Hipskind European Adventure: Luzern, Switzerland

Before I left to go down to Italy, the weather forecast had said that it might rain the whole time Mom and Steve were in Switzerland.  I was worried about rain because all of our plans involved walking and hiking around Switzerland's beautiful landscape.  I tried to rearrange the schedule to avoid the rain, but there was only so much I could do.  In the end, luck was on our side and the weather and the schedule rearrangement worked out perfectly.

On Mom and Steve's first full day in Switzerland (Saturday), Darren and I took them to the adorable city of Luzern (Lucerne in French, Luzern in German).  Luzern is just everything you imagine when you picture a perfect Swiss town, which is why it has been a major tourist destination since Swiss tourism really began in the 19th century.  Luzern is located about 45 minutes south of Zurich on the western shore of a lake (informally called Lake Luzern, though the more long-winded, real name is Vierwaldstättersee).  Part of the town also runs along the beginning of the Reuss River, and looks out onto the beautiful Swiss Alps.  The city has been around since the Middle Ages and has a picturesque old part of town that lies on north side of the river.

Part of Luzern that sits on Lake Luzern

We spent the first part of the day exploring the old part of town and stopped for an early lunch at Restaurant Fritschi.  We all shared some typical Swiss dishes beginning with a mixed salad of different kinds of lettuce, shredded beets, carrots, and other vegetables.  We also enjoyed a Swiss dish called Rösti, which in it's most basic form consists just of shredded, fried potatoes (like hash browns). However, this Rösti was a tastier version with tomatoes, cheese, and other things added to it.  Finally, we all shared some cheese fondue!  It was delicious!

We sat outside for a delicious lunch at the restaurant ahead in this picture

Steve, Mom, and me in Luzern

After lunch we walked along Luzern's famous Chapel Bridge, which was originally built in the 14th century as part of the town's fortifications.  However, some of the bridge was reconstructed in 1993 after a fire broke out.

Chapel Bridge

The oldest wooden bridge in Europe

Some of the triangle paintings underneath the roof were destroyed in the fire

Later in the afternoon we set out for our adventure to reach the top of one of the mountains next to Lake Luzern: Mt. Rigi.  You can see Mt. Rigi below on the left with it's two peaks connected along a ridge.  The leftmost peak is the tallest (at 5,900 ft) where you can almost make out the communications tower that is there.  To get to the top of Mt. Rigi, we first took a fantastic boat cruise to the cute lakeside town of Weggis.

A view of Mt. Rigi from the boat cruise

The type of boat we took

Me on Lake Luzern

BEAUTIFUL!

The cute town of Weggis where we got off the boat

From Weggis, we walked up a hill to reach a cable car station.  We took a short ride on the cable car to almost all the way up the mountain.

Steve looking out of the cable car

Looking back at Lake Luzern, the mountain covered by clouds is Pilatus (7,000 ft)

The cable car was a bit scary!

The cable car did not take us all the way up to the peak, so we jumped on a mountain train, which took us the rest of the way.  This mountain train opened in 1871 and is the oldest rack railway in Europe.  It is just crazy to watch these trains climb up the mountain with such steep grades.  What a feat of engineering.

The amazing Swiss mountain trains

From the train station, we walked up to the top of the peak and just marveled at the amazing view.

Darren at the top of Mt. Rigi

Looking back at Luzern, which is at the end of that finger-like part of the lake

Beautiful view from Mt. Rigi

Gliding planes and paragliders around Mt. Rigi

All of us on the top of Mt. Rigi

We decided to do a short hike back down part of the mountain and catch the train at another station further down.  All along our hike down the mountain we ran into pretty Swiss cows with the traditional bells hanging around their necks.  I love Swiss cows!  I think they are much cuter than American cows, so I really loved seeing them every time we passed by them.

Pretty Swiss cows!

A view from our hike down the mountain

The train coming up the mountain

Lovely cabins to rent on Mt. Rigi

We took the train all the way down the mountain where it ended right at the waterfront in the town of Vitzau.  We then took a boat ride back to Luzern and had dinner in Luzern before heading back to Zurich.  I can't wait to go back to Luzern again some time soon!