Day 9 – Lucerne and Mt Pilatus

9/19/2006 – Day 9 – Lucerne and Mt Pilatus

On 10 August 1792, French revolutionaries stormed the Paris residence of King Louis XVI and defended by over 1000 Swiss Guard, leading to the virtual annihilation of the Guard.  The Lion Monument, a powerful rock relief memorial, pays homage to the selfless heroes of the Swiss Guard.  Designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn.  This morning, we view the mournful, mortally wounded lion hewn into the rock to commemorate those Swiss Guards

After viewing the Lucerne Lion, we depart Lucerne and after a short drive to Kriens.  There we climbed aboard a panoramic gondola for the journey to Fräkmüntegg to board the aerial Dragon Ride cable car up to the mountaintop.  While we are flying over the houses in the city you can see how cloudy it is.  

Ascending beyond the city, we fly over the trees, still a little cloudy and it doesn’t look like it will clear up.

Here are a couple of houses on the side of the mountain.  As we pass, we are not that much more elevated than the houses.  Check out the little log cabin.

Wow!  We are about to cross this chasm.  Carmen will not look down, but we are very high.  The cable bows so much that it almost appears that we will get smashed into the side of the cliff.

At the top, we go through the building with the restaurant and start along one of the trails.  Local legend says dragons once lived along this trail on Mount Pilatus lined with rocks & crevices.  Part of the trail we are on is through a tunnel drilled into the rock.  Windows drilled through the walls provides views of the surrounding mountains.  Carmen is next to one of those windows.  Unfortunately, we are in the clouds and cannot see anything.

Fortunately, for us they have already done the hard work and all we need to do is follow the path along the railing.  Remember do not lean to far over, it is a long way down. 

We are getting ready to descend the mountain on the world's steepest cogwheel railway.  Before we go, I get one more picture of Carmen in the clouds.  The skies never did clear up so our views were very limited.  Ah well, that is the chance you take.  We did get hats, like the one Carmen is wearing.

On the cog train we now have a fleeting glimpse of what we might have seen from the mountaintop. 

As the train moves down the mountain, other trains are making their way up the mountain.  Since we are on the descent, our train must make room for the ascending trains.  The timing of the trains limited our wait time while we are on the side rails.  It is difficult to tell from the pictures, but we are at a 46% grade, which is very steep. 

Just having passed through a tunnel in the mountain, we can see the second car making its way out of the tunnel.  I can tell that we are nearing the bottom of our trip, the grade angle is now around 35%.

We are back in Lucerne and begin walking around town.  This is a tree-lined pedestrian walkway along the lake.  Our travels should take us to the Reuss River and the pedestrian bridges.

During our stroll, we make it to Kapellbrücke or Chapel Bridge, the Landmark 1300s wooden bridge with grand stone water tower & a roof decorated with 17th-century art.  The flower-lined footbridge spans the river Reuss diagonally in the city of Lucerne.  The bridge has painting hanging bellow its roof; they are triangular and depict events from the history and Legends of Lucerne. 

In 1993 a fire broke out, probably from a cigarette, and destroyed two thirds of paintings.  Of the original 158, 47 were not destroyed by fire and only 30 were successfully restored.  These are some of those triangle paintings.

Looking across the river we have a great view of this section of the buildings on the river front.

After crossing the footbridge, we find ourselves near the Jesuit Church of Lucerne. 

We entered the church and because there were other people in the church we take a couple of pictures as quietly as we can.

This is Museggmauer, the iconic old city wall with one of the 9 towers, some open to the public offering views from the top.

Traveling around, we eventually come to The Church of St. Leodegar, a Roman Catholic. It was built in parts from 1633 to 1639 on the foundation of the Roman basilica, which had burnt in 1633.  This church was one of the few built north of the Alps during the Thirty Years War and one of the largest art history rich churches of the German late renaissance period. 

Looking from the back of the church to the front alter area.  Notice it appears to be behind ornate iron gates. 

Check out this dais in another section of the church.  Look at all the gilding, the statues, and the paintings.  Magnificent. 

We are heading back to the hotel and come across this boat garage.  I wonder if they have automatic garage door openers? 

Others in our tour group have gone to a “Folk Dinner”.  We decided not to go and instead make it to one of the neighboring restaurants.  Carmen ordered the beef tips flambé and I ordered the chicken.  Carmen had about twelve beef tips, flaming with the cognac sauce.  Had we known we both could have eaten it.  My chicken was a whole chicken, served in two half-chicken sittings.  Way too much food.  We could have split either of the meals.  After dinner, on the way back to the hotel, The night is mostly clear and we have a view of Mt. Pilatus.  

Tomorrow we leave Lucerne and start our journey to Paris.