Lucerne and Mt Pilatus

Having settled into our hotel in Lucerne, we made our way out to find something for dinner. 

On the way we crossed over the old covered bridge with the painted medieval panels. This made me very sad, as I had seen the bridge back in 1990, but since then a major fire had destroyed much of the old bridge. The bridge had been rebuilt, of course, but much of the artwork has been lost.

Lucerne's covered bridge and water tower

One of the remaining panels

And another

Remains of a scorced one

Inside the bridge, with the panels overhead

We settled down for dinner in the Rathaus Brauerie alongside the river, and Andy did his usual facebook check-in, saying that we were in Lucerne.  Minutes later he got a facebook message from friends of ours who had also been touring around Europe saying that they were also in Lucerne, about 5 minutes away on a the other side of the river. We were sitting at a table for 4, so naturally said they should join us. We all had a very enjoyable evening, which wouldn't have happened if we'd been able to find accommodation in Altdorf as originally planned.

The restaurant location by the river

Our friends, Sarah and Louise

Next morning we had a better look around Lucerne.

We woke up to this view of the lake

We wandered around looking at the painted murals on many of the buildings and interesting fountains.

Along the river

Along the river

Ornamental water fountain

Painted building

Another painted building

Yet another painted building

Then went up to see the Lion Monument.  It is a sculpture of a dying lion carved into the cliff which commemorates the members of the Swiss Guard who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution.

After that we went to see the Glacier Garden, which is located right next to the monument. It is a showcase for some glacial potholes, created  during the last ice age when Lucerne was covered with glaciers. Sand and small stones were ground around by the movement of the glacier, creating great holes in the rock. It was discovered by accident in 1872 when the land owner was building a wine cellar on the site.

The Glacier Garden

The deepest pot hole

Glacier Garden

 At about midday we left Lucerne and headed off to Alpnachstad, where the rack railway goes up to the top of Mt Pilatus. It is the steepest rack railway in the world, with a maxiumum gradient of 48%. It was originally opened in 1889, and is the second highest railway in Central Switzerland.

The heat was stiffling, and when we bought our tickets we had about an hour and a half to wait until our allocated time. We found the only place we could where we didn't have to sit outside in the heat and blazing sun and had some lunch. Eventually it was time to queue up for the train. We boarded and then headed up the mountain.

Going up, passing a carriage coming down

I have to say, this was my least favourite mountain top (though the scenery on the way up was very impressive). There were enormous crowds, and the areas is dominated by an (in my opinion) ugly 1950s visitor centre and hotel.  There is a much more attractive older hotel,  but you kept seeing the horrible one. Also, the "view" back down where we had come from was not as impressive as other views, because you could only see a short distance.

View on the way up

View on the way up

View on the way up

Old hotel at the top

View from the top - not as impressive as others

View down the other side

Old Hotel

New hotel and visitors' centre

Lovely hut on the way down

Look at all the wild flowers

After we came back down, it was time to go off and find some accommodation.

Into Switzerland

We had our breakfast in our Austrian Gasthof, retraced our steps back down the valley and headed off westward towards  Liechtenstein.

Mountain stream

Fields at the head of the valley

We decided to go to Switzerland via Liechtenstein, despite the fact that I had been to Liechtenstein before, and knew it wasn't very exciting. It's two biggest sources of income are postage stamps and false teeth.  Says it all, really. But Andy hadn't been there and wanted to see it. 

We looked at a couple of restaurants for lunch and thought the prices looked a bit steep, and then suddenly thought that these prices might not be in Euros. We hadn't even thought about getting any Swiss Francs, even though it was always part of the plan to go into Switzerland. We asked a Kiwi that we saw near an ATM to confirm our suspicion about the currency, and then got out some Francs.

Scloss Vaduz, Liechtenstein's Castle

After lunch we drove through some glorious countryside - picture book stuff with cows, wildflowers and a beautiful mountain backdrop, and then the road started climbing up to get over those mountains. 

It was a lovely day, and so lots of people were out enjoying it. There were families picnicing, people in open-topped convertibles and lots of bikers. The route up was full of hair-pin bends and spectacular scenery. 

View back down the valley

The Hotel at the top of the Klausen Pass

Looking down the other side from the top of the pass

After reaching the top of the pass we headed down the other side. This side had fewer hairpin bends,   but there was often a sheer drop off on one side.

Looking back up at a section of the road

The road down

Road hugging the cliff

Cliff side cut away to leave room for road

We were driving along, a little way behind a couple of cars. A motorcyclist overtook us.  We didn't pay him any more attention as the road was demanding all the attention we had.  We came around a blind bend and saw the car in front of us pull up behind the car in front of him. I thought to myself 'why on earth are they stopping there' followed quickly by 'why one earth is that woman getting out of the passenger seat [of the car in the very front] - have they had a row? No, she's walking over to the edge ... is she motion-sick after all those bends? No, she just looked down and then looked paniced....'. Cog wheels started turning rapidly in my head. "Has someone gone over the edge? I asked Andy.  He got out to check.  He called back that a motorcyclist had gone over.

Andy had stopped hard up against the rock face making it impossible to get out of the passenger side, so I climbed over the gear stick and handbrake to get out. I looked over the side and sure enough, 40 or 50 metres down was the biker, with his bike about 3 metres away from him. He was in long grass, which would have softened his fall, and was moving. I couldn't understand where he had gone over, because there was no gap in the safety barrier, and no break in it either. I then noticed someone else in the grass, they appeared to be falling down, but then I realized they were sliding as they had slipped rushing to get to the biker. A couple of minutes later another person followed.

When I first got out I asked Andy if anyone had called an ambulance.  He said that he had seen people doing that. I'll confess I was relieved, as I didn't think my German was up to giving the emergency services all the information they needed. Nonetheless several minutes later someone came up to us asking if anyone had called an ambulance.  Turns out this was the woman from the first car. She said the motorcyclist had overtaken them and then was going to fast when he came to a bend in the road, skidded while trying to break, and subsequently went over the edge.

Once it was determined that there was nothing we could do, we decided we may as well leave. About 10 minutes later two police cars passed us going back up the mountain,  but it wasn't for another 20 minutes that an ambulance passed us.

When we finally reached the bottom of the alps, I had thought we would stay in Altdorf, of William Tell fame, but we couldn't find anywhere to stay. We tried a few other places, but by this time we were really tired and stressed and made it to Lucerne (which is the other end of the lake from where we had started looking) and just found a comfortable chain hotel (Renaissance Blu) and checked in. 

After having breakfast in Austria and lunch in Liechtenstein, we settled down for dinner in Lucerne, and that is the start of another story ...

The Konigsschlosser

We left Innsbruck reluctantly, as we found it so beautiful with its mountain surroundings.  The aim for today was Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau - two of the palaces associated with King Ludwig II of Bavaria, which are located just over the border in Germany.

It was already quite warm when we arrived there about 11:15, and the day just kept getting hotter and hotter (when we got back to the car just after 5pm, the SatNav said it was 36 degrees outside - and a lot more in the car!).

We first visited Hohenschwangau,  which is where Ludwig grew up. Then we we had lunch, followed by a visit to Neuschwanstein.   We had been to both these castles back in November 1991, and a lot had changed.  Most obvious was that at that time there was snow all around, and the trees were all bare, but were covered in leaves now. But not so predictable was that you now had to buy the tickets down in the valley below the castles before visiting them, and you were allocated a particular time to view each castle,  based on the language in which you wanted your guided tour to be conducted. 

Hohenschwangau

Hohenschwangau

It had nearly killed me climbing up to Hohenschwangau owing to the combination of the heat and asthma, so when the time came to face the 40 minute climb up to Neuschwanstein I declared that I wasn't going to do it. There were horses and carriages that could have taken us part of the way up, but the best option appeared to be catching a bus which left us with a mostly level walk to the castle.  What we didn't realise was that the entire population of Yokohama would be crowded onto the same bus as us. I am sure it was quite unsafe having so many people in the one bus.

Once inside Neuschwanstein I found it every bit as breathtaking as I had 23 years ago. Sadly, they still did not allow photos inside. They had opened up more of Neuschwanstein since we were there, including some of the unfinished rooms which had been converted into a cafe and gift shops.

Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein perched up on Swan Rock

Then we had to try and find somewhere to stay.  What we didn't realise was that it was a long weekend,  and most places were totally full. It was a long time after we had crossed back into Austria before we found somewhere to stay, but it was another of those wonderful finds. The Hotel Alpenrose was at the end of a long dead end road, so was quiet, and had more fantastic mountain views. Dinner in their restaurant was a tasty and enjoyable experience.  And even more surprising,  no one there could speak any English,  so I had to converse the entire time in German,  which I managed without trouble. They understood me and I understood them. It seems my German is better than I realised - it just came naturally.  I guess that's the legacy of living for 9 months in Munich.

Gasthof Alpenrose

The valley leading to the Alpenrose

Mountain view from our room

The dining room

The moon rising over the mountains

Fields of wildflowers

Wildflowers everywhere