Playing on Pilatus

Saturday morning was even more beautiful than Friday, and we were headed to the Alps.  If I understand the geography, these would be the Central Alps or what the Swiss call the Urner or Uri Alps.  We had hoped to take "The Golden Round Trip" to Mt. Pilatus.  It's a day excursion where you travel by lake steamer to Alpnachstad and then ride the world's steepest cogwheel railway to the top (7,000 feet), and then come back down in a series of cable cars to catch a bus back to Luzern.  For you westerners, 7,000 feet doesn't sound like much, but remember this is above sea level and the town of Lucerne sits at about 1,600-1,700 feet above sea level.  In other words, these beautiful mountains just kind of shoot straight up!  Anyway, we found that the railway was not open until May, so we settled for the next best thing---a bus trip to Kriens, a little walk, and then a ride by aerial cableway and panorama gondolas to catch the spectacular views and back down again!

Sidenotes:  Pilatus has several legends associated with it.  It was once believed that dragons lived there (hence, the dragon mascot everywhere)!  According to another legend, the body of Pontius Pilate was thrown into a lake on the mountain, and his spirit continues to haunt its heights, unleashing violent storms.

So...on our walk from the bus stop to the cableway, I spotted this beauty (and hey, you should see all the churches I haven't taken pictures of---you'd be proud.  I AM showing some constraint!):



This is what the view of the village looked like:



Then we boarded a gondola or cablecar that looked like this:



And we started to get views like this:





See my church below??

 And then we got views like these:

First of all, we got to ride up in our own little car.  We chose to sit so that we could see looking down.  If you turned and looked forward, it would look like you were coming to the top of a mountain, only to have it open up into a valley or small plateau where there would be homes, farms and even small roads, and the another summit would loom up in front of you!  There was a mid-way station on this ride, but unless you lived near there or chose to hike, etc., you stayed on the cableway.  At another midway station, this one pretty much at the top of the tree line, we got off our cute little cable car and got into a bigger one with standing room only, with a zillion others (packed like sardines), that looked like this:

Yes, we got to ride in THAT on THESE:

And may I just add that when we got to the top of that ridge that is shadowed and looks dark, we came up over the top and there was NOTHING but sheer drop underneath you!  It was nature's own little way of providing one super thrill ride.  There was a very audible gasp, okay, louder than a gasp, that couldn't have been orchestrated any better!  Then it was on up to the top, and these were the kind of things we could see:

The hotel at the top was undergoing some renovation---ugly evidence of construction everywhere, but, oh what a view, off to the left!



Evidence that we really were there!  We had a cute Oriental lady take a picture of both of us here.  She must have moved the zoom because the whole frame was full of our faces---not post worthy!!!



There were some fun things going on while we were up there:



And I thought it was weird for girls to wear flip flops during the winter in Houston!!  Sorry, I didn't get both of his feet, but I was trying to do this with my zoom set and my camera just hanging down by my leg.  I didn't want to embarass him.

There were two observation points that had to be accessed by a series of stairs and pathways. As you can see, there was snow and ice up there. I couldn't resist. This is my half-hearted attempt to get DJ with a snowball (left-handed, no less) and to catch a photo of it at the same time with my right hand---all the time acting non-chalant. Okay, so I didn't have time to really pack the snowball, I throw like a girl, and it started to disintegrate in mid-air. He got the idea, and then I got this:



Looking off to one side of the summit, just below the hotel, we could see some hang-gliders getting ready to take off, and they did, right before our eyes!  They took a few running steps, and flew like birds! 

When we visited Interlaken, three years ago, I added Tandem Hang Gliding to my "Bucket List".  After seeing these guys and a third glider with tantem riders take off over these craggy peaks, I'm not so sure....



We watched this guy, who was using snow shoes, go up the face of the cliff from which the hang gliders took off.  It was such a steep climb that he would go a few steps and have to rest.  This shot is using my zoom as far as it would go, he was way down there, and you don't get the idea of how steep it was either!



After a while, though we wished that there would have been more places to just "hang out" up there, we decided to catch the next gondola back down to the station where we had to switch to the small cable cars.  There was a restaurant there as well, so we grabbed a true Swiss lunch---bratwurst and Roschti or Rosti (a shredded potato dish).  I even took a picture to prove that we eat such things and don't always go to McDonalds, American steakhouses, and French Restaurants!



You can tell what a nice day it was---people in shirt sleeves in some cases!



Right next to the restaurant was a ropes course, and we had fun watching while we ate:

Then it was back down in the small gondola.  We caught a few shots going down:

We had thoroughly enjoyed our day.  A walk back to the bus stop, a 15-minute ride back to Luzern, and a walk back to our hotel were next on the agenda.  Then, we took a long NAP! 

At 6:00 p.m., we were fortunate to catch the world-wide broadcast of our church's General Conference on the internet---full screen, just like a little TV.  We got a bite to eat in between sessions and snuck in a walk and another small ice cream cone.  10:00 p.m. here brought us the 2:00 p.m. session from Salt Lake City.  I never dreamed that I would be up watching conference at midnight, but hopefully it won't be the last time.  I would love to share some of my feelings about what we heard, but will save that for another post!

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we headed for home.  Another beautiful day, another enjoyable ride, two more wonderful sessions of conference after we got here.  As I posted on FB, after enjoying the beauty of this world on Saturday, I am ever more convinced of  Heavenly Father's infinite love.  Under his direction, He had the Savior create such a spectacular place for us to dwell.  After listening to conference, I am equally impressed that the reason we have such wonderful prophets, apostles, and general church leaders is because Heavenly Father loves us.  He wants us back.  He's doing everything he can to help that happen; but he won't make it happen, because he knows how necessary it is for us to have agency, to be able to choose for ourselves.  We have the option to follow the counsel of these wonderful leaders and then DO wonderful things that will in turn help us BE the kind of people we ought to BE.