Adventures of a Wandering Thirtysomething: Expensive but excellent

Expensive but excellent

Posted by Christina | | Posted On Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 2:03 PM

Switzerland is awesome! Yes, they rape you every time you attempt to eat, but consider it an opportunity to lose 5 pounds and enjoy the scenery as you starve yourself skinny.

As our one chance to experience the Alps, we set off early this morning on a day long adventure to Mt. Pilatus. We began with a 90 minute boat cruise around Lake Lucerne, taking in the beautiful, though clouded views of the mountains and the picturesque chalets dotting the lake front. After our relaxing ride, we piled into a cogwheel train that, at a 48 degree incline, took us nearly to the top of Mt. Pilatus. Along the way we passed through dense forests, over rocky cliffs, and by grasslands ringing with the sounds of cow bells. Although our photos do not do it justice, imagine every postcard you’ve ever seen of the mountainous countryside of Switzerland, Germany or Austria – we saw the postcard in person. A 40 minute hike from the cogwheel drop spot placed us directly on the 7,000 foot summit of Mt. Pilatus, overlooking the peaks and hills of the beautiful Alps. Amazing!

The next big thrill was the gondola ride from summit to the base camp at 4,650 feet. Most don’t know this, but I have a slight fear of heights. Not enough to stop me from doing anything, but enough to make Matt laugh at how much I tense up and cling to whoever is next to me when I’m nervous. Well, the gondola ride freaked me out. It looked fun at first as I peered out the window, but then we got going. Up over the gears we went and then the drop, a bit like that feeling you get on a rollercoaster, looking straight down at my death. I backed off that window fast and closed my eyes. So much for enjoying the view. Matt loved the gondola, of course, and had a good laugh at my expense. It really was cool, and a huge upgrade from that thing they call a gondola over Spokane falls, but there are definitely no plans in the works to do that again.

After a delicious, non-Italian (thank God) lunch in the mountains, we skipped on over to Switzerland’s longest luge ride to buzz down the mountainside. I was rather cautious, not wanting to flip the dang thing over and go sliding on my face down the hill. But Matt, of course, had to go as he says, “balls to the wall” and, at more than double my size meaning double the force and double the speed, had to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting me on the way down. It’s just like a guy to completely blow off some good clean fun for a chance at testing the laws of physics. Although now that I’ve got it down, I plan to go boobs to the wall when we luge in Germany. Matt’s balls don’t stand a chance!

Thank goodness for our wallets, but certainly not our hearts, we are leaving Switzerland tomorrow for Germany. We anticipate much beer and lederhosen and can’t wait.

Here’s our photos from Day 15 – VerHeuls Do Lucerne: