Monday 25th August - Lucerne.

Caught an early ferry from Lucerne along the lake to a village at the end of the lake, past some magnificent scenery - of course!

We then got on a little Cogwheel train - apparently the steepest and longest in the world - and had a stunning ride up to Pilatus - a mountain some 6,900 feet high.    WOW....   The scenery was amazing, and the experience was unforgettable, and when we got to the top of the mountain, we stopped for an hour or so, just gazing in awe at what was before us.   In the near distance were snow-capped mountains, and between them and us, was a stunning, emerald-green valley, and closer to us more craggy, rocky hills.  There were (surprisingly) quite a lot of cows grazing below, and all have cow-bells around their necks, so there is a constant ringing of bells - which it seemed to our ears, are tuned to different notes...   Gorgeous......  God knows how the farmer would summon his girls home, but at least he would be able to hear where they were - perhaps they're trained to answer some sort of call which relates to the offer of food, and they obediently hurry down the mountain....

We then walked past the hotel which stands a hundred or so feet below the summit of the mountain, and there is a narrow path (fenced, happily) which runs a further kilometre or so along the mountain - called the flower trail.  Hundreds of small alpine loving flowering plants have been planted along this path, and it's truly lovely to walk the path.  Slightly differing views as you go along, and we just sat for about 20 minutes at one stage, trying to absorb the stunning outlook, convinced that we were totally alone at the top of the world.....

We were actually up IN the clouds for a while, and behind us the view was totally obscured by cloud.

Returned to sit in the warm, gazing at the views for a while, and then began the journey down the mountain.

Firstly we were jammed (25 or so)  into a large cable car for a short ride, before being transferred to our own cozy little gondolas (2 people per gondola) for the trip down to the bottom of the mountain. We'd timed our trip perfectly as it had begun to rain just as we reached the bottom, although it did stop shortly after.  When we emerged on Lower Earth(!) we realized just how cold it had been on the summit - suddenly the day seemed positively balmy!

I will try to download some photo's to include soon...........

Finally found some Lindt Chocolates which had not travelled half way around the world to me(!), and I plan to savour them - only one a day - I promise!!!!!