The Ireland, Italy, and Geneva Interrail adventure is just a memory, but the reality is it’s only a fortnight ago. I flew from Geneva to Ibiza to attend the wonderful Costa Music festival then I’ve been home for a week and fitted in a magnificent walk on the North Yorks Moors on a glorious blue sky day with lifelong friends who are a pleasure to be with.
Millie is doing well since the death of her lifelong friend Bruno, but she’s 14 now and it’s a big age for a dog so she still requires a little bit of extra love and care. My daughter, who has been visiting most days, assures me that she’s got her ‘wag’ back and Tom has been giving her extra walks to keep her occupied. She certainly seems to be coping well with the sudden void.
I also had the joy of a secret surprise meeting at granddaughter Harley’s school. She didn’t know so the excitement was a thrill. Even more joy sharing a gorgeous time with her and her mum in the Garden Center cafe. The drink may have involved something sweet but hey, you can wind grandkids up then give ‘em back ?. The tornado of fun that followed was case in point.
All of this was capped with a BBQ with my daughter and son-in-law in London with a bonus of special hugs from my grandsons.
I’m now getting a personal lift to Gatwick Airport and it all goes like clockwork which is a good preamble for a visit to Switzerland.
It’s a loop journey starting and ending in Geneva over three or four days depending on thunder storms but today is about Geneva.
Walking, Riding and Floating around Geneva
I drop my rucksack off at Rudina’s apartment and catch the number 5 into the city centre followed by a walk around the water area then spot a water taxi and note my bus ticket covers me for water taxis so I jump on board.
At this point I have no idea where it’s going but work on the principle that it’s going to be scenic wherever it goes…
At some point today or tonight my intention is to go to a big water spout that I’d spotted a fortnight ago when I was being chaperoned to ensure my safety.
It has a story that I’ve dug out of T’internet:-
Jet d’Eau
Jet d’Eau is one of the tallest fountain in the world. Originally, in 1886 they built the fountain to control and release the excess pressure of a hydraulic plant at La Coulouvrenière. Shortly it became remarkable symbol of the city and so it was amplified and relocated to the center of the Lake.
…going back to my water taxi. It casts off and turns around in a huge sweep that takes in most of the bay then heads towards the bridge that I’d just crossed and, as if by magic, we emerge in the bay with the water spout and he’s heading to a landing stage not far from it. In fact if it had been any closer we would have needed our ‘big coats’ on. As it is were rendered slightly moist from the spray but everyone is delighted and the good spirits manifest in laughter and feigned indignation as the young women in the boat huddle under their boyfriend’s coats.
I do the full loop and end up at the landing stage where I got on and enjoy the rest of the evening admiring the early spring wallflowers (Mary loved wallflowers and they’re abundant in planters around the city)
The weather remains good so it’s fingers crossed now for the rest of the week.
Postcard 2 – Luzern
The weather forecast could be better but the morning seems promising so I’ve been on the app and booked tickets to Luzern. It’s the 9:15 change at Orten and only 8 minutes to get the connection but that’s two hours away so no need to worry now. The number 5 drops me at the railway station and I’m ready for an oat latte.
Since I became lactose intolerant it’s been a bit of a test in the different countries who would allow me to be ‘intolerated’ and who would look out for me. Spain comes out best followed by Switzerland, Italy and UK but USA is appalling, They don’t give a shit, if you’ll pardon the pun, provided they can make the sale.
Anyway, the guy asks me if I really want the oat because he has lactose free proper milk. I tell him he’s a star and accept the ‘treat’ with gratitude. It’s time to sit outside and watch the city begin its wake-up ritual. People-watching whilst sitting in the sun with no expectations of spreadsheets and numbers is a pleasure and watching the individuals scurrying about their business makes me appreciate this lack of pressure even more.
It’s ten-to-nine so I decide on a quick recce of the trains and platforms as some of these stations are vast and as I check the monitors I see a more local train that’s going direct to Luzern and whilst it stops a few times, there’s no changes so I drift up to the platform to check on its occupancy.
It’s a double decker! That get’s a big tick in the box. It’s only got a half dozen passengers in the carriage so there’s a bonus tick and I jump on and turn off my ticket for the later train (but keep it on the app just in case).
I then trigger the new one for this train hoping for zero hassle with the conductor as I hadn’t done this on Swiss trains so I’m not sure of its acceptability. Because of the speed of the decision to change the route I hadn’t mapped the journey. This is a schoolboy error as I take a seat on the less interesting side and ten-minutes in I realise. On this train which has plenty of spare seats it’s not an issue but I lay the experience down in my head for later use when there may be fewer seats.
The lake is on the right and, generally speaking, the water side of the carriage is the one to be. There are mountains on the left but I’lll get plenty of them later.
The top deck of the carriage has a play area for children complete with ladder to a little deck area and a pretend boat with one or two other devices to keep them amused. There are no kids on today so they’re not in use but what a great idea!
As we travel deeper into this part of Switzerland we gain elevation and the French language becomes less prevalent.
The fields are becoming more meadow like. They’re very reminiscent of the the beautiful meadows in upper Swaledale which are now a protected world heritage site and a controlled proportion is removed to re-establish them in other parts of the country, they could and may-well do that here. When I was at junior school Miss Wise would read us a story last thing in the day. She read a chapter at a time and we were never in a hurry to leave. It was Heidi and the meadows here are exactly how I remember them being described as Peter brought the goats to the higher pastures in spring.
A new passenger, a lady with the little one becomes more noticeable as she sings wonderful nursery rhymes in German to her child and I know every tune and there English words but not sure if they match – I bet they do!
I’ve noticed that most Swiss have four official languages. Depending on the region they have French, German, Italian and Romansch which is derived from Latin; however, where there is any difficulty they resort to English which is not an official language but surprisingly widely spoken.
We leave Zofingam for Luzern and, although the carriage is sparsely populated, the conversations are now wholly in German.
This country is incredibly diverse but there appears to be little friction, I love it.
The journey is a treat and whilst it’s not yet in the Golden Ticket category, as a means of getting there, it’s faultless.
There’s another treat when I go up the mountain but I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.
Postcard 3 – Luzern, Kriens, Pilatus Kulm, Oberhaupt and Hergiswil
The train drops us smoothly into the centre of Luzern (if you’re looking it up try Lucerne) and I make my way out of the station looking for a Tourist Information Office and bingo, as usual, perfectly placed. I peruse the racks looking for cable cars and rack trains and find two in no time. The leaflets are both in English and contain detailed instructions on how to get there. However, in a fit of wisdom, I decide to ask about the weather and the two shortlisted trips. The lady is helpful beyond call and assesses the current weather with a quick check on her computer and responds with a question coupled with a serious look on her face, “When would you like to do these trips?” I answer by saying I need to be back in Geneva by Friday and she shakes her head.
“You will be able to do one of them and I suggest this because you can be at the base of the cable car in forty minutes”, she continued, “…it is now noon”
I agree and ask about hotels, they’re usually good at that.
“Hotels will wait, it isn’t yet the tourist season, you need to go now and be back down by five o’clock this afternoon when it will rain very hard”, she gestures with her hands the intensity of the rain as if she is talking to a child, she’s not being condescending, just wanting to emphasise the storm expected. I ask about my rucksack on cable cars and she tells me it’s fine so over the road I go looking for the number 1 bus to Kriel.
I’m grasping my one day travel card bought as part of the package but nobody asks. I’m also watching the monitor for telltale evidence of being where I need to be and nearly come unstuck as Pilatustrade is indicated as the next stop and we’ve only been travelling five minutes so I ask in a voice loud enough for the immediate area, “Pilatus cable car” and add the upwards inflection to turn it into a question as is the practice in Europe (Australians think on!).
There’s lots of German accented “Nos” and “Neins” and two locals who point at my iPhone map showing me where to alight all done without English and with warmness and charm – I like people that travel on buses!
It’s a minor walk from where I leave the bus and it’s all up but well signed and I note that other people who are intent on this trip are also carrying rucksacks of various sizes but I don’t think theirs have all their worldly goods in them.
At the cable car station my pass needs to be magically turned into something the gate can read so a QR code is produced by a lovely lady who is standing by for anyone who doesn’t have the requisite ticket (or looks old) not sure of my category but the next thing I know is I’m on.
It’s a four seater and the family before me and after me are composed of four so I get one to myself which means I can wriggle about a bit with my camera – result.
I reach the cable car station in less than ten minutes which is a surprise. The views thus far have been spectacular as I look down on Lake Lucerne and its towns. The vista is fabulous but further away they turn hazy as the Alps are cloaked in thick intimidating cloud that are a photographers delight so I get off. The attendant at the station looks surprised and gestures for me to return to the gondola. I’m a little confused until I realise that this is an intermediate stop where people can alight and walk either down or up the mountain on well maintained paths – well they are going down!
I jump back in and ten minutes later after I’ve been suspended in cloud that intermittently thins to reveal fabulous views each time higher and each time more dramatic. I love this.
At the top (which turns out not to be the top) there’s a restaurant where a well anticipated coffee is enjoyed looking out over the cliffs, cloud, lake and mountains and it’s still warm.
I spend half an hour looking at the facilities that the Swiss provide. There are zip wires, tree walks, chair lifts through the forests and even an all year tobogán run, then I discover I’m only half way up and the next leg is the “Dragon Ride”.
The Dragon Run has been completely shrouded in the thick cloud (or maybe it just breathed out) and I notice its existence by virtue of a sinister dark shape actually moving in the cloud, it’s heading down at a fair rate and it’s almost vertical. I can get closer to it by virtue of a path and discover the cable car to the summit actually runs every fifteen minutes from a different part of the building where I’d arrived half-an-hour ago.
So the summit it is then.
The Dragon Ride in heavy cloud is not challenging although we are assisted in our understanding by an American lady who’s done this before. She assures the whole gondola that, “On a clear day you can see clear down the revine and it can ‘render you shitless…” Sooo, I’m doing a bit of mental arithmetic, a dozen people on a gondola this size could be alarmingly productive – I’m glad it’s cloudy!
At the top there is a Hotel and a couple of places to eat and snow!
I spend some time taking snaps and looking down the rack-railway line that’s being trialed ready for full use in early June. Apparently it’s been the victim of late snow so the summer start time has been put back three weeks. There are also some steps to the summit of this peak. It’s a bit of a stretch as the air is thin but I do it for completeness.
There’s the inevitable cross up there, this one is about ten feet high and made of metal with lots of covid masks wrapped around one of its support wires. I think of them as metaphors for good and evil and, rather than looking bad, I find them a symbol of hope and togetherness for the future.
I make my way back to the reception area of the cable car and do a quick TripAdvisor run for hotels in Hergiswil and get a result that requires a bit of detective work to ensure it isn’t a ruse. It’s got a jacuzzi, heated pool and hot tub and they’re doing a deal with breakfast for 98 Swiss Francs (about £90) and it overlooks the lake and it has 4.8 on it’s reviews. It’s so good I decide to wait until I’m in a position to see it and risk loosing it.
The cable car going down seems to take forever as I think of the hotel on the lakeside but it’s still showing when I get to the bottom.
I phone-map my way to Hergiswil by way of two busses and a train then walk along the lake front in the predicted rain complete with loud thunder and the occasional light show.
The hotel looks outstanding so I go back on line and book it then walk in. I find that they’d put two rooms on for that price just for one night to raise the profile and I got the second one so being a bit of a chancer I said I’d have it for two nights if she could hold the price – after a brief discussion in the back – she did!
I’m a happy man, the room’s good and the facilities are outstanding and if the forecast is to be believed I may be spending at least some of tomorrow looking out over the lake in the heated infinity pool – it’s a hard life being retired.
Tonight I walk the front of the lake but it seems the cafes and bars have Mondays off so it’s back for a light meal and an even lighter alcohol intake, at £9 for ‘nearly’ a pint my sobriety has time to catch up.
Enjoy the snaps. G x
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