European Tour - Day 8

21^st April

Lucerne – Lake Cruise and Mount Titlis

Started at 8.45 am for the lake cruise which is very near to the hotel , remember the hotel being in the central place. It was so so cold. It’s a 45 min cruise on a boat (with a deck) and we were the first to start the cruise. It was freezing outside. After some time had to keep working on my mouth to really feel it. It’s a beautiful lake, in the form of a cross (+) and its very huge. It was misty , foggy. But as and when we were going through it started clearing up. It was great to view the lake. The captain was telling us about various facts of the lake. One side of the lake has houses (beautiful of course, and they are privately owned….) and there is a building on a hill near the lake, that Michael Jackson wanted to buy, but was rejected by the bank , and a church which is so costly and so fully booked, that you have to book the church for your wedding and then find a wifey (  ;) ) Things like that. It was fun, but one thing was sure, I needed an additional thermal wear to beat the cold, because at the final leg of the drive, I got so cold that I couldn't feel anything, I don't want myself dying there do I? gotta see the Mount Titlis and Paris and not to mention London and Scotland yet. So I ran to the closed door downstairs.  We came back by 10 am and we got a 20 min break in the hotel to re-freshen up.

Then started on our journey to Mount Titlis by 10.45 am (one couple weren't found, so took some time to find them). It’s a 40 min journey to Engelberg to the Titlis station base.  It was all snow everywhere and we were riding up. It reminded me of the drive to Crater Lake. It was like that. Seems like this time of the year, the snow would have eased up, but am not sure if it is our luck, it had snowed very recently, even three to four days before it seems.  When we got down it was so so cold and frozen everywhere that I was thanking the time for the re-freshening up, because if I hadn't had my additional thermal and jacket I cannot imagine going to the glacier. Quite a lot of skiers there. Three levels of cable cars (one is rotating cable car) and there are lot of signs in Hindi too, and too many Indians and Indian tour companies there along with the Chinese ones. First leg is to go to a level of almost 3000 m high in a  cable car which can hold only 6 people max (and it stops in between for the skiers to climb in a mid level) and then in the second leg, we have the big cable car which holds around 80 people and this climb is steep, very steep and then third one is again a big one (holding around 40-50) but it is the rotating one which lands in the glacier. You can imagine my reaction to the climb, I did not even look down in the first leg , which was the most scariest part because we can see the whole town and the city to some level. The 2^nd level was ok, because it was all snow below, so it did not affect me much. The third one, is beautiful, not so scary because of the sights, but because of the rotating stuff, that gives jerks than the view. View is amazing. It was like above the clouds and seeing the peaks peeking at us from the clouds. You have to see it to believe it. So freaking amazing. Its 10000 m above sea level. Imagine that. I was scared about the breathing trouble, but luckily none of that trouble. The 70 yr big guy had trouble breathing and he left to the 2^nd level immediately.  I was with his wife, whom I admire a lot, the whole time there. There we have 5 levels (with restaurants, glacier cave, on to the terrace to play in the snow and also to take the ice flyer or the cliff hanger walk…) I did only the walk on the terrace, naturally and then the glacier cave. It was so good and so chilling. And we had the wind blowing up. It was just!!! The cave was also good. It was weird to feel them by hand. It was little freaky but good. After staying for some time, and then enjoying the view and the caves and enough of photos, went back to the 2^nd level where they had a bigger restaurant. There was an Indian group restaurant for the Indian group too. Its too pricey there, but then its because of the place. We relaxed, and took as much as photos that we can get and then back to the bus by 3.30 pm (almost  3-4 hrs there) and it was so so good. I am not sure why we don’t have something like this in India. There were too many Indians there. Came back to hotel by 4.45 pm and relaxed and then went out for a walk by 6 pm and then packed for the next day’s early start to Paris.

Did you know that the Swiss always wanted to be the first to do some thing. Like this rotating cable car. Its the first in the world. And they had the tunnel which is the longest (which we came on our way to Lucerne) but then Netherlands had built a tunnel longer than that so now they are planning to beat them....Swiss knife, Swiss chocolates ... if they are at it , it has to be best for them and if they are the first, all the better. They need people to say that 'if its Swiss, its the best'. Wow..