City of lights

My 3rd weekend in Swiss and its we did'nt play by ear. I was all bright eyed and bushy tailed for the trip. Booked tickets a week before and read every bit about the must visit places in the heart of Switzerland, "Lucerne: the city of lights".

We started at 8 in the morning and this time we packed up paranthas with us. Unexpectedly we were before time and popped into the train the moment it came. The train was no less than a cruise, a double decker one and we climbed up to the 1st floor and grabbed seats. Could'nt wait to have paranthas. Having paranthas in train is nostalgia. It was fun always to travel with family and packup a bag full of eatables, in no way can it ever replace even the "Rajdhani Express" food for which people are always crazy. I never liked it!!

It was a 40 min travel and there we land at the heart of Swiss, Lucerne. It was cold and as usual me and Jo were without jackets. Just next to the "Bahnof"  meaning station in german was the beautiful lake. Jyoti was hell bent on going for the boat ride and quickly we tried to enquire the cruise prices. And we could'nt afford it!! 94 Francs per person. That was too much. And then the ever exciting cruise ride seemed to be not so fun on the grounds that 3 hours would be boring. Mere consolation!!

We started for the Chapel bride. A beautiful wooden platform, the oldest in Europe well decorated with lovely flowers and mounted with the painting in the triangular frame in the ceiling. It was hardly a 10 min walk over the bridge and there we decide to ask people about other places to visit.

"Excuse me, what all places do u suggest us to see here in Lucerne", I asked a young couple. "Me for example" the gentlemen replied with his witty expressions. Well, go around the old town , go for cruise ride, don't miss that.... Cruise ride...ehhh he reminded us of the could be exciting ride. :(

We move further to explore the Lion's monument. It was incredible. Really beautiful indeed. We entered the natural monument museum which had some preserves of the rocks from the glaciers, various shell stones, deepest pothole from glaciers and the like. Had a short clipping on the Gothart rail tunnel, the wars in Zurich, panorama of various mountain ranges and glaciers. It took us a while to cover the museum. It was interesting!!

Then we hiked up to the tower to get a view of the city which was solala read ok ok in German, though the way onto our hike was amazing.

It was 2 and we were out of the museum. All the signals from the retina were converted into just 1 thing FOOD... Indian food. And my 6/6 vision proved helpful. "Kanchi- the taste of India" I could see from a distance and we were exhilarated.

Dal makhani and chapati, seems it was our staple diet. But nevertheless it was a good lunch followed by Swiss choco ice cream from our favourite MOVE n PICK.

We were already excited about our next stop. Mt Pilatus. Had been hearing about it from many people in office. We were just in time to get the tickets. It was the last train to Pilatus and the lady emphasized "Guys I guess its too late..you would get just half an hour at Pilatus as the last cable car is at 6." But we were firm. We'll go for it. Quickly moved towards the Glies meaning platform and there we took the  4 seater on first floor again. We needed to change at Alpanchstad for the cogwheel. Woaaaaaaa...cogwheel was thrilling. Everyone had chips, cookies and snacks. "Aunty abhi dedo wapisi mein apko dukaan se dila denge woh bhi do." my khurafaati mind thought of asking the lady sitting just in front of me with bag full of snacks. The cogwheel started and I could no more think of food as the view was bizarre. I was in the steepest cogwheel train of the world. And wondered how this train could even move. The view was ineffable!! Far stretched prodigious mountains with snow filled peaks, the rivers, the green carpet was all I could see.

We reached 2132m above the sea level, the top of Mt pilatus in 30 mins. Above the clouds, in the clouds, on top of the world were we. :) Clouds made funny unusual designs. Felt there was a volcano in the sky ;) it was the best view i had ever seen. I remember me writing this for Uetliberg too. But this was even more beautiful. Heavenly!! I felt so close to nature.

We had freezed almost without jackets. But it was time for us to be in the cable car. Ye-ye. I sat in cable car for the first time and  it was breathtaking, all the more because of the top view of the beautiful city. :)

Experience of lifetime it was!!