In a real change of pace, I've returned from ski-resort villages to city life in one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen in all my travels: the city of Luzern (Lucerne) in Switzerland. I'm going to keep using the German spelling because that is what you see on all signs and print materials in Switzerland -- highway signs, railway stations, tickets, etc. Like Vancouver, Luzern has it all -- mountains, a river, a beach, and gorgeous views in every direction -- but all in a smaller, more livable scale with almost no sign of the bigger city's traffic congestion.
The prize jewel of Luzern is, of course, the lake itself, with its spectacular Alpine backdrop.
It's often called Lake Lucerne but this is not its proper name. Its full name is Vierwaldstättersee -- "Lake of the Four Forest Cantons." The name Luzernersee ("Lake of Lucerne") is properly used to describe only the arm of the lake which ends at the city of Luzern as the lake drains into the river Reuss, enroute to the Rhine. The river's name is pronounced pretty much the same as a certain famous luxury car brand: Rolls-Reuss.
A good deal of significant Swiss history was written around the shores of this lake, not least the original oath of the cantons agreed upon at the meadow of Rütli (likely in 1307, but conventionally assigned to the year 1291).
A good deal of significant Swiss history was written around the shores of this lake, not least the original oath of the cantons agreed upon at the meadow of Rütli (likely in 1307, but conventionally assigned to the year 1291).
The original settlement grew up around the point where the Reuss drains the lake, and it is here that the most historic parts of Luzern today are located. The centrepiece is the long, oddly-angled covered wooden footbridge called the Kapellbrücke ("Chapel Bridge"), with its fortified tower and its ceiling decorated in the 1700s with paintings of scenes from the area's history. The name refers to the Roman Catholic chapel located by the bridge's north end. The original bridge dating from the 1300s was severely damaged by a fire in 1993, and rebuilt the following year. Only some of the paintings were able to be restored. The fortified stone tower standing in the river closer to the south shore and attached to the bridge was one of many towers which protected the medieval town on the north shore from invaders -- in this case, invaders coming from the south and trying to cross the bridge.
Both sides of the river are lined in this area with historic buildings, many now serving as hotels and with restaurants on the ground floors -- plenty of riverfront terraces for eats and drinks in warmer weather, and we've certainly been enjoying that!
Dominating the south bank of the river is the twin-towered Jesuit Church.
The north side is centred by the Alte Rathaus ("Old Town Hall"), now housing a large and popular brewery and pub.
Downtown Luzern is compact and easy to get around on foot. The river is spanned by just 2 road bridges at either end of the downtown area, but no less than 4 pedestrian-only bridges. Do you think they're trying to tell us something?
In the morning, the walkways on both sides of the river were converted into the city's marketplace with stalls selling fruits, flowers, meats, fish, fresh bread, cheeses of all kinds, and so on.
There are two very prominent mountains which dominate many views of Luzern, even though they are both quite some distance away across the lake: Rigi to the east and Pilatus to the south. In the two photos of the Kapellbrücke above, Rigi is in the background of the first picture and Pilatus in the background of the second.
Both mountains are served by distinctive rack railways. Rigi has the oldest rack railway in Europe (1871), and that railway now actually has 2 separate lines going down opposite sides of the mountain. Pilatus has the distinction of the steepest rack railway in the world (opened in 1889), averaging 35% gradient and maximum of up to 48% (which is just shy of climbing at a 45 degree angle).
I'd ridden up Pilatus back in 1979 when I first came here, but for this visit I decided to get onto both mountain railways in one day. It can be done, but requires an early start and a lot of patience. Here, again, comes the payoff for using the Swiss Travel Pass: free rides on the lake boats or trains to and from the two mountains, free admission to the Rigi railway and half-price at Pilatus.
In the morning, the walkways on both sides of the river were converted into the city's marketplace with stalls selling fruits, flowers, meats, fish, fresh bread, cheeses of all kinds, and so on.
There are two very prominent mountains which dominate many views of Luzern, even though they are both quite some distance away across the lake: Rigi to the east and Pilatus to the south. In the two photos of the Kapellbrücke above, Rigi is in the background of the first picture and Pilatus in the background of the second.
Both mountains are served by distinctive rack railways. Rigi has the oldest rack railway in Europe (1871), and that railway now actually has 2 separate lines going down opposite sides of the mountain. Pilatus has the distinction of the steepest rack railway in the world (opened in 1889), averaging 35% gradient and maximum of up to 48% (which is just shy of climbing at a 45 degree angle).
I'd ridden up Pilatus back in 1979 when I first came here, but for this visit I decided to get onto both mountain railways in one day. It can be done, but requires an early start and a lot of patience. Here, again, comes the payoff for using the Swiss Travel Pass: free rides on the lake boats or trains to and from the two mountains, free admission to the Rigi railway and half-price at Pilatus.
The other payoff, less easy to quantify but much more important to my well-being, is the sheer delight of an early-morning cruise on the placid waters of the Vierwaldstättersee. You begin with a beautiful waterside panorama of Luzern as the ship pulls away from the pier.
Cruising slowly and easily across the calm waters, you have a succession of splendid mountain views which keep changing and shifting by the minute as you sail along.
The boat is fully equipped with a snack counter and bar. Like a train, it's divided into first and second class sections, with the first class (on the upper deck or at the stern if a single deck) having more comfortable seats, both indoors and out, and a server who comes around to take drink and food orders so you don't have to line up at the counter. Thank you, Swiss Travel Pass.
After an hour and a quarter, the ship arrives at Vitznau, the port for the Rigi railway. By the way, if you really want to see it all, the same ship continues all the way to the southeast end of the lake at Flüelen, about 3 hours sailing time from Luzern including all stops. You can return via frequent train services. Vitznau, on the other hand, has no railway access so the ship is essential unless you really, really need to go on a long, twisty ride on a Swiss bus (but that's included in the Travel Pass too if you absolutely, desperately need a long bus ride -- you can tell how I feel about that!).
As soon as the 2-car train pulls away from Vitznau and starts up the incline, the views begin to open up before you. Thank goodness for digital photography; you can easily take 200 pictures in 20 minutes and then sort through at a later date and discard all but the best, without paying for all that film as in the bad old days.
An awful example of what happens if you "forget" that you're on a rack railway and prop your camera on the windowsill for stability.
Eventually you reach the summit. You'll notice that Rigi is nowhere close to being as high as, say, the Gornergrat.
The word "Kulm" means "summit" -- think of the related English word, "culmination."
What makes the Rigi viewpoint so spectacular is that it's far taller than anything else close by, so there are splendid views in every direction. Downtown Luzern, on the zoom lens.
Pilatus, about fifteen kilometres away.
A panorama of the lake and mountains spreading out before you. And because you made yourself get up good and early, the sun is southeast of the mountain and thus is behind you as you photograph the best views.
When it's time to leave, make sure to get on the proper train. Hop on that blue train on platform 2 instead of the red train on Platform 1 and you'll find yourself in Arth-Goldau instead of Vitznau before you know what hit you (two different rack railways on the one mountain, remember?).
But not to worry -- Arth-Goldau is a major main-line railway station and you could very easily get back to Luzern by train from there. But speaking of back to Luzern, it's time to head back down the mountain and -- from the Vitznau station -- just a few steps to board the boat for the return trip.
Back in Luzern, there's time to grab a light lunch of a sandwich and drink before heading for the next boat to the southwest corner of the lake and Alpnachstad. Again, about a 75-minute voyage, but all new and different scenes to enjoy.
And then you come to the dock, walk through a tunnel under the railway tracks, and come up to the terminal of the Pilatus Bahn. This mountain line climbs far steeper grades than any other rack railway in the world. The secret is in the special rack designed by the line's engineer, Eduard Locher -- rather than a single cog wheel rotating vertically along a single toothed rail, the Pilatus rack uses two wheels mounted sideways on the two sides of the rack rail. This set-up, with the flanges under the cogwheels' teeth, makes it virtually impossible for the cogs to disengage and come loose from the rack rail.
The cars are built like those of a funicular, staircase fashion, due to the steep grades of the line. If one wonders why a funicular wasn't built, the technology of the day couldn't cope with the particularly sheer slopes of Pilatus since a funicular or rope-drawn car has to move along a fairly straight course with limited curves. The Pilatus cog line has a number of wickedly tight bends to keep the gradient down to a mere 48%! The cars travel singly, but with up to four cars each way at each departure time -- the all-important midpoint passing switch has room for a total of eight cars. Here's what it looks like at passing time.
As the track climbs higher on the mountain and gets above the tree line, you begin to see just what a challenge this horribly steep mountain posed to the builders (particularly in the second picture where the following train car is visible, with a zoom lens close-up at a different point on the track in the third pic).
The summit station perches on a saddle between the mountain's two main peaks. There's a pair of hotels, a cafeteria, a sit-down restaurant, a huge viewing deck, and the Drachengalerie (the "Dragon's Lair"). There's also the large cable car which comes up the north side of the mountain -- actually the topmost of a sequence of three separate cable cars which stretch up from the town of Kriens.
You can clearly see downtown Luzern at the left edge of this picture, and the sharp point of Rigi in the top centre -- and clearly see how much lower Rigi is (about 325 metres/1000 feet lower).
The sheer cliffs dropping down from the summit on two sides certainly helped me to understand why Eduard Locher's friends thought he was crazy when he said he would build a rack railway on this peak.
Speaking of those sheer cliffs, there's a long winding tunnel that's been bored through the rock wall of the north face, with multiple viewing windows cut through the rock on different angles. If you make it through the whole tunnel, in spite of the periodic loud clanging noises (which prove to be the exit gate) you will come out on this narrow cliffside walkway.
You can then either climb a staircase onto the trail to the higher summit, or walk through another shorter tunnel to the terrace of the hotel for a drink. Congratulations -- you've survived the dreaded Drachengalerie.
And with that, it's a good time to catch the next train back down the mountain, connecting onto the 15-minute commuter train ride from Alpnachstad to get back to Luzern in time for dinner. And there at last, on the walkway by the Kapellbrücke, my luck came back. For the first, and probably last, time on this trip to Switzerland, I found a person playing an alphorn.
That was definitely worth celebrating with a farewell selfie in front of that beautiful old bridge, just as the sun was setting.
Yes, it was a long, crazy day but the combination of fresh lake air and clear mountain air, in alternate doses, certainly blew away the cobwebs in my mind, so it was well worth it.
Oh yes, the total price -- thanks to the Swiss Travel Pass -- CHF36 for the half-price ticket on Pilatus. Everything else, except the food and drinks, was no-added-charge. I've more than gotten my money's worth out of that pass already, and I'm not even done yet.
But first, I have to leave Switzerland for a few days on a side trip to another country.
Cruising slowly and easily across the calm waters, you have a succession of splendid mountain views which keep changing and shifting by the minute as you sail along.
The boat is fully equipped with a snack counter and bar. Like a train, it's divided into first and second class sections, with the first class (on the upper deck or at the stern if a single deck) having more comfortable seats, both indoors and out, and a server who comes around to take drink and food orders so you don't have to line up at the counter. Thank you, Swiss Travel Pass.
After an hour and a quarter, the ship arrives at Vitznau, the port for the Rigi railway. By the way, if you really want to see it all, the same ship continues all the way to the southeast end of the lake at Flüelen, about 3 hours sailing time from Luzern including all stops. You can return via frequent train services. Vitznau, on the other hand, has no railway access so the ship is essential unless you really, really need to go on a long, twisty ride on a Swiss bus (but that's included in the Travel Pass too if you absolutely, desperately need a long bus ride -- you can tell how I feel about that!).
As soon as the 2-car train pulls away from Vitznau and starts up the incline, the views begin to open up before you. Thank goodness for digital photography; you can easily take 200 pictures in 20 minutes and then sort through at a later date and discard all but the best, without paying for all that film as in the bad old days.
An awful example of what happens if you "forget" that you're on a rack railway and prop your camera on the windowsill for stability.
Eventually you reach the summit. You'll notice that Rigi is nowhere close to being as high as, say, the Gornergrat.
The word "Kulm" means "summit" -- think of the related English word, "culmination."
What makes the Rigi viewpoint so spectacular is that it's far taller than anything else close by, so there are splendid views in every direction. Downtown Luzern, on the zoom lens.
Pilatus, about fifteen kilometres away.
A panorama of the lake and mountains spreading out before you. And because you made yourself get up good and early, the sun is southeast of the mountain and thus is behind you as you photograph the best views.
When it's time to leave, make sure to get on the proper train. Hop on that blue train on platform 2 instead of the red train on Platform 1 and you'll find yourself in Arth-Goldau instead of Vitznau before you know what hit you (two different rack railways on the one mountain, remember?).
But not to worry -- Arth-Goldau is a major main-line railway station and you could very easily get back to Luzern by train from there. But speaking of back to Luzern, it's time to head back down the mountain and -- from the Vitznau station -- just a few steps to board the boat for the return trip.
Back in Luzern, there's time to grab a light lunch of a sandwich and drink before heading for the next boat to the southwest corner of the lake and Alpnachstad. Again, about a 75-minute voyage, but all new and different scenes to enjoy.
And then you come to the dock, walk through a tunnel under the railway tracks, and come up to the terminal of the Pilatus Bahn. This mountain line climbs far steeper grades than any other rack railway in the world. The secret is in the special rack designed by the line's engineer, Eduard Locher -- rather than a single cog wheel rotating vertically along a single toothed rail, the Pilatus rack uses two wheels mounted sideways on the two sides of the rack rail. This set-up, with the flanges under the cogwheels' teeth, makes it virtually impossible for the cogs to disengage and come loose from the rack rail.
The cars are built like those of a funicular, staircase fashion, due to the steep grades of the line. If one wonders why a funicular wasn't built, the technology of the day couldn't cope with the particularly sheer slopes of Pilatus since a funicular or rope-drawn car has to move along a fairly straight course with limited curves. The Pilatus cog line has a number of wickedly tight bends to keep the gradient down to a mere 48%! The cars travel singly, but with up to four cars each way at each departure time -- the all-important midpoint passing switch has room for a total of eight cars. Here's what it looks like at passing time.
As the track climbs higher on the mountain and gets above the tree line, you begin to see just what a challenge this horribly steep mountain posed to the builders (particularly in the second picture where the following train car is visible, with a zoom lens close-up at a different point on the track in the third pic).
The summit station perches on a saddle between the mountain's two main peaks. There's a pair of hotels, a cafeteria, a sit-down restaurant, a huge viewing deck, and the Drachengalerie (the "Dragon's Lair"). There's also the large cable car which comes up the north side of the mountain -- actually the topmost of a sequence of three separate cable cars which stretch up from the town of Kriens.
You can clearly see downtown Luzern at the left edge of this picture, and the sharp point of Rigi in the top centre -- and clearly see how much lower Rigi is (about 325 metres/1000 feet lower).
The sheer cliffs dropping down from the summit on two sides certainly helped me to understand why Eduard Locher's friends thought he was crazy when he said he would build a rack railway on this peak.
Speaking of those sheer cliffs, there's a long winding tunnel that's been bored through the rock wall of the north face, with multiple viewing windows cut through the rock on different angles. If you make it through the whole tunnel, in spite of the periodic loud clanging noises (which prove to be the exit gate) you will come out on this narrow cliffside walkway.
You can then either climb a staircase onto the trail to the higher summit, or walk through another shorter tunnel to the terrace of the hotel for a drink. Congratulations -- you've survived the dreaded Drachengalerie.
And with that, it's a good time to catch the next train back down the mountain, connecting onto the 15-minute commuter train ride from Alpnachstad to get back to Luzern in time for dinner. And there at last, on the walkway by the Kapellbrücke, my luck came back. For the first, and probably last, time on this trip to Switzerland, I found a person playing an alphorn.
That was definitely worth celebrating with a farewell selfie in front of that beautiful old bridge, just as the sun was setting.
Yes, it was a long, crazy day but the combination of fresh lake air and clear mountain air, in alternate doses, certainly blew away the cobwebs in my mind, so it was well worth it.
Oh yes, the total price -- thanks to the Swiss Travel Pass -- CHF36 for the half-price ticket on Pilatus. Everything else, except the food and drinks, was no-added-charge. I've more than gotten my money's worth out of that pass already, and I'm not even done yet.
But first, I have to leave Switzerland for a few days on a side trip to another country.
In two days at Luzern (Lucerne), I managed to walk around a fair bit of the old city as well as taking three voyages on the lake and riding on two iconic mountain-climbing railways. And the views were incredible!
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