Mt. Pilatus

Yesterday was "Swiss National Day" here in Switzerland, which is the official Independence Day of Switzerland.  It's a national holiday here as you might expect, so Jenny had the day off from work.  The weather was gorgeous so we decided to drive over to the Luzern area and do a trip we've been meaning to do for a long time now - Mt. Pilatus.  Pronounced "Pe-law-tus," Mt. Pilatus (first picture below) is a tall mountain overlooking the city of Luzern and the surrounding lake.  There is a hotel, restaurant, and visitor center at the top of the mountain, and to get there you can ride the "steepest cog rail" in the world.  At an angle of 48 degrees you get shuttled to the top of the mountain in Swiss style and comfort.  The Swiss like to get to the top of their mountains with ease, and this is just another example.  At the top we walked around and did a short hike and took in the awesome scenery.  We also enjoyed watching the "para-gliders" taking off and flying out over the valley.  The mountain gets its name from a Germanic word meaning "broken hill."  Pilatus also has a few legends to its name.  One is that a dragon used to live in a cave near the summit, and that on occasion he would be seen by villagers flying over the countryside.  Another legend is that the ghost of Pontius Pilate haunts the summit, and thus that's where the mountain gets its name.  But we learned the mountain is in fact not named after Pontius Pilate.  Anyway, it's a famous Swiss mountain with a lot of stories to tell.

To get down we took the gondolas, which coast you down the side of the mountain back to the city of Luzern.  On our way down I spotted a small church perched on the edge of a cliff.  I don't know who worships there, but if I were them I'd be praying the church doesn't topple over the cliff.  Anyway, near the bottom we also found a cool "alpine slide" which we enjoyed doing.  

As I mentioned above, we've been meaning to do this day trip for a while now, but the weather has never cooperated.  Fortunately though we were blessed yesterday with great weather.  We had an awesome time.  Between our trip to the top of Jungfrau a few weeks ago, and now Pilatus the kids are having a great time playing in the mountains this summer.