Day 26 - TT European Whirl (Day 9) - Lucerne

We got to sleep in this morning!  No wake up call until 6:45!

 

Then we wer edown to breakfast and on the bus at 8:15 for an orientation tour of
Lucerne.

 

I had been told before we came that the lion monument in Lucerne was a must see but I had no idea just how awesome it would be.  That this was carved out of a solid rock is amazing but the detail is just simply beautiful.

 

If you get the chance you have to go see it.

 After a drive around town we headed to the lake front for  a boat trip across the lake - unfortunately the morning fog hadn't completely lifted so some of the pics aren't the clearest but we got to see some beautiful views of the towns along the waterfront and the castles overlooking them.

 From there we headed to the cog railway to go up Mt Pilatus.  You travel up the mountain on this cog-wheel system.  It takes about 30 minutes to travel up the 2100m.  The views as you climb as gorgeous.

 But then we got to the top of the mountain and wow!  So many views in every direction.  There are also lots of great walking tracks to viewing platforms.  Kyle loved the dragon trail which follwed along the path of the legends of the dragons that lived on Mt Pilatus.

 To get down from the mountain first we all crammed into a big cable car.  It was basically like a big crowded lift by the time we all got in and took a 5 minute trip down to the next stop.
Thn we broke up into groups of 3 or 4 and got in smaller cable cars for the 10 minute trip back down to the bottom of the mountain.

After this we had free time in Lucerne.  A whole afternoon for free sightseeing, shopping, exploring etc.  How wonderful this was.  We did some souvenir shopping and (of course) bought some chocolate.  The prices in Lucerne are VERY VERY expensive! 

We explored the chapel bridge and the water tower.  They were just as gorgeous as I had hoped they would be.  I had hoped to do the walk along the waterfront up to the next wodden bridge and through the old town but Tasha had had enough of wlaking and was in such a bad mood that I decided it was easier just to head back up to the motel.

We had a quiet time of a couple of hours at the motel before heading down to the lobby for dinner with all of our tour mates.  It was a very basic meal but considering the prices in Switzerland it was good to have an included dinner.

Todays tally:
Steps:  11598
Number of men who panicked in the cable car: 3
Cowbells we saw for sale:  1000's