Lucerne, Switzerland is spectacularly scenic. The scenery is almost too magical to be real. With the precarious weather forecast for the next few days, we decided to go up to Mt. Pilatus right away. We read about the many legends surrounding the prodigious “Dragon Mountain” a.k.a. Mt. Pilatus. In the Middle Ages, the bleak crevices of this mountain were believed to be the abode of a well-meaning dragon and spirits. There is also a legend that says the body of Pontius Pilate was ultimately disposed of in a tiny remote lake on Mount Pilatus. His ghost was seen every Good Friday in the middle of the lake resulting in the local priests and government officials making it illegal to climb the mountain or use the lake. In 1585, Lucerne’s priest along with the townspeople climbed Mount Pilatus and threw stones into the lake to challenge the ghost. Nothing happened! As a result, they believed the spell was broken and allowed everyone to then climb the mountain and enjoy the lake.
As we ascended up to Mt. Pilatus via a 4-person cable car and then a large tram, the views were absolutely spectacular along with the soothing greenery covering the mountain, the lovely flora & fauna cover and the wonderful sound of cow bells on phase 1 of our journey up the mountain. We unloaded halfway up and got on the larger tram for the very steep but smooth ride up to the top. It started pouring rain! We “landed” in the rain with the clouds sweeping over the massive view from all directions – yuk! It became quite apparent to us that the weather is extremely unpredictable on these Swiss mountain tops and that cloudless, perfect-weather days are probably quite the phenomenon rather than the usual. When all else fails, eat – so we had an early lunch and waited. Miraculously the heavy clouds began to lift and the sun was trying to come out. We bolted out the door and climbed the multiple trails to various viewpoints on top. Within minutes, it was cloudy again on one side but gorgeous on the other side of the mountain. We furiously took pictures and within about an hour, it started raining again and clouding over. We feel very fortunate to have captured a “window” of picture-taking time. We were so disappointed that we could not do our planned hikes – another visit?
Our next stop today was a visit to downtown Lucerne. Lesley visited Lucerne when she was 15 years old. She was in such awe over this quaint, little city, she had made a promise to herself that she would return in a few years. . . . not 48 years later! The city felt quite a bit different than how Lesley remembered it. The Old Town section of Lucerne is charismatic and still exudes a good amount of Swiss charm. There are numerous Swiss clock towers throughout the Old Town area, enchanting wooden covered bridges, swans floating gracefully along the river and awesome snow capped rugged mountain peaks enveloping the city. The only unfortunate change to the city is all the tacky retail like H & M stores that have invaded Old Town and diminish the city’s persona.
Someone said to us that Lucerne is like a vain woman: shallow, boring, self-important and expensive. We totally disagree on the first three descriptions; but, oh how true it is that Lucerne is very expensive. We were shocked that it cost us $22 to take a legit cab ride for 1/2 mile from the train station in Lucerne to the Hertz car rental. The tram and gondola ride up to Mt Pilatus was only $140; since we opted not to take the cogwheel train for another $80. (If the weather holds up, we plan on going on the Junfraujoch, which is th highest train station in Europe at about an altitude of 11,500 ft. Who knows what that will cost!) We bought a few minor groceries today that didn’t fill two foldable “Deer Valley Green Bags” for $120 – Yikes! It is so fabulous here, the Swiss probably could ask any price and we would pay.
