Switzerland Day 3 - So Much Mountain!

Justin here:  I swear I'm still alive... Kristin has been holding me hostage for the last 4 weeks in the.... no, sadly it was my short project for school that held me an unwilling captive.  It was a mini-dissertation that I just finished the day before Whitney arrived.  It left me with no time to write about our adventures.  Thanks Kris for covering for me.

So I've got the chance to talk about our last day in Switzerland.  We managed to plan, and pick our days just perfectly, so that we had the clearest day of the three to head to the top of Mount Pilatus.  The peak of the mountain is 2128 m above sea-level, which makes it just the 365th tallest mountain in Switzerland.

There are two ways to get up to the top, one is a cog-wheeled tram, which is the steepest cog-wheel in the world.  Unfortunately, that's a summer activity, in fact it can even be cancelled due to poor weather.

This is the track that the cog-wheel train comes up into the station at the summit.

So we were left to the gondola.  To get to the top we had to take two different cable cars.  The first was a small 4 person one.

Ready to launch!

This picture shows the mountain much better than the first.  The first gondola takes us about 2/3 of the way to the top, and a second to the summit.

This recommendation was surprisingly apt for us, as we did smuggle beers onto the lift with us.... as I say smuggle, like much of Europe, it is fine to drink in the open.  This warning does not say it's prohibited from drinking in the gondola, but that you shouldn't drop your bottles out of the gondola onto the ground a hundred feet below.  

Cheers!

We had another friend join us today... Steffie's co-worker Vera also came along to the summit, and provided us with more local knowledge (and a few whimsical moments).  This is the midpoint of the two gondolas, with the summit in the background.

Such an incredible view of the valleys and mountains beyond. 

The weather from the base to the summit was quite a contrast.  At the start of the gondola, we were in green grass, with a bit of snow on the upper hills.

At the midpoint, we were shin-deep in snow.  This isn't our snowman, but we liked it, so grabbed a quick photo with it.

At the top, the snow has piled up this 5 foot window nearly to the top.  

This is about the highest point that you can venture to (at least when the top is covered in snow).  There is a hotel, and restaurant in the building on the bottom right.

Speaking of the whimsical moments!

So there are many tales about Mt. Pilatus, and where it's name came from / origin of the mountain.  Tales are told of dragons that used to live upon the mountains.   The legend states that a series of caves, at the summit of Mt. Pilatus, are actually tunnels dug by the dragon deep into the heart of the mountain.  We were able to travel a short distance into the caves, with holes through the rock to look out on the scenery below (and maybe for the dragon to protect itself from invaders).

Probably not quite the invaders they had worried about.

In 1387, six clergymen were incarcerated for planning a trip to summit Mt. Pilatus.  It was believed that strong storms and floods that happened once the plan was discovered were a harbinger from the spirits or dragons on the mountain.  It was even rumoured that Pontius Pilate (judge and executioner of Jesus) was buried in the lake on the mountain, and that any effort to disturb his resting place would bring misfortune to the local people.

Finally in 1585, a parish priest, and several local explorers, finally climbed the mountain, threw boulders into the lake, and churned up the water.  When no supernatural misfortunes became them, it was concluded that the curse had been broken.

While on the mountain, we introduced Vera to our favourite pastime of Geocaching.  She nimbly located and retrieved this one from inside the Dragon cave.  

Probably not true (I'm looking at you Nepal), but this should qualify as one of the least-accessible churches in the world.  

From the lookout platform at the top.

It's possible to book a wedding at this church.  The bride and groom take the gondolas up to the top, and have to hike down the mountain to get to the church.  Probably a good way to keep the numbers at your wedding down. It'd be quite a location for a trash-the-dress, right off the peak of the alps!

At the end of the Dragon tunnels, we had a little hop at 7000 feet.

We spent much of the weekend trying to find a barrel like this for Digby.  While not a mountain dog, he'd look so cute with one of these under his chin, and I'd be able to whistle whenever I needed a refill ;) Sadly, we had no luck.

This is halfway up the second gondola.  The engineer in me is still squeamish looking at this picture, because the tower is installed on about a 40 degree angle.

A video on the way down showing the angle of the pylon is also here: https://youtu.be/3WMvFyFRqgI

We did have to laugh, as we waited for the gondola to take us back down.  The Swiss are well known for the remarkable quality of their timepieces.  We were surprised to find that the time for New York was off by an hour.  I suspect it's because a service call all the way up there isn't cheap ;)

Ready to descend.

On our way back down, the cloud cover was distinctly thicker than when we had ascended.

Uhhh.... the trappings of a horror film anyone?

Back to the bottom.

Sadly we were running late by this point, so had to abandon exploring this castle.  As they say, you have to leave something for the next time.

We had a fantastic trip to Switzerland.  Steffi and Marcel were such great hosts.  We can't thank you guys enough for showing us so many great parts of Switzerland. We hope to host you in Canada in return someday!