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Sunday, October 14, 2012

Lucerne, Switzerland and Mount Pilatus

A buddy and I had a chance to head to Switzerland for a weekend of hiking.  We chose Lucerne for its accessibility, variety, and purported beauty.  Mark Twain wrote about his time in Lucerne - viewing the Lion statue and meeting a talkative, idiotic American tourist - in A Tramp Abroad.  Leo Tolstoy and Richard Wagner were also mesmerized by Lucerne, and across the lake is where William Tell shot the apple off his son's head.  With those ringing endorsements, we drove down Switzerland's many-tunneled highway to the shore of Lake Lucerne.
We arrived on a rainy day that wouldn't allow for an easy trip up Mount Pilatus, so we spent Day One in town.  Here you can see the ancient wooden Chapel Bridge.  Fires ravaged the two covered bridges recently in 1993, so portions of new wood mix with old.  The flowers that hung from the walls of the bridge were gorgeous.  The Water Tower to the left is commonly the subject of postcards from the town.
The most interesting aspect of the bridges is under the roofs.  Paintings of important scenes from the city's history have hung for over three hundred years.
Some of the paintings had an obsession with death.  A passing tour guide said that the skeleton figures commonly seen in the pictures were supposed to remind everyone of their mortality...nice.
I was interested that some of the evidence of the fires was maintained on the bridge.  It's sad that the bridge suffered from the flames so recently considering it was first built in the 1400s.
After checking out the bridges over the River Reuss, we hiked the protective wall around the city.  There were a number of towers that were still maintained along the wall.
I was excited to check out the Lion of Lucerne carving.  The sight of the massive, dying lion is awe-inspiring.  Mark Twain was enthralled with it, saying "the Lion of Lucerne is the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."  I am compelled to agree.  My biggest surprise was its size.  I expected the lion to be roughly seven or eight feet long, like the size of a real lion.  It's not - the carving into the live rock is enormous, and the pain and sadness displayed on the lion's face is moving.  The purpose of the statue is to memorialize the Swiss guards that the French royals casually disposed of during the French Revolution.  The Lion of Lucerne lived up to the hype.
Incredible.
At the crack of dawn on Day Two, we parked at the base of Mount Pilatus.  Here you can see trains heading up the steepest railway in the world at a 48 degree grade.
The first portion of our trudge up the mountain was in the foggy woods.
After several hours we peeked above the early morning clouds and overlooked the woods running down into the soup.
Our time in the clear skies was limited as we ran into a second deck of clouds...
Above the treeline and stuck in the fog.  We couldn't see more than about 50 yards in any direction.
We hiked through the fog for hours and took a break, wondering where we were.  As we sat and rested the fog boiled away and shrunk down the mountain behind us.  We were getting close to the top.
We crested a ridgeline that led from the Matthorn (in photo) to the summit of Pilatus, and knew we were on the final stage.
Here's a peek at the zig-zagging switchbacks we climbed up the side of the Matthorn.
The view from the top.  That's the Eiger and the Jungfrau in the distance.
Looking on our final steps up the scree-filled slopes to the top.
The amazing view of Lake Lucerne from the summit of the Pilatus.  We were so exhausted from the climb, we opted for the train for the downhill journey.

Thanks for checking out the Swiss trip.