Swiss trip report/photos 1 of 3 – Sept 3-17
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Trip report 1 of 2 – Luzern area – Sept 3-7, 2018
Photos: http://www.amazon.com/photos/ share/NtIG7TqKMDGdkbKn 8otMQJrxcc64CXpnjMuEMU TdBip
Luzern – maybe the most picturesque town in Switzerland – stayed in Hotel Des Alpes and had a balcony room that overlooked the river – what a great view. Luzern is a great base for exploring the mountains in the area:
- Rigi,
- Stoos/Fronalpstock
- Stanserhorn,
- Titlis/Trubsee
- Pilatus.
Photo tips: of course the classic views are from the main bridge looking back toward town, but for a great view overlooking the city, walk up to the northwest end of town and climb the tower for a great photo op.
General recommendation: get out early! – we prefer to get up early and catch the first train/lift up to where we’re going – we do this for 3 reasons: 1. We love the cool crisp quiet mountain mornings; 2. The weather is usually better early and tends to cloud over later; and 3. Many times we’ve had the mountain to ourselves before the crowds get there. It makes all the difference in the world in some places. I know that people complain about crowds at some of the mountain sites, but getting there early can really help.
Swiss Travel Pass – the 15-day pass was a no-brainer for us, as you’ll see how much we traveled around. The flexibility and freedom was well worth it for us.
Apps – SBB and MeteoSwiss are indispensable apps to find your way on the trains and for tracking the weather – don’t count on the Weather Channel or US-based apps – Meteo Swiss is what we’ve found to be most accurate. Also using webcams.travel is helpful as well to check the views up top before you commit.
Disclaimer on recommendations: Mountain recommendations are very subjective and greatly influenced by weather and how much haze there is so take them with a grain of salt – e.g. last time we went to Rigi is was spectacularly clear and one of our favorite views of the whole trip, but this time, it was hazy and a little cloudy, so it wouldn’t have made our top 5…
Stoos/Fronalpstock – Fronalpstock was on our wish list so we took advantage of the first sunny morning to take an early train to Schwyz and the bus to the Stoosbahn – get in the bottom/left car for the best views. The photo/video ops aren’t that great on the way up so just enjoy the ride and the amazing engineering and save your photos till the top. We walked through the cool town of Stoos to the chairlift to Fronalpstock. We caught the first chairlift up and had the place to ourselves for a little while before the crowds came. What a spectacular view – one of our favorite views of the week (better than Pilatus, and maybe even Rigi, though similar – Titlis is just different, so hard to compare.) I’d put Fronalpstock near the top of our Luzern-area list (see the drone video/photos). Don’t miss it. If you want a hike you can hike to/from Klingenstock from here – but either way, you can hike along the ridge for a while and just turn around when you want to. Nice little self-service restaurant as well – really surprised Fronalpstock is not mentioned more often.
Rigi – after spending the morning at Fronalpstock, we came back down through Stoos/Schwyz and took the train to Arth-Goldau and took the Blue cogwheel train up to Rigi-Kulm. It started to cloud up a bit, so it wasn’t as spectacular as the last time we were here, but still great views. Took a great easy hike down to Rigi-Kaltbad – great views of the lakes. Ate at the Hotel Alpina in Kaltbad (great rosti) which was conveniently across from the cable car down to Weggis and the boat back to Luzern. Quite a day – the Swiss Travel Pass is already paying for itself.
Titlis/Trubsee – I list Trubsee along with Titlis because I think it would be a big mistake to just go up and down from Titlis without stopping off at Trubsee and exploring a bit. First things first, the journey itself from Luzern is great – the train ride the Engelberg (cool town) is very scenic, and then the cable cars to Trubsee and then Titlis – the journey is half the fun. So first Titlis – again, get there early and be on the first cable car to Trubsee, and then switch to the rotating cable car to Titlis – as long as you are by a window, you’ll have a great view. At the top, go outside and walk up the snow straight up to the Cliff Walk – you may just have it to yourself like we did for a few minutes. Cool views and experience. Titlis reminded us a bit of the views on Mont Blanc, and (spoiler alert) we liked it better than Jungfraujoch. Photo tips: lots of great photo ops and iPhone panorama options – one cool shot is to have someone in your party stand on the bridge and if you get down low to the ground you can take a photo with the bridge higher than the mountains, which is a really cool shot.
Trubsee – Definitely save time to stop at Trubsee on the way down – cool lake scene (especially if the winds are calm) – nice self-service restaurant on the far side of the lake near the Jochpass lift (Restaurant Alpstubli). For more cool views, walk over to the chairlift to Jochpass (covered by Titlis ticket) and then another chairlift to Engstlensee (also covered), which on a calm day is about as picturesque a lake as you’ll find (see the drone video/photos). You can walk down to the lake easily (or even on to Melchsee-Frutt if you want), and then head back to Jochpass/Trubsee and Engelberg (explore a bit) and back to Luzern. Photo tips: if the winds are still, the lake reflection shots are spectacular.
Pilatus – the weather was iffy, but decided to go ahead and go up to Pilatus via the popular Alpnachstad-Pilatus-Kriens route. On a clear day, I expect the views would be great – but on a mostly cloudy day, it’s still cool, but not spectacular. The journey to/from was fun, but save this one for a sunny day. Either way, this is below Fronalpstock, Titlis and Rigi on our list.
Zug – we hopped over to Zug for the afternoon and ate at one of the restaurants on the lake – cool old town to explore and beautiful lake on a clear day. We like the Luzern-Zug-ArthGoldau-RigiKulm/Kaltbad-Weggis-Luzern journey in either direction.
Photos: http://www.amazon.com/photos/ share/NtIG7TqKMDGdkbKn 8otMQJrxcc64CXpnjMuEMU TdBip
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