Ashlynn and I hiked down to Gimmewald the old-fashioned way, mostly on farm tracks, to meet our fearless climbers. Unfortunately, our timing didn’t work out to see them on the final 260-foot Nepal bridge crossing a huge crevice. Did manage to get this good photo of the bridge from the gondola on our journey back up to Murren. After seeing that bridge for myself, there’s no doubt that Veronica is one brave adventure girl.
On Wednesday it was time to journey high into the Alps. I was too lazy to research where to visit, so we continued to follow in the footsteps of Jimmy’s sister’s family when they visited Switzerland last summer. We spent 3 nights in the small car-free village of Murren; at 5,400 feet it is only reachable by train or gondola.
While Jimmy and Ashlynn went on Switzerland’s longest summer toboggan run of 4,000 feet (which they loved!), Veronica and I took the gondola on the 5-minute journey to the summit of the 7,000 foot Mt Pilatus. For 100’s of years it was rumored that Pontius Pilate haunted the mountain and it was forbidden to climb. While it’s no longer thought to be haunted, it is still cursed by thick fog which completely obscures the view. That didn’t stop us from thoroughly enjoying the return journey by the world’s steepest cog railway, which opened in 1889 with a gradient of 48%. It was quite dramatic as we broke out of the fog and saw the lovely lake below.
We were disappointed to discover that Mt Pilatus was buried in fog, but we still made the journey to the highest mountain in Central Switzerland. A short bus ride took us to the bottom of the 30-minute cable car up to the Pilatus Seilpark (Switzerland’s largest high ropes park). After some quick training, we geared up and tackled the beginner low ropes course. Needless to say, I was the most nervous and slowest on each crossing. Veronica stuck with me on a 2nd go around, which was enough of an effort for me to then gracefully quit. As they ventured to the higher courses, I was happy to be on solid ground and play photographer. I was incredibly impressed with Ashlynn. While Veronica did a course in Holland, this was Ashlynn’s first time and she was awesome. She was nervous on this postman’s walk (with just one rope underneath and one above to hold onto) while in the middle, but check out the smile as she made it across.
The biggest monkey in our family is definitely Jimmy. He has absolutely no fear of heights and his balance is amazing as demonstrated on several crossings that he did hands-free without slipping off. These photos help show just how foggy it was 4,650 feet up Mount Pilatus.
We enjoyed a 5-minute ferry ride across Lake Lucerne to the Swiss Transport Museum, which was enormous and fascinating. We went on a mine ride to see how old tunnels were built, worked on a puzzle atop a giant aerial photo of Switzerland, and explored halls full of trains, planes, boats and ski lifts.
We didn’t have time to see the hall of cars, but Jimmy & I did have time to stupidly volunteer to experience a head-on collision in 2 Mini Coopers at 8 MPH (might not sound like a lot, but it was still very jolting).
