Breakfast is delicious with many wonderful options. Following the system of rotating seats on the coach, today we occupy the premium seats on the bus immediately behind the driver. Our new driver is Frankie who brings us on a journey for Karlsruhe in Germany, through France, into Switzerland.
We arrive in Lucerne at lunchtime and it is an absolutely beautiful town nestled alongside a superb lake. We enjoy take away sandwich seated by the waterside and Ray whips up a quick watercolour painting. Hopefully his first of a few on this journey.
The afternoon is a complete joy. First we take a cruise with about 3/4 of our group who like us have opted to do this special package. The hour long cruise takes us past homes of the rich and famous and the soaring alps near and far. We are really blessed with a sunny afternoon and not a breath of wind making this all the more dreamy.
Arriving at the Alpnachstad we cross the road and board the cog and wheel train that takes us at 46 degrees (that's very steep) to the top of Mt Pilatus. We spend some time walking on the summit. This is over 7000 feet above sea level taking another ascent by foot to a cross on Oberhaupt.
The descent back to the shores of the Lake is sensational. We travel in firstly a large cable car and then transfer to our own private little cable car called a gondola to complete the magnificent half hour descent to the village of Kriens. On the way down we are delighted with a symphony of bells emanating from the cows grazing on the grass below this is really Switzerland, maybe we will hear someone yodel soon.
Dinner is served in the hotel and we enjoy the company of young Richard and Megan from Hobart. Everyone in the tour group is starting to relax. There are many nationalities amongst the 40 of us including NZ. South Africa, USA, Malaysia,India but there are 16 Aussies four of whom are from Melbourne.
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