was overcast all day but it was neither too hot or too cold.
The next leg up the mountain was the world’s steepest cogwheel railway with an average grade of 48%. This was a fun experience and the views going up got better and better along the way. The downfall was that I didn’t get a window seat and so didn’t take any photos. Yuki took lots of photos but I figured I’d get them at the top but then we were above the clouds.
The top of Mt. Pilatus wasn’t good for photos. We’d passed through two cloud layers and were in the middle of a third so visibility was limited. It was so cloudy that when we climbed up Mt. Esel we couldn’t tell that we were looking straight down a vertical cliff because the clouds obscured the drop. I did see a mountain goat on the side of the cliff.
After Esel Yuki and I tried the view from another peak, Oberhaupt, but it wasn’t any better so we took the Path of the Dragon, a short loop along the side of the mountain. This path goes through the mountain like a tunnel with windows cut into the rock so it was pretty cool.
After a short lunch break I went to walk along the path to Tomlishorn, a third peak. The weather was clearing slightly so I got some good photos and then ran back to get the rest. These were the best photos we were able to get all day but nothing close to the spectacular scenes we saw that are visible on a clear day.
To get down the mountain we took a cable car to a mid station where we rode the toboggan run for 8 CHF each. Yuki’s dad also went down. I clocked 30 km/h and Yuki went 18 km/h. Yuki would have gone faster but she followed the signs that said to break where as I did not. The toboggan run is fun enough to do once or twice the first time but I thought it would be longer. We’d seen videos on youtube of longer ones that take upwards of 10 minutes to go down. This one was only a minute or two so that’ll be next on our list if we come back.
I’d like to come back and do some hiking on Mt. Pilatus and the surrounding region. According to a sign, it’s possible to hike up in 4 hours. Yuki and I thought that was a quite optimistic but the Swiss are probably stronger hikers. We didn’t get to do any hiking but there are a lot of trails and some spectacular views to see if it were clear.
Dinner was poor. We tried to go to the restaurant recommended by Drunk with Caffeine at the top of a department store but it was closed when we arrived so we had to walk around in search of an alternative. There were some cheaper take away Thai restaurants but Yuki’s parents didn’t want that. We ended up eating at this Italian restaurant along the river. The food was meh, and the pizza was really salty. The one good part was because water cost 2.50 CHF I got a glass of white wine which was really smooth and fruity, a pleasant surprise.
Day 6, 21 September 2016
As Drunk with Caffeine had done, we took the train from Luzern to Meiringen where we talked to the tourist information centre to get directions. I’ve found that the Swiss are some of the most helpful and patient people I’ve come across when travelling. They are extremely helpful we are very grateful to the help they provided us.
In Meiringen, I saw a brochure for a gorge to visit so we asked about that. We were going to visit Aareschlucht gorge but this other one looked even better. It sounded really interesting but the next bus was in one hour. I think the bus was probably coordinated with the train arriving but with only a few minutes to transfer so we’d have a long wait. The other two attractions are within walking distance so we decided to head to Reichenbach Falls first and then go to the gorge after so that we wouldn’t be sitting around wasting time.
Reichenbach Falls is famous for it’s depiction in the Sherlock Homes series where he jumps to his death with his arch nemesis, Professor Moriarty. The town, visited mostly be tourist in cars, has several Sherlock Homes references, including a museum.
The waterfall itself is pretty nice and after taking a cable car up, we were able to hike up to the top. Above the waterfall is a restaurant accessible by car but we turned around and had a picnic lunch overlooking the waterfall.
By the time we went down the cable car it was getting late and we didn’t think we had enough time to get a bus to the gorge and look around before the last bus back to the train station so we reverted to our original plan and walked to Aareschlucht gorge.
Along the way we passed some homes and farms and marvelled at the architecture and organization. Yuki commented that Switzerland is incredibly organized. From the train schedule that is always on time to the way every house seems to be symmetrical and decorated with flowers under the windows, I don’t think we’ve found anywhere that’s more organized. Even Japan doesn’t feel like it is entirely organized because not all of the buildings are of the same style.
We found out at Aareschlucht gorge that you can get a combined ticket with Richenbach Falls, saving 2 CHF/person. That was unfortunate but didn’t bother us too much. The gorge itself is wonderful. It is about 1 mile long with cliffs up to 50m high and varying from 1 to 30m. The start is very narrow and it is evident how the water has eroded the limestone. It is accessed by tunnels dug into the rock and platforms that hang off the side of the cliff.
Further along the gorge widens and we walked to the end and back. At the far end, we tried to ask about the cost of the train back but the woman did not know so we just walked back in the gorge. This was my preference because we got to see it all a second time.
We made a pitstop to play on the playground at the front of the park but were chased away by a crowd of kids.
In the end we had to wait an hour for the train back to Luzern and got back at 8pm. We suspected that all of the restaurants would be closed at this hour so we were planning on having instant noodles at the hostel; however, at the Luzern station I saw an Asian take away place so we picked up two dishes. Though not the best food, it was certainly preferred to the food we’d had so far in Europe. We have high hopes for Italy, but I’m not holding my breath.
