Lucerne and Mount Pilatus

Day 14 – Cogwheel, Cable Car and an Old Bridge 

An hour away by train from Zurich is Lucerne, our destination today.   In German it’s Luzern.  Our first stop was the Swiss Transport Museum.   The boys love museums and cars and planes and playgrounds, and they were all here in one place!

Planes, helicopters, trucks and other things that go! 

 

Seaport playground, construction playground and free use of Micro scooters!

The boys also enjoyed these remote-controlled boats and a few other things in the museum.

 Our next stop for the day was Mount Pilatus.

We did what most tourists would do in summer – the ‘Golden Round Trip’.    From Lucerne, we cruised along Lake Lucerne to Alpnachstad, where we took the steepest cogwheel to reach Pilatus Kulm, the mountain summit.

This was Lake Lucerne…

  And this was at Alpnachstad Station, the base of the cogwheel ride.

 It is said to be the steepest cogwheel ride in the world!

 Hello cloud!

We didn’t have any pictures of and at the summit, but it would look something like this.

 Or like this since it was cloudy that day.

http://www.best-of-switzerland.net/en/pilatus_-_train_to_the_top_of_mt_pilatus/

It was too cloudy at the summit to be able to see anything so we decided to take just proceed to Frakmuntegg Station (one station down the summit) where Dad and Benjamin could do Switzerland’s longest summer toboggan run.  To go there, we rode the aerial cable car.

After the big boys’ toboggan and Joaquin’s nap, we headed back to Lucerne via a long cable ride down the mountain.  The cable car was not very high this time and at times it seemed like we were just walking above the trees.  Again, we didn’t have pictures, but really, the views from Frakmuntegg Station all the way to Kriens were lovely.

 Back in Lucerne, we did not miss the opportunity to see and walk through Kapellbrucke or Chapel Bridge, which spans across the Reuss River.

This was the ‘old town’ of Lucerne where we had dinner before heading back to Zurich.

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The next day was our last day in Switzerland.  Oh Joaquin grabbed a snake and Benjamin talked to wolves at Zoo Zurich!  You’re gonna want to read about it, so look out for it!