From the Italian Lakes to the Swiss Alps in one day
We had read a few warnings about the bus trip from Menaggio (a very hairy ride apparently) but decided that those people were whimps, and it was worth doing to save ourselves many hours and quite a few euros on ferries and trains to get to Lugano, Switzerland. It was a local bus service costing us all of 5 euro each and about 1 hour of our time and we were in Switzerland, straight to the train station to head to our next destination - Lucerne.
We had organised all of our Swiss rail and accommodation as part of a self-guided tour package through a travel agent as this was actually much cheaper than doing it ourselves. All of the hotels are close to the station and each place we are visiting has something different to offer. Switzerland is notoriously expensive on all fronts so it was great to have everything arranged and pre-paid so we could just enjoy our time. Neither of us had travelled to Switzerland before and were both very excited to be heading towards another new experience.
By the way - Caz is a bit of a fan of the trains and to be honest you could put her on any (first class) carriage and she'd be a very happy girl. However, even the Swiss scenery and fantastic rail service on our first leg from Lugano to Lucerne blew all of us away. Wow - what a spectacular introduction to a place Caz had dreamt about visiting. We knew we were going to thoroughly enjoy the next leg of our 2013 journey when we could see this out of the train window:
Just for something different, it was raining when we arrived so luckily the hotel was very close to the station so a quick dash with bags to check in and the usual bag drop etc. Lucerne is the main town on Lake Lucerne (OK might sound a little obvious, but just wanted to make sure everyone knows where we are!).
Oh how we love the rain!
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| Ready to explore... |
We re-grouped armed with brollies, jackets and determination and headed out for our usual "getting to know the town" wander. The weather lightened up enough for us to even manage to sit outside at a wine bar on the Reuss River and share a cheers to the start of our Swiss journey together. Georgina even managed to find a glass of Aussie red, OK so it was only Lindeman's but it was a Mclaren Vale Shiraz so still very drinkable. Lucerne has grabbed us in an instant and we were excited about discovering more of anything and everything Swiss in the short time that we were here.
Our first sights of Lucerne
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| A quick glimpse of blue sky |
We scouted around for dinner and decided on Thai. Yes, yes, we know - what on Earth are we doing trying Thai restaurants in Switzerland but there is an Asian influence to the food here that rates quite highly as authentic food. We sat down to another one of those meals that stands out from the rest and it was great to have fresh vegetarian food that wasn't just a compromise. The cost was the big surprise - about $55 Australian (per person) for a veggie curry with rice and one drink each. Hmmmm - a great meal but we decided that perhaps we need to do a little more research before sitting down to these prices every night. But no regrets, we loved every mouthful.
We stared the next day grabbing a few cold-weather clothing (re)supplies that we (read "Caz") thought we no longer needed and had previously sent home. The photos from Mt Rigi later in the blog will explain!
We then headed out for our own guided tour of old Lucerne, including the walls and ramparts of the city from the 14th century. We also visited the Lion monument which commemorates the Swiss Guards who lost their lives fighting in the French Revolution. Regardless of your personal feelings about revolution or war, this monument is a striking reminder of the pain of lives lost.
Walking the streets of Lucerne
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| Mmmmm Milka (G loves her Milka) or Toblerone |
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| Heading up to the walls & ramparts |
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| View of Lake Lucerne from the top of one rampart |
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| The Lion Monument |
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| A closer view... |
Lucerne proved itself to be a very picturesque town and perhaps some of you have seen this iconic image of Switzerland previously:
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| Chapel Bridge |
If you believe what you read in the Swiss tourist brochures the Chapel Bridge is one of the most photographed structures in the whole of Europe. True or not, it is genuinely the oldest surviving bridge of it's kind, and with the backdrop of gorgeous Lucerne does make a great photo don't you think?
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| Looking down the Ruess river from the Chapel bridge |
We decided to brave all of the elements the next day and make the trip up to Mt Rigi, the highest peak in the area and easily accessible by public transport. We were able to use our Swiss Rail Pass to get half price tickets and after packing extra layers for the trip we hopped on stage 1 of the journey - a paddle steamer across Lake Lucerne.
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| (A pic from a Swiss site to show the boat) |
Stage 2 is on Europe's oldest cogwheel mountain railway (The Vitznau-Rigi Railway) which takes you all the way to the summit, Rigi Kulm. As we were getting closer to the summit the weather started to turn and visibility was getting poor - but this time is was due to snow. We think that we might have been in the small minority who were excited about snow as most people come up here for the view. The truth is that Caz has never seen snow or been in snow when it was snowing - ever. So here we were in almost white-out conditions and Caz trying not to get too excited in front of everyone. As you can see, she didn't really succeed and looked more like Alice stumbling into Wonderland for the first time:
And it's Snow time!
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| Vitznau-Rigi Cog rail |
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| Happy girls in the snow |
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| Caz literally in the snow for the first time |
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| Thank god for the Swiss beanies - our new best friends (keeping our heads warm) |
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| Yes G is in 3/4 pants....it's not that cold! |
As snow really only falls when it's freezing cold (-5 degrees) we headed into the summit restaurant for a hot bowl of soup before making our way down to the lake by cable car from the next village down (stage 3). We had hoped to walk down to this spot but the weather really was against us. The views from the cable car were simply spectacular.
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| One of our favourite Swiss pics :) |
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| Anyone for a swim? A cosy 28 degrees poolside |
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| Whilst not so clear - you can still see Lake Lucerne through the wet dots |
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| Lake Lucerne |
Back on another boat and home to Lucerne. An absolutely unforgettable day for both of us. If you're ever in Lucerne....
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| All of the footprints you can see are from Caz doing a few happy dances in the snow! (Not really but she was doing a happy dance) |
Our last day in Lucerne only really meant getting to the train station for our 9.40am train to Interlaken, a town in the heart of the lakes and mountains of the Alps including the famous Jungfrau. More of this in the next blog.
Time for us to eat some chocolate......