More Swiss Surprises

More Swiss Surprises

    With the surprises of Zurich now moving past me, it was time for other cities to surprise me, all of them within a short train ride.  And none was probably more famous and welcome (even among those residents of Zurich to whom we talked) than Lucerne.  The lake, the history, and of course, the mountains.  At this point, however, let me add one additional caveat, that these posts are merely one person's opinions and observations (mine) and quite likely, might have some of you more experienced travelers shaking your heads and saying, "what the devil is he talking about?"  And to you, I can only apologize if I have somehow gotten a bit of history incorrect or have seemingly mischaracterized a favorite (or not so favorite) spot of yours.  As we all know, this happens, a pair of freshly tainted eyes looking at something with wild abandon, taking in first impressions in a few hours and then walking away as if that is all there is to know.  Time and money (and in my case, age) begin to display their boundaries; so again,  my apologies.

The cog-wheel car coming up the mountain

    But back to Lucerne, another vibrant city with  lots of people walking in town, a waterfront at night and all surrounded by nearby mountains.  A 30-minute train ride from Zurich (50 CHF roundtrip) followed by a quick train/tram ride (an additional 87 CHF) and we were riding the longest and one of the oldest cog wheel rider cars to the top of Mt. Pilatus which tops off at just over 7000 feet.  Not such a big deal you say? But consider this, the grade for most of the way is 48%.  If that seems difficult to grasp, hold your arm straight out and now split the difference between the ground and where your arm now is...that's 45 degrees.  Up a bit to 48 and you have car loads of 50 people or so being hauled up and down, from sea level to 7000 feet.  That small car in the picture, the one nestled against the mountain?  That's the car...  

 
  

One of the tunnels on the ascent

If you were lucky enough, and likely wealthy enough, you could be taken to the top on horseback; but it was one engineer who took on the challenge of building a railway to the top...a challenge posed in the early 1840s.  The rail paths, the tunnels, the steep trail ascent, all would have to be chipped away from the rock by men with pick axes; to the workers, the drops off the sides of the mountains would likely be unforgiving.  It was an amazing challenge for a destination once only given to the few.  But in addition to the challenge of carving a rail path up the mountain, there was the challenge of the train itself.  A typical train simply would not do, the chance of slippage being too great on both the ascent and the descent.  Thus the idea of the cog wheel.

The cog wheel gear system

 It was ingenious, the gears laid horizontally on each side of the rail, the train's weight providing an even firmer grip to the ground.  And now we were riding on it, a system nearly 200 years old, witnessing this grand accomplishment of one man's grand solution as our car climbed to the top.  As we neared the top, one could marvel at the tunnels and the steepness of the rail itself; but gazing off in the distance, one could see that even at these heights, the rock was scraped through like the claws of an angry cat.

The glacial ice marks

    And it was here that I realized that the real accomplishment hadn't actually been the railway, but rather the glacial ice that had come through here before.  How much taller and wider and heavier the block of ice must have been to have ever so slowly left its mark in solid rock, a mark for all to see these centuries later.  Something came over this mountain, a massive sheet of ice that, despite its size, only exuded patience.  Here at the top, with mankind proudly pulling on puffy chests, nature had put us all to shame.  There were other glaciers over other mountains of course, other trails and paths cut through the rocks of many other countries.  But this was Switzerland, and the Alps and little white churches and schools placed in the most difficult of places, atop a mountain.  Which was another surprise...the churches.   And that my friends, is coming next...