Lakes and Peaks

It was Dad's turn to blog again: 

We spent today in Lucerne. We started our day with breakfast on the terrace overlooking Lake Lucern. It was a gorgeous, mostly sunny day.  The beautiful lake with the view of snowy peaks above was fantastic for our leisurely meal.

 We took our bus for a short trip to Lucerne where we boarded gondolas for our lift to the top of Mt. Pilatas. The first two legs up the mountain were in small 4-person gondolas, but the final ascent was thankfully in a more substantial one which held about 40 people. 

As we neared the summit we passed through the clouds. The discharge point was really on the top of the mountain, where there are two hotels and a large open area for viewing the landscape below. 

You can take short climbs to other peaks of the mountain for other spectacular views. There were just a few small patches of snow left on the mountain at the beginning of summer. Although the clouds kept us from getting great pictures of the lake and the city of Lucerne, we did get some good views in the other direction as the clouds began to lift in the early afternoon. 

We also saw a mountain goat  climbing along a nearly vertical part of the mountainside - how do they do it?  

We had a nice lunch on the mountain and took the inclined railway down. Here we boarded a boat for a cruise across the lake to the city. The boat takes people to different towns along the lake and our trip had several stops and took over an hour. All the while we had spectacular views of Mt. Pilatas. 

When we arrived in Lucerne we were given a short walking tour of the city by our tour guide, then had some free time to shop. The highlight of the city tour were the bridges over the river Reuss. The most famous, the Chapel bridge, is adorned with flowers its entire length. It also has reproductions of 17th century art overhead in the rafters - very impressive!  

During our walking tour, we found a DuPont sign. We couldn't resist the photo opportunity. 

Back at our mountainside hotel, we enjoyed a goulash dinner with a delicious dessert of fresh strawberry pie.