Lucerne, Switzerland is very famous for its beauty. We took this extension because we had not been to this country before. Certainly it is a very nice place to visit! In those four full days, we took trips to three very scenic places in the area (in addition to touring the town itself). The first and third excursions were suggested by GCT, while the second was suggested by our Program Director. On day one, we went to Rigi Kaltbad in the Alps. On day two, we climbed Mt. Pilatus, and, on day three, we went to Kleine Scheidegg. Both Janice and I took all three trips.
We started our trip to Rigi Kaltbad in the afternoon with a nice boat ride to the other side of Lake Lucerne. We then had dinner and enjoyed a local music group (including yodeling) on top of Rigi mountain.
All four us have reached our golden age, as this picture demonstrates!
We enjoyed the train ride down Rigi mountain! On the right side is our Program Director, Sjannie Hulsman, who was wonderful!
The second trip was organized by our program director, Sjannie. It featured four different types of transportation: a boat ride, followed by a cogwheel train ride up to Mt. Pilatus, then, at the end of the visit, a gondola ride down and a bus ride back to Lucerne! We bought regular train tickets for the world's steepest cogwheel railway, with its 48% gradient, to get to the top. While up there, we (at least some of us) did a bit of hiking, including a two-mile hike over some very rough terrain. The scenery was magnificent!!
On the way back down!!!
I walked around Lucerne everywhere I could walk. The places which attracted me the most were along the old City Wall. I will post some pictures here to give you a taste of the city, which was full of flowers and beautiful mosaics:
View from the wall!
Our final trip began by taking a bus ride along the Lake to the train station at Lauterbrunnen, where there was a lovely waterfall. From there we went by train to Kleine Scheidegg, where the wind was very strong and the temperature very low. However, we had breath-taking views of the Jungfrau (the so-called top of Europe), the Munch, and the Eiger. We had lunch there before we took another train back down to Grindelwald and from there traveled back to the city by bus. It was a long day! We were tired for sure!
Views from the bus 
Our train! 
This Web Page was Built with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor