Third Europe trip part 3 - Lucerne and Titles
We left Geneva an hour later than planned which made us postpone the trip to mt. Titlis to next day - reaching Lucerne around noon, checking into hotel and another hour to Engelberg would only give us about 2 hours there which definitely wouldn't have been sufficient. So we decided to take an early train from Lucerne next morning and spend time at Titlis till 1 or 2 p.m giving us enough time to catch our train to Milan from Lucerne at 4:20 p.m.
View from the train:
After settling that plan, we started thinking what to do that day. Journey from Geneva to Lucerne took 3 hours with one stop at Bern - we considered getting down there and explore the capital but couldn't make up our minds before the train restarted 😌. Remaining options are to visit Interlaken or explore Lucerne.
We had to walk for about 15 mins to the hotel.
Walk to hotel and view from the room:
After we checked into our room and relaxed a bit, a fresh thought of trying skydiving popped up🙃. We narrowed down to two places offering skydiving - one in Lucerne and other in Interlaken and called them. One in Interlaken told us last trip is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. but they could confirm after our arrival depending on weather situation. The operator in Lucerne told it wouldn't be possible that evening as the weather wasn't favorable, but we could try it the next morning. He even offered to drop us at Engelberg on learning our plan to visit Titlis. After some back and forth we decided to explore Lucerne instead of taking chance with Interlaken. Also didn't want to cut into the time we have at Titlis, so scratched the skydiving idea altogether (lesson learnt: such activities should be planned in advance and we should at least have a high level itinerary).
Finally, we made list of places to visit in Lucerne and started to explore the place. Bus stop is quite near the hotel and we picked salami burgers surprisingly fresh and tasty for supermarket burgers 🐣. Then we took a bus to lake Lucerne.
The lake is spread across both sides of the main road which is built on the lake. One side is quite sobre with swans and museum and the other side is more bright and flowery.
There is another big railway station next to the museum building and, upon enquiry, we found out that the train to Milan departs from there - this, I believe, is the first advantage from our mishap, if we went to Interlaken and Engelberg from the station next to our hotel, we wouldn't have learned that wasn't the station to depart for Milan 😨.
More views of Lake Lucerne:
While my sister sat by the lake taking in the view, I went to an art museum. Later we went to chapel bridge which is oldest covered wooden bridge in Europe.
From there we went in search of a Max chocolatier known for homemade chocolates thinking chocolates won't be very expensive there - turned out they were costliest chocolates we bought in Switzerland 🤑.
Later, we picked up sandwiches from Bachmann (it got more collection of chocolates for lesser price) and started strolling by the shopping streets.
There was a huge store which looked like souvenir shop from outside but is like department store inside. They got chocolates (duh!!), magnets, cow bells and similar stuff. Prices seem to reduce drastically from souvenir store near lake to stores in these streets, though the distance between them isn't much. Also there are so many stores which got chocolates in blocks and, if I recollect correctly, priced lesser. I didn't get any as we already got many.
Next, we headed to the lion monument which required a bit of walking but the path is quite beautiful, so no complaintsthere.
This rock wall made a beautiful background for photographs.
I was bit nervous it might be closed by the time we reached as it was already close to 6 p.m. However, it is not only open but almost deserted. On the first look, it didn't seem like much but it was quite pleasant and, as we sat there for a while, it started to grow on me.
We went back to the train station, which got few shops within. There is a train to Interlaken with panoramic view - my biggest regret of the trip is not taking the trip. Even if we didn't do anything in Interlaken, just taking a ride in the train would have been worth it. Moreover every place we visited in Lucerne is close by the station and could be covered in an hour.
Anyway, we packed few sandwiches for dinner and returned to hotel.
Next morning, we took the 8 a.m train to Engelberg which reached before 9. We got the tickets and learnt that we have to wait for half hour for next shuttle bus to take us to Titlis or could walk up there in 30 mins. We thought it would be lovely walk through the greenery. However, after taking a turn, we found a cutest Cafe and went in for breakfast. Half hour went in there and we came out in time for next shuttle. The ride was about 5 mins and, the biggest advantage is to postpone this trip by a day - since we went on morning, the place is not at all crowded and we skipped the queues. Had we been there after noon as originally planned, we would have spent a good fraction of time waiting in the queues.
So we got into the cable car and the ride up is out of the world 👼.
Also, we kept hearing the cow bells, though they are no where to be seen.
After cable car ride, we went on a rotator car which is amazing and a bit scary. I started feeling cold for the first time in the trip.
The top of the mountain is spread across 5 levels.
The levels below got few stores and glacier cave. On spending considerable amount of time, we skipped the fourth level, where we could dress up and take pictures, and went directly to fifth.
Top level got cliff walk (my vertigo kicked in by then and I couldn't try it) and a slippery walk over the snow takes to chair lift which goes to children's play area. I couldn't go to chair lift either as my boots got no grip on the snow - if only I knew I could rent suitable shoes from the store in below level 😟. Later, we had Indian food for lunch in the restaurant below (only meal in the trip we had Indian cuisine) and Swiss chocolate ice-cream 🍨. It was the meal I had so far with best view😍.
Then we went chocolate shopping in the store which got Lindt chocolates in wall size shelves.
Close to 1 p.m we started back to the cable car. This time I got down in the stop, half way through, to visit the lake. However it was bit far and I had to be content with the view from afar.
We finally reached the foot of the mountain
And took the shuttle back to the train station.
The most beautiful train station I ever travelled from.
It was about 3 p.m by the time we reached our hotel. We checked out, packed burgers from the supermarket and headed to the train station for our train to Milan.
That's a wrap for Switzerland tour and next to Italia in another post🤗.
View from the train:
After settling that plan, we started thinking what to do that day. Journey from Geneva to Lucerne took 3 hours with one stop at Bern - we considered getting down there and explore the capital but couldn't make up our minds before the train restarted 😌. Remaining options are to visit Interlaken or explore Lucerne.
We had to walk for about 15 mins to the hotel.
Walk to hotel and view from the room:
After we checked into our room and relaxed a bit, a fresh thought of trying skydiving popped up🙃. We narrowed down to two places offering skydiving - one in Lucerne and other in Interlaken and called them. One in Interlaken told us last trip is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. but they could confirm after our arrival depending on weather situation. The operator in Lucerne told it wouldn't be possible that evening as the weather wasn't favorable, but we could try it the next morning. He even offered to drop us at Engelberg on learning our plan to visit Titlis. After some back and forth we decided to explore Lucerne instead of taking chance with Interlaken. Also didn't want to cut into the time we have at Titlis, so scratched the skydiving idea altogether (lesson learnt: such activities should be planned in advance and we should at least have a high level itinerary).
Finally, we made list of places to visit in Lucerne and started to explore the place. Bus stop is quite near the hotel and we picked salami burgers surprisingly fresh and tasty for supermarket burgers 🐣. Then we took a bus to lake Lucerne.
The lake is spread across both sides of the main road which is built on the lake. One side is quite sobre with swans and museum and the other side is more bright and flowery.
There is another big railway station next to the museum building and, upon enquiry, we found out that the train to Milan departs from there - this, I believe, is the first advantage from our mishap, if we went to Interlaken and Engelberg from the station next to our hotel, we wouldn't have learned that wasn't the station to depart for Milan 😨.
More views of Lake Lucerne:
While my sister sat by the lake taking in the view, I went to an art museum. Later we went to chapel bridge which is oldest covered wooden bridge in Europe.
From there we went in search of a Max chocolatier known for homemade chocolates thinking chocolates won't be very expensive there - turned out they were costliest chocolates we bought in Switzerland 🤑.
Later, we picked up sandwiches from Bachmann (it got more collection of chocolates for lesser price) and started strolling by the shopping streets.
There was a huge store which looked like souvenir shop from outside but is like department store inside. They got chocolates (duh!!), magnets, cow bells and similar stuff. Prices seem to reduce drastically from souvenir store near lake to stores in these streets, though the distance between them isn't much. Also there are so many stores which got chocolates in blocks and, if I recollect correctly, priced lesser. I didn't get any as we already got many.
Next, we headed to the lion monument which required a bit of walking but the path is quite beautiful, so no complaintsthere.
This rock wall made a beautiful background for photographs.
I was bit nervous it might be closed by the time we reached as it was already close to 6 p.m. However, it is not only open but almost deserted. On the first look, it didn't seem like much but it was quite pleasant and, as we sat there for a while, it started to grow on me.
We went back to the train station, which got few shops within. There is a train to Interlaken with panoramic view - my biggest regret of the trip is not taking the trip. Even if we didn't do anything in Interlaken, just taking a ride in the train would have been worth it. Moreover every place we visited in Lucerne is close by the station and could be covered in an hour.
Anyway, we packed few sandwiches for dinner and returned to hotel.
Next morning, we took the 8 a.m train to Engelberg which reached before 9. We got the tickets and learnt that we have to wait for half hour for next shuttle bus to take us to Titlis or could walk up there in 30 mins. We thought it would be lovely walk through the greenery. However, after taking a turn, we found a cutest Cafe and went in for breakfast. Half hour went in there and we came out in time for next shuttle. The ride was about 5 mins and, the biggest advantage is to postpone this trip by a day - since we went on morning, the place is not at all crowded and we skipped the queues. Had we been there after noon as originally planned, we would have spent a good fraction of time waiting in the queues.
So we got into the cable car and the ride up is out of the world 👼.
Also, we kept hearing the cow bells, though they are no where to be seen.
After cable car ride, we went on a rotator car which is amazing and a bit scary. I started feeling cold for the first time in the trip.
The top of the mountain is spread across 5 levels.
The levels below got few stores and glacier cave. On spending considerable amount of time, we skipped the fourth level, where we could dress up and take pictures, and went directly to fifth.
Top level got cliff walk (my vertigo kicked in by then and I couldn't try it) and a slippery walk over the snow takes to chair lift which goes to children's play area. I couldn't go to chair lift either as my boots got no grip on the snow - if only I knew I could rent suitable shoes from the store in below level 😟. Later, we had Indian food for lunch in the restaurant below (only meal in the trip we had Indian cuisine) and Swiss chocolate ice-cream 🍨. It was the meal I had so far with best view😍.
Then we went chocolate shopping in the store which got Lindt chocolates in wall size shelves.
Close to 1 p.m we started back to the cable car. This time I got down in the stop, half way through, to visit the lake. However it was bit far and I had to be content with the view from afar.
We finally reached the foot of the mountain
And took the shuttle back to the train station.
The most beautiful train station I ever travelled from.
It was about 3 p.m by the time we reached our hotel. We checked out, packed burgers from the supermarket and headed to the train station for our train to Milan.
That's a wrap for Switzerland tour and next to Italia in another post🤗.
Looking forward to Italy post.
ReplyDeleteI'm longing to write it 😊
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