In and Out of the Garden: A Blog

We went up to top of Mt. Pilatus, and I have to say it was the highlight of the trip so far. I had been worrying about how cold it might be up there and planned to wear a ton of layers to stay warm. Well, it was freezing and it really wouldn't have mattered if I had ten more layers on top of what I had. It was freezing—as in, there was snow everwhere. It was also cloudy—as in, we couldn't see the gorgeous view that people go up there to see. But it didn't matter. The whole experience was the amazing thing.

We started off the day with a walking tour of Lucerne. Now, we have been walking all over Lucerne for the past four days. I wondered if we really needed a tour. I figured I should just plan on taking pictures. But our guide was really good and by the end of the tour, I was hanging on her every word. Her description of the Lion statue almost had everyone in tears.

Next we took a short bus ride to the station to catch a four-seater gondola heading up the mountain. The next mode of transportation was a 40 person cable car. At this point some of us were glad that it was a sea of white outside because the height would have been dizzying.

We got off at the top of the mountain and had lunch at the Hotel Pilatus. After lunch there was just a bit of time to climb up to the lookout point. Or in my case, to climb halfway up and decide the cold wind was no fun and to go back down and chat with the others who weren't keen on going up there.

Then we boarded what we were told was the world’s steepest cogwheel train to go back down the other side of the mountain. It was steep. We had some great views going down this thing. At the base, we got on a boat and took an hour or so cruise back to Lucerne.

It was an all day adventure. All I needed to top off the day was a great dinner in an Italian restaurant. But I'll save that story for the next entry.