Mount Pilatus, Switzerland [Pictures!]

This post is just pictures of Mount Pilatus, Switzerland.

At the absolute highest point of Mount Pilatus

I believe that is an Ibis

Switzerland

A view of the switchbacks.

Switzerland! Oh how I love Switzerland. The majestic blue oceans on the shores of western Italy, the immense footprint of art and architecture in Paris, Rome and Florence are all breathtaking, but Switzerland just grabs my heart. Hailing from Minnesota - a land of lakes, trees, rivers, lakes and slightly larger lakes - I can identify with the core of Switzerland, beautiful landscapes. Take away the dreary flatness that makes Minnesota land terribly expensive farmland and replace it with Swiss mountains. Put the snow on top of the mountains instead of Minnesota fields. Throw in a few winding railways, the look of Swiss architecture and the allure of Switzerland itself and I melt. I stared out my window the entire train ride into Switzerland.






After we arrived in Luzern we explored the town for provisions and our hotel. It happened to be the only one-star hotel in Luzern, but the Swiss idea of one-star is far from the American thoughts. We didn't get a free bar of soap, but it was nice.
In Florence we had talked about all going out to dinner after hiking Mount Pilatus. We scoured a few local magazines and then scoped the places out. One proffered an all you can eat taco bar. After a day of hiking, we thought we had sealed the deal. Well... 35CHF(~$40USD) made the tacos a little less appetizing and we decided to seek out other options. Same story elsewhere... so we went back to the grocery store next to our posh accommodations. Closed... for a holiday(which? I don't know). Same with the shop down the street. Luckily the grocery store in the basement of the train station was open! And the line for the checkout snaked along two walls of the building, but with hunger as our spice it was the an absolute culinary perfection. The bread was ripped apart with bare hands giving every sandwich one ridiculously thick side.


The real adventure lay on Mount Pilatus, west of Luzern with the city of Alpnachstad at its base. Luzern and Alpnachstad are conveniently connected by a ferry, so we took this new and interesting form of travel not found in the central United States.

Ferry wizardry is normal on Lake Luzern

I had to convince her I really, really did want the hat

From the base of Mount Pilatus the ascent is approximately 1.1 miles or ~5700 feet to a final altitude of just over 7000 feet. It was about 45F when we hiked in early June so I bought a lovely hat at the gift shop. The sales girl really, really tried to talk me out of it!




Along the way we walked through the clouds, mud, uncooked cow pies, James got philosophical, Sam left us behind and I photobombed Anton. I mean, I did take 1443 pictures while in Europe.

Most of it was actually mud.

Standing in the clouds.

James got philosophical on a tree stump.

Cinque Terre - The Five Lands

Beauty abounds in Europe. There are buildings, cathedrals, streets, cities which predate the United States. The pictures, the architecture and statues can draw a mouth open in wonder. The Vatican Museum is amazing. The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris is amazing. But the region of Cinque Terre on the western coast of Italy is absolutely breathtaking.

We started the day in the southern most of five cities, Riomaggiore and hiked our way north through Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and finally Monterosso al Mare. After the scenic walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola the adventure turns into a decent hike. About 12km with altitude changes in excess of a couple hundred meters. Also, we had to follow a detour because one of the paths was washed out.

Riomaggiore to Manarola - The only flat portion of the trek.

 A huge part of the trail is barely wide enough for two people to pass.

 

The path winded its way through terraced vineyards, cultivated for hundreds of years.

Approximately 200m above sea level.

 

Beautiful!

The entire trek was a rollercoaster of altitude to get up into the hiking path and then back down into each city. By the end of the day I was happy to be on a train bound for Rome, birra and real Italian pizza.
For more information try: this website. (All my pictures are original)!

I left my heart in Bozeman!

I started 2012: By celebrating the even in Brookings, SD with friends; driving 13.5 hours to Bozeman, MT with my best friend; Snowboarding on a real mountain again!(and faceplanting into my helmet); Visiting Yellowstone and seeing Elk, coyotes, bison, and hot springs; Relaxing sore muscles in the Boiling River with my best friend and a new friend; Taking third at trivia night; Taking 8 shots of Jack and yelling a little; Making two new friends who are now hooked on Big Buck Hunter; Having insane D&D and Dragon Age RPG adventures; Lugging hay bales; Seeing cats, dogs, llamas, horses and sheeple; Settlers of Catan; Giving the GPs homebrew; Dancing like an idiot; Playing my first ever RPG with a DM younger than I; Meeting someone as wacky as myself; Getting dice thrown at me by Trea; Becoming Skeezie Steve[Steezy Steve] for a day on the mountain; Hooking a girl on Top Gear(inorite?!); Visiting the Montana Aleworks!; Visiting Ted'sBob's Burgers!; Quoting 300 Rifftrax endlessly; Making nerd jokes and having people laugh :O! Dropping a mile in altitude in one day! And... leaving my heart in Bozeman, MT(what a wonderful place!)[It's a terrible place to live and visitors shouldn't move there permanently].[No comment].

Steezy Steve in action with his Zumiez

The helmet is a good investment.

If you find my heart please mail to...

Florence - Best known for

We did see a marathon of some sort..

Off the top of my head I cannot recall any monuments or dead men I saw in Florence(painted, zombified or otherwise). To my dismay, it seems that during vacation it is imperative to view dead people. Just like the theatrical release of The Sixth Sense, you have to pay to see the dead folks. Where does that get fun?

Trying to remember if I had ever visited the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

 

I do, however, recall the awesome Moroccan server at the Hostel. He happened to speak six languages, but more importantly, made excellent shots. Unlike his meddling boss, our Moroccan friend was not keen on charging me for the round of shots I ordered the table (including our newly met birthday girl, Larissa), that is, until his boss started yelling at him in the back room about payment. As required, I went to the front desk, ordered shots to which the desk clerk looks blankly at me before turning to her boss and shouting, 'How much are shots??' '3 euro'. Ticket in hand, the Moroccan brings us shots. Six shots on the tray... Five people at the table. 'Man, my boss.... He's a real pain in my ass you know?' ' Alright, quick, quick' as he motions to the shots - one in front of each of us and one in his hand. We all quickly tip back our shots. Israeli Bastards, what a name for a shot. After kicking back some 'birras', a round of shots and a 300 gram pizza I am not really listening. I think he told us what was in the shot, too... In fact I don't really care much about anything else I did earlier or the dead people I presumably saw earlier that day. There was a statue in there somewhere, I think. Oh yeah, Michelangelo's David.  If you are ever in Florence, it is definitely worth visiting, although I cannot remember the pizzeria's name.

Rome day 3: basilica!!

And that's the CEILING!

We went to the Vatican today! All the way through the museum(think Sistine chapel). 'm more a fan of natural beauty, mountains and oceans, than human art, but the Vatican museum is breathtaking. Many of the rooms have every single inch of space covered.

After spending a few hours in the Vatican museum we visited the inside of Saint Peter's basilica. The center of the entire Catholic religion is quite amazing. Ornamental art and reliefs on top of art. The ceiling, columns, pillars, floor ... no stone is left untouched.

Everything has significance. How many cherubim on the arches, the names, words, the length. Although, I don't know what the significance might be.

Went to Saint Peter's basilica and climbed all ~435 feet to the top. Once you get near the top of the basilica over the cupola the stairs become.. interesting.. to navigate. Especially if you are taller than five feet.

From atop Saint Peter's basilica you can see all of Vatican city and a huge portion of Rome. We arrived at the top early in the morning when the crowds were thin and peered out over the city. Droves of people kept trying to pack into the balcony area but we didn't give up our prime spot. We almost stayed up there all day!













For lunch we ate at a {random} backalley restaurant, had a liter of house wine for 10€. I don't speak much Italian so I had no idea what I ordered. "Vorrei [point to menu]". Apparently I ordered something that required further choosing... so I said 'yes' several times in Italian. It was delicious.

The staff spoke about five words of English. Finished with a digestif of Limoncello! Yum! Screw the Roman metro! I want the Paris vomit-a-color back!

Paris: Epicenter of Culture?

Paris is amazing. I don't use that word lightly considering a, m and z are all moved on a French keyboard. The 73-78F, sunny weather with a light breeze doesn't hurt either.

A series of tubes.

Saturday, the second raid into Parisian controlled territory. I took the metro from the quaint east suburb area into central Paris looking for the ridiculously large Louvre. 'Taking' the metro is more like sitting in paint shaker that is mixing up a batch of 70's inspired groovy paint, a good adventure in itself. I hopped off the train as near to the Louvre as I could get and ambled through the streets of Paris and ended at a sign that definitely did not say 'Louvre' but rather 'Pompidou'. Change of plans. Scratch that, cancel the plans altogether. Into the Pompidou! Just follow my feet. Art for art's sake... There's a big shroom in the Pompidou. And a very awesome fire suppression system... Buckets, hoses, extinguishers, mammothly large fire doors... but no sprinklers, too much art of course.

I wandered off to Notre Dame de Paris next, enjoyed the weather with a juicy orange and a croissant before heading inside. The pigeons are so tame you can almost punt them. The sparrows will eat bread out of your hand. The inside of Notre Dame is pretty cool, too. The stained glass windows are AMAZING! The top of the Notre Dame towers are 400 steps up, but the view is amazing! Gargoyles, flying buttresses, wire cable so you don't jump... and one really, really big bell. The bells even have names.