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Dragon Path, Mt. Pilatus |
We walked the
Dragon Path around the mountain top that was very deserted, freezing cold but thoroughly adventurous and enjoyable even without the views. There were rare (I think) high-altitude plants tagged with scientific names making the trail special. We headed back down via the
worlds steepest cogwheel train which was quite an experience.
Lucerne is a wonderful city that helped us explore Swiss culture for the first time. It is located perfectly to visit many popular spots and mountains of Switzerland.
This, useful link to compare the mountains we could visit from Lucerne, helped us tremendously. Thanks, Alexx!
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Zurich from Grossmuenster Tower |
Next was our meetup with my wife's school friends to bond and trek in the Swiss mountains. We took the train to Zurich to join the group. We spent half a day exploring the city. In that short time we managed to visit the huge
National museum or Landesmuseum of which we hardly explored 10%,
Grossmuenster church with its city views from the tower, and even had a lunch picnic along with the locals on a city bridge. We caught up with our group for dinner at
Hiltl after a lot of excitement with the 3 college classmates meeting after many years. Our treks were planned at Lugano but our stay was in Bellinzona, a quaint little town close to it. The train journey from Zurich to Bellinzona was quite interesting as two young friendly Swiss professionals riding along with us shared many aspects of Swiss culture.
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Lido San Domenico, Lugano |
Our first trek was the scenic
Olive Grove Trail along the Lake Lugano shore. There were cute restaurants all along the trail. We relaxed at one,
Lido San Domenico, for some drinks, after just 10 minutes into the trek! They were that irresistible. 😄. The trail winds through some extremely picturesque villages. We met a German team cycling all the way across Switzerland and beyond.
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Monte San Salvatore to Melide |
The longer trek we did was the trail down from
Monte San Salvatore. The Funicular to the top was fun, the views at the top were spectacular. We could even see Italy. Since our goal was to trek down we could not explore the area which included a museum. We chose the
trail down to the lake, that descended most of the time winding through villages along the way. From the lakeside near Melide, we took a bus to Morcote for our Ferry back to Lugano. Morcote was another lovely lakeside city where we had our Lunch with beautiful lake views. As a bonus, we got to witness a Harley Davidson rally who were in that area for an event.
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View out of Glacier Express |
Our next big Swiss adventure was the famous
Glacier Express. We had booked the leg from Andermatt to St Moritz. Unfortunately, because of flooding in the area, we had to take the local trains for part of the itinerary, from Andermatt to Chur. So, we got to experience the Swiss mountains on both the local trains and the Glacier Express. The local trains were quite good. However, Glacier Express had larger windows, personalized service, and onboard catering. Regardless of which you choose to go on, the mountains and the vistas are truly magical to watch from a train window. As another blog described, no camera can do justice. Just put it away after a few images for nostalgia and enjoy the sight of mountains that go by. Highlight was going over the 122 years old picturesque
Landwasser Viaduct.
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Swiss Alps from GE |
We planned only an overnight stay at St Moritz, a picturesque upscale ski city. Our stay was in a lovely youth hostel next to the forest into which we did a quick morning walk before heading off to the railway station to begin our Austrian adventure.
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Forest trails, St. Moritz |
Many more images with captions in the photo albums below. Enjoy.
Lucerne and Glacier Express
Lugano with friends
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Mussegmauer Fort, Lucerne |
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Cogwheel Train, Mt. Rigi |
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Top of the World, Mt. Rigi |
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Wild flowers, Mt. Pilatus |
National Museum, Zurich
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| Picturesque Cottage, San Salvatore trail |
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Glacier Express |