August 23rd, 2010

August 24th, 2010
Today I slept in a little till 10am and got ready for the day. I had a hard time eating the last serving of my left over spaghetti for breakfast, but I knew I would need it, if I wanted to avoid the high prices for food. My plan was to head up to Pilatus, via the steepest cogwheel railway in the world. I had a couple different options. I could either take a ferry boat or train to the cogwheel and then the cable car back down, or in the reverse order. I enjoyed a nice ride on the ferry as my first set of transportation to get me to the cogwheel. There were a couple different spurts of rain when we were on the boat, but the awesome views made up for it. We made multiple stops on either side of the lake, which gave us multiple points of view on the mountains. Along the way I started talking to this couple from Dubai, because I saw the husband was staying inside during the rain, but looked like he wanted to be outside to get some good shots. I told him he better stay inside to protect his camera. I told him that I used to have a SLR and sometimes wish I would have brought one on the trip. He then asked me some questions about the brightness of his photos and what not, so I did the best I could do to answer them. I probably just confused him, but his photos were looking a little better, and none the less….I had someone talk to. He had me take some photos of him and his wife and he snapped some of me. I told him it sometimes sucks being the camera man, because you’re never in any of the photos. We took a bunch of photos and talked about school and jobs before we finally arrived at the cogwheel. It was pretty darn steep going up this thing. I was facing backwards and the slow chugging of the train put me to sleep. I know there are a lot of great views, and shame on me, but I dozed off a couple times anyways.
When we arrived at the top, it was very cloudy and we couldn’t see much of the surrounding sites. Maybe a peak or two closer in the distance. We decided we would hike up further along this short trail to get to the highest point of Pilatus. On our way up, the clouds began to magically disappear and we could see everything! We could see far off in the distance at further peaks and down to see most of Central Switzerland. The views were breathtaking. We snapped some pictures of each other and eventually made our way down to have a little treat at the ice cream stand. The couple had an ice cream bar, while I had a piece of some kind of apple pie. It was great and held me over till dinner. I learned a lesson today, though. You can’t feed crazy Swiss Crows. I tossed a little guy the crumbs off my plate as I held the remaining piece in my hand. As I did so, some old Swiss lady told me, “You shouldn’t do that. They will attack you for your food.” About 20 seconds later there were 50 or more of these yellow beaked crows flying very close to my head. I was starting to freak out, but luckily I received some of the best advice ever from an old Swiss…..”You better run for cover.” Lol. I quickly took her advice and B-lined it for the covered portion of the little ice cream stand. I was safe, thank goodness , and the crows slowly moved on to soaring around the mountain. After this whole fiasco, the couple and I headed over to the cable car and head down the mountain. I told them that I was going to stop half way down and ride the summer version of a one man bobsleigh. You sit on a plastic platform that has wheels and a little lever poking up through the middle of your legs that controls the break. The run is a winding aluminum half circle that is set into and flush with the ground. It looks just like a bobsleigh run, with raised corners to ride up on, but aluminum and in the ground. The couple didn’t want to do it, but I remember how much fun it was when I did it in 99’ with the fam. I enjoyed it so much the first time, I did it again. The best part is, the man working the tickets, who was the same man that ran the run, couldn’t run my card the second time to pay for my second run. With a line of people waiting to hit the run, he said to forget about it and have a nice day. You can never beat free. Lol. I took the smaller cable car down the rest of the way, and then hoofed it back into town. I swung by the grocery store to snag some pork chops at 8 bucks and small bag of chips for 3. It was cheap and already seasoned. I fried that up back at the hostel and had a couple pieces left over for breakfast or lunch. It will be my breakfast, since I plan on being on Mt. Rigi tomorrow for lunch. Tomorrow is supposed to bring some very warm weather. I made some phone calls to uncle Bob and aunt Karen to figure out where grandpa’s statue is on the Rigi. Uncle Bob gave me some pretty good directions, but still very vague. The plan was to ask where Seeboden Alp was when I got into Kusnacht. Then there should be a restaurant at the top and the statue is just to the right of it. I was up for the adventure and hit the sack so I could get an early start. I hope the weather is nice back home. Do some cliff jumping for me Andrea and Morgan. Iwish I could be watch you guys throw some steezy ished off turtle rock!

Best Regards,

Kurt