Words cannot describe

One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post was that we drove through a 17km tunnel through a mountain on our way through Switzerland yesterday. One of the largest tunnels here in Europe.

I personally did some things today I thought I would never dream of doing. Our morning started by heading towards Lucerne and a ride up to the 7000 Ft level of Mt. Pilatus.  We headed to the top by a cog wheel train or tram up the side of the mountain.  We were told that we would come down the other side by 2 gondolas.

As the title says, words cannot describe this and the pictures really don't explain the view. It brought tears to my eyes being up there.

 

 

 

Once we arrived at the top it was indescribable. I have never seen anything like this with my own eyes in my life.

 

(I was so proud of him !!!)



 

The first gondola that brought us down about a quarter of the way was large, able to hold 45 people. We only had about 10 of us in it and I went to the middle initially, to hang on.  It was fantastic, smooth and I was walking around to the windows taking videos before very long.

Next we transferred off to smaller gondolas that only held 4 people each for the remainder of our drop to the bottom.  These move slowly to allow you to get on, like they do on our ski hills, then the door closes and it speeds up out the building and into the abyss.  I had both hands firmly grabbing my seat, between my legs and I was looking at my feet initially thinking oh no. This trip down took 45 minutes in total and in this little car we would be at least 30 minutes.  Again though after a few minutes the ride was smooth and I started to enjoy it looking at the scenery and taking videos. I would not have missed this for anything, despite my fears.

 

We had some time to shop and eat in Lucerne, then we took an hour cruise on Lake Lucerne. We saw the Lion monument which was a tribute to the 600 Swiss Guards that were protecting the French Royal family who were at the Tulleries Palace from French revolutionaries.  This monument was carved in 1820-21 in honour of those fallen guards. You may notice that the lion is carved into the mountain inside the image of a pig. Some say it was deliberate to show how the Swiss felt about the French revolutionaries.

We have some more spectacular pictures from the cruise but they don't compare to these mountain views.

One more cultural story here from Switzerland. In yesterday's post I mentioned how we have had to push and shove our way in or others away.  Today while Barb and I were walking through Lucerne, a young lady cut right in front of me. She realized this and stopped immediately, backed up and apologized to me then even though I asked her to continue, she insisted I go ahead to be with Barb. 

Switzerland, absolutely beautiful, extremely expensive but a place to see with your own eyes. We will never forget this place.