Lucerne and the Alps

Today,s cruise is all by coach with an early start for Lucerne to arrive mid morning for a shortish stop. Just enough time to wander by the river and see the wooden bridges and along the lake with its’ mountain backdrop. Then back on the coach to head south to the Alps. Like travelling through a series Swiss postcards, through a series of valleys with combinations of lakes, rivers, lush fields with cows grazing and traditional Swiss houses balanced on the hillsides until reaching Laterbrunnen. Here we are booked onto the cog railway to take us Kleine Scheidegg, a small village ( ski stuff, hotel, cafe and gift shop) and the hub of this cog railway system with branches heading off in all directions. Unfortunately when visiting “out of season” most of the snow had gone and everything except the station buffet was closed. Having been warned it would be cold, it actually wasn’t that bad just a bit fresh so didn’t need the additional jumpers in my bag. The “view” is the north face of the Eiger, but the views in all directions are snow covered mountains dropping down into valleys. Although the guide gave stern warnings that being a second late we would miss the train back down the mountain to our coach, but shouldn’t have worried we were ready to go when the train arrived. When we returned to Laterbrunnen we found one of the coaches and both drivers were missing. One of the coaches ( not the one we were on) had been having problems on the way over so they had gone to borrow a replacement for the journey back. At this point our coach developed a problem, the middle door wouldn’t open, no panic eventually we all went in the door which worked, however we couldn’t leave as the driver’s (failed) efforts to open the door had managed to register the open door warning to be set, so then had more efforts to shut an already closed door to cancel the warning. Eventually after 15 minutes we headed back. Not sure how many tunnels we drove through today - but is what lots!
The formal evening dinner followed ( men asked not to wear shorts). We stay moored overnight here in Basle before starting the cruise. Apparently, the Basle/Cologne variant is the better way to do this trip as all the tiring excursions are in the first few days, so you can relax towards the end of the trip and feel refreshed for the journey home!Read more