cheese.... Sooo good

April 14, 2014 (By Ben)

Today we got to sleep in, it was nice to rest our weary muscles after sitting in the car for so long, and stressing out about the hotel/lodging for the evening.  It was a beautiful morning and we had a free breakfast buffet waiting for us (Not really free since we are paying so much for the hotel but you get the idea). 

We arrived on the second floor which is the eating floor, and could smell food. There was scrambled eggs, pork chunks (They called it bacon) and sausage(Tasted like hot dogs to me) and the other usual suspects, Fruit, Toast, Yogurts, juice, also since Switzerland seems to cater to Asians there was Noodle Soup, and Rice.  Also there was a large block of Swiss cheese with a Cheese knife that I could just cut as much of it as I liked. It was heavenly for sure.

The first plan of attack today was to go to the Local Mountain (Pilatus or as I like to say, Platypus). We checked with the girl at the lobby of the hotel, and we walked to the tourist information station, to get more info, and tickets.  After a brief walk we arrived at the tourist info center, which is right beside a Burger King, we are constantly surprised about the amount of Burgers Kings there are here, more than Starbucks/McDonalds.

Anyways, there are normally 2 ways up this 7000 Meter mountain, 1: Cog train, the steepest of its kind in the world , 45 Degree angle, and 2: Gondolas.  Well the Cog train was the one that sounded the coolest, however it was closed (Noooooo) due to it still being too early in the season, so we had to get tickets for the Gondolas, (Booo) oh well.   So after spending way too much money for these tickets (I’m never coming here again) we hopped on a Bus.

There are some strange bus’s here, I never took any pics of them, however they are like a regular sized bus, like back home, however they have a trailer, it’s a legit trailer, and that is also for passengers. But there is no way to go between the two since, well it’s a trailer. Anyways 15 minutes up on this bus and a brisk walk and we are at the bottom of the Ride to the top, it was a 25 minute small Gondola ride.

  During which we got to see some traditional Swiss cows, frolicking in the fields with their bells ringing, and some amazing views.

Then we got off at the base of the biggest peak, and they have some activities there, A rope climbing course (Closed) some crazy downhill Tobogganing slope (Closed) so we waited for the next Ride to get up, this one fit a good 20 people.

This ride was very steep, and went over some crazy crevasses, and rock formations, we noticed a little chapel build way out on one of the peaks... all alone. 

Once at the top we were in a very nice observation Deck, with a little store, food bar, etc etc; also it had a hotel which I assume costs more then I can imagine for a night.  One of the first things we noticed (After the amazing views) were these 3 old men, dressed in Traditional clothes, and carrying large case’s, they started to put together some very ornate horns (Alphorn), that were at least 6 feet long, and then they started to play then right there in the viewing room, people were running around to take pictures, and video, it was very cool. I feel this is a dying art, and I assume that no young people take it up these days... FACEBOOK and Twitter are to blame…

So one thing to note is it was very cool up there, clear as day but a cold wind, so we didn’t stay outside super long, first we walked through some tunnels with very minimal guard rails. Along these tunnels were plaques telling the stories of the dragons that lived in these mountains, along with the story of how Pontius Pilate was buried there… Interesting.

We then took a stone staircase up to the top of the one peak with the most amazing view, 

however it also was so cold my hands were numb, and my nose was running so I didn’t want to stay out there much longer. We had a quick snack of nuts and water, and grabbed the next ride down the mountain.

Once at the bottom we got the next bus and decided to take it to a carving of a dying lion that was done in the rock wall on the other side of the city. While on this bus (that happened to be full of high school students) we got into a conversation with a guy that was there teacher, (English Teacher). He makes his class go out and talk to tourists so they can learn the application of English in real conversions with real people.  When we got off the bus a couple of the boys did a quick interview with us, and then it was onto seeing the lion. It was quite large.

We decided to wander for a bit through the shops etc. and I noticed a common trend, most of the stores were run by Asians, and had signs in Korean, Chinese, or Japanese.  This fit with all the Asian Tour groups that were everywhere being annoying. From this point on Switzerland is known at Asian-Land to me, since that seems to be the only demographic they cater to.

So for a few moments I had a weakness and wanted to buy a Swiss army knife, and they make a cool one that has tools on it for laptop repairs, and stuff now, so we were hunting for that one while I thought about it, and considered it.. However I decided in the end to not bother ‘cause I’m too Cheap/Dutch to buy it since I already have all those tools (also it was 69 CHF).

For dinner we decided to go for Fondue, and we found this one place that look pretty good, they have traditional Swiss Cheese fondue, as well and Swiss meat Fondue, and then fitting with the trend I had mentioned before Chinese Fondue..  *Sigh* whatever so we got a cheese , and a Meat one, and it was wonderful. 

More food then I was expecting however that was good since it costs an arm and leg. The cheese was great, and sauces for the meat were awesome. I’m still very full from that meal.

We went back to the hotel for some quiet research time, however it was rudely interrupted by a tour bus full of kids from North Carolina, that are on a school trip or something. Luckily even tho they were on the same floor as us, we didn’t hear them at all. Next stop: cuckoo clock land!