Picture perfect Lucerne

Having landed in Geneva in February, we knew how picturesque Switzerland is and Lucerne proved to be the same. We did a walking tour and while nothing stood out architecturally, the scenery was indeed beautiful and everything you imagine a Swiss town to be like. The only structures I remember from the walking tour were the Chapel Bridge and the Lucerne Culture and Convention Centre. The Chapel Bridge is Lucerne’s most famous landmark and is the best-preserved wooden bridge in Switzerland. It also has 122 interior paintings created during the period of the Counter-Reformation promoting the Catholic Church. It probably looked pretty fantastic during its time but it didn’t do much for me. As for the Lucerne Culture and Convention Centre, I remember the guide saying that it looks beautiful but is very difficult to clean, lol.

Chapel Bridge

Honestly speaking, Lucerne doesn’t have much to offer other than its views and maybe skiing. Since we don’t ski, we could only enjoy its views, namely by scaling two mountains, Mount Pilatus and Mount Rigi, and doing a lake cruise.

Mount Pilatus from afar

To ascent to Mount Pilatus during the summer, you can take a cog railway up, but since it was winter when we visited we had to take the heart-stopping cable car. I was rather freaked out actually and avoided looking down as much as I can though I did sneaked in a few peeks here and there. There was a dip for about 2 seconds where it felt like the car was free falling, that was an experience I wouldn't want to try again. CS says that could scare the sh~t out of anyone. When we reached the top and caught the spectacular views, it was an amazing feeling, amongst the mountain peaks. Though it was very high, it was surprisingly warm. The sun was blaring down and perhaps being closer to it makes you warm up faster.

"Top of the world" views

There was no heart-stopping cable car ride up Mount Rigi, instead it was a good old-fashioned train ride up after getting off the lake cruise. There were quite a few people hiking up the day we went and I really admire their determination. It was a seriously hot day and also 439m high!!! Again the views were pretty good and it was also different from Pilatus. Pretty glad that we went up both mountains in the end, though it was also seriously expensive to do so.