Mount Titlis, Switzerland

The stunning view from Mount Titlis

We began our day by lunching at yet another pricy Swiss restaurant. We skipped breakfast because it’s just too much money! We made a quick shopping trip to the train station, and I bought an ugly sweater solely because I needed it and didn’t pack enough warm clothing. After buying our large diet cokes (in true American style), we were picked up a by a giant, very multicultural 2-story tour bus. The bus took us out to Mount Titlis (pr­­­onounced Tit-Less, go ahead and laugh now), which was a 1 hour drive away from Lucerne to the city of Engelberg.­­­­ On the way there, Rachel and I slept and my mom had anxiety about the heights she’d have to be dealing with.

Once we arrived, we took a gondola up the lower mountains. It was dangling rather precariously and I wasn’t the biggest fan of it myself. Once we arrived to a certain point, we all got out and got onto a revolving cable car. Each car held about 40 people, and it would spin while you were going up the mountain so that you could see all of the views. During this time, Maryann was flipping out. She stood in the middle with her eyes closed, it was pretty funny actually. While on the cable car, we started chatted with a solo traveler from our group named Yvonne. She’s from New York but was in Europe to visit her family in Slovakia. She was by herself, so we ended up spending the day with her. I hope she enjoyed the company! Once we arrived to the peak of the mountain, we were instantly walking on snow. It’s a bit strange to see snow in July, but I loved it!

Top of Mount Titlis

Standing on a glacier

 The first thing we decided to do was take a small chairlift called “The Ice Glider” that goes over a glacier. You could see deep down into the glacial crevasses, which was cool, but it was also a bit scary to be dangling over it. When we got to the bottom of the glacier they had sleds that you could ride down a portion of it. Rachel, Yvonne, and I did this, but it didn’t turn out so well. Our sleds sort of crashed so we ended up having snow all over us, and wet jeans are no fun. After that, we headed back up to the main terrace on the mountain peak and enjoyed the spectacular views. It was extremely beautiful, and very cool to see all of the glaciers and snow, but somehow I still enjoyed yesterday’s views better. Titlis was a bit too crowded with tourists and there wasn’t as much freedom in regards to where you could hike around. Don’t get me wrong though, it was still amazing!

My new Swiss Swatch!

Once our time at Titlis was up, we were back in downtown Lucerne. Us three ladies decided to go on a little shopping spree. Rachel and I ended up buying typical Swiss “Swatch” watches- I love mine!! Then, we walked around and explored the medieval portion of the city and the bridge built in 1490. The one thing about the bridge was that it had all of these paintings on the top panels, and each painting somehow had a skull incorporated into it. It was a bit creepy for sure. For dinner, we ate at Pickwick’s British Pub solely because it was “cheap-ish”. We got some of our beloved gelato and strolled the town at sunset. As the sun was going down, we said goodbye to this beautiful Swiss town.

Hanging out on a medieval bridge in Luzern

Vitznau & Mount Rigi

Cogwheel Train from Vitznau to Mount Rigi
First thing in the morning we went to the tourism office to book our tour for tomorrow, and the one for today. With our all-inclusive ticket we were ready to face the day! We went to the dock in Lucerne, and took another scenic boat ride to the city of Vitznau. From there, we took a cog-wheel train up the steep mountain track onto the stunning Mount Rigi. The top of the mountain is known as Rigi-Kulm, and as soon as we got off the train, we were greeted with its fantastic view. I didn’t think it could get prettier, but this view was possibly better than the one we had at Eagle’s Nest a few days ago.

On Top of the World!

After an expensive and small lunch on the mountaintop, we took the trail to the top of the mountain. I don’t really know how else to describe it other than to say it was AMAZING. The weather was perfect, and you could see for miles around. We were on top of the world! The cows grazing in the fields all had bells on and with the constant chiming and the wind and the mountains, it felt straight out of a story book. I was extra excited because I saw baby cows, and a baby sheep. Best thing ever. From our vantage point, we could see sights in France, Germany, and even  Liechtenstein. The snow covered peaks were the most gorgeous part though. We spent a long time just walking around on the top of the mountain, taking in the spectacular views. It was so peaceful up there, and not crowded at all like some summit points are.  After a few hours enjoying the beauty of the Alps, we took the train back down the too-steep hills, and back into Vitznau.

 

The boat ride back to Lucerne was again very scenic. Once back in town, we ate dinner at an Italian place called La Terrazza with a great view of the lake and the old bridges. The three of us ordered 2 pizzas,  bruschetta, and tap water, and our bill was $45. Also the whole time we were sitting there, there were tons of spiders behind me and I had no idea. Gross. We walked around the town some more and enjoyed the lively atmosphere. Though we didn’t necessarily have as busy of a day as usual, it was easily one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life, and the three of us ladies will always have this great memory of Mount Rigi.

Weggis, Switzerland

Boat ride to Weggis

We began the morning with a quest to find a cheap breakfast/lunch in Lucerne. As we came to realize, this was impossible. We thought that McDonald’s would be cheap, but it in fact was not. Not only was the food terrible, but it was extremely pricy ($15 a person for a normal value meal). The service was bad and they charge you extra money for a ketchup packet, and of course no refills. While we were eating our food, a massive group of Asian tourists came in. They are taking over the town lately, I swear! Haha. The poor workers were trying so hard to communicate but there was no common language, I felt bad for them all but it was definitely entertaining!

View on the Hike

Next up, we walked to the boat dock. For $35 we bought a roundtrip boat ticket that would take us from Lucerne to the lakeside town of Weggis. The boat ride to the town was about 45 minutes, and it was incredibly scenic. Once we arrived to the little town, we knew we had made a good choice. Weggis was beautiful and far less touristy than Luzern. There was a 100% chance of rain predicted for the day, but it never did rain. Since luck was on our side, we decided to take a nice Alpine hike. Being that we are girls in the Curtin family, the walking tour we thought we were doing didn't quite work out for us. We somehow went the wrong way, but it worked out for the best. The hike we accidentally went on ended up being more stunning than we would have thought. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and of course as soon as we saw an isolated field in the mountains, my Mom ran into the grass spinning around singing “The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music”. Yes, we were embarrassed, but at least nobody else was around!

Dying of allergies

During our hike in the hills of Weggis (pronounced Veg-Jees) we saw many quaint farms, Swiss chalets, and of course some great mountain and lake views. The only downside to all of this was that my allergy to pine started really kicking in. I was sniffling like crazy and could barely breathe by the end of the hike. Once we got back into the center of town, we had dessert for dinner at a little café on the lakeside. After that we took the boat back to Lucerne. On the ride back, we had a perfect view of Mount Pilatus, one of the tallest mountains in the Alps.

Back in Lucerne, we walked around the food stalls of the “Blue Balls Festival” again. The food was so darn pricy, I can’t get over it! Maryann and I decided to be American and order a hotdog and fries (only $15 but the ketchup was free!). We thought, you can’t really mess that one up, but somehow they did, haha. My Mom was like “umm.. do I get a bun?” and they said “yes, $2 extra.” I asked for a plate to carry it on, and they said “yes, for $2 extra”. Unbelievable.

Rachel in front of Mount Pilatus

Anyways, since my Mom came to Lucerne in her twenties, she wanted Rachel and I to relive her journey. We ended up roaming around this random old hotel while Mare tried to decide if it was the same one she stayed in. Next, we went grocery shopping in the train station. There I tried to find some medicine for my allergies, which were killing me. I didn’t know how to say what was wrong with me in German, so I just pointed at my face with a tissue- she understood. The pills she gave me where labeled “Rhinitin Retard”, and she referred to them as the “retard pills”. Try to control your laughter.

Lakeside town of Weggis

Salzburg to Zurich to Luzern

We woke up at 5:45 AM this morning, and took a taxi to the train station. Once there, we ate our typical plain croissant for breakfast at the usual place, Le Crobag. At 8AM, we got on the train that would take us away from beautiful Austria. While we were struggling to find our seats, a young girl approached and asked if she could help. Being the friendly ladies that we are, we started up a conversation with her. She ended up being so chatty that she sat with us in our 4-seater compartment and talked to us during our whole train ride. Her name is Marlen and she’s from a town that sits on one of the lakes near Mondsee. She is a 21 year old sailor and spoke really great English. We learned a lot from her about life in Austria, and after 3 hours of chatting, we really felt like we knew her. When our train ride ended, we swapped info with her and said goodbye. We then arrived at our destination of Zurich, Switzerland!

Welcome to Switzerland - Here's your bed.

Once in the Zurich train station, we had ten minutes to find our connecting train. Running through the place with all of our luggage, we somehow found the train to Luzern. Shortly thereafter, we arrived! First stop: ATM (unfortunately), second stop: Tourism Office. We stocked up on brochures so we can keep up our “planning the trip ourselves as we go” thing. We hailed a cab outside and took the 3 minute ride to Hotel Schlüssel. Our cab driver charged us 16 swiss francs, which is basically equivalent to $15.75- such a rip off!! When we got to the hotel and checked in, they said they didn’t see our note about needing three beds. Since all the other rooms were booked, all they could offer us was literally a mattress on the ground. Naturally, we gave this to Rachel.

The Medieval Bridge - Trademark of Luzern

Mad about the Prices

Next up: Explore the area around us! Lucerne is a beautiful old town centered around the gorgeous, swan-filled Lake Lucerne, nestled at the bottom of the Swiss Alps. One of the trademarks of the city are its many medieval-era covered bridges, as well as the intricate renaissance era paintings that are on some of the old buildings and bridges in town. It really is a gorgeous city. However, despite the picturesque, quaint beauty of the town of Lucerne (or Luzern as it’s called in Switzerland), what we came to realize is that everything there is ridiculously, beyond all explanation, EXPENSIVE. It really put a damper on the whole vibe of the town. I’m not sure if it’s like that throughout the whole country, or just because it’s a tourist destination, but either way… it was ridiculous.

We decided to have dinner by the lake in the old part of town. While yes we had a nice view, we spent way too much money on a below average dinner. Rachel ordered a small portion of pasta, and it cost her 22 francs (just as an example). In addition, the service there was incredibly slow. It took us thirty minutes to get a menu after sitting down, and then we didn’t get our drinks until after our food was brought out. Free refills on drinks or bread to munch on while you wait are basically nonexistent in Europe.  Also despite the overly relaxed service, tipping is still expected (though only 10% luckily). Needless to say, I was mad at the whole dinner experience. My expectations weren’t that high but they didn’t even meet that. 

Swans on Lake Lucerne

We decided to end the night by strolling around the outdoor stalls and window shop a bit. As we explored, we made up our way up to a huge street festival going on. There were booths with food from all over the world, it looked delicious but the only thing we could afford was a small scoop of 5 franc ice-cream. Also, the festival was called "The Blue Balls Festival"- no idea why, but I got a little laugh out of it. As we walked beyond the festival, we got to a park with tons of beautiful flowers and some statues. After watching Rachel nearly fall trying to climb a statue of a horse, we decided to head back. On the walk to the hotel, we contemplated scaring some of the gigantic swans that are everywhere, but decided they are in face far too terrifying. So, in sum, despite the annoying prices and crappy service, it  really is a beautiful little town!