Wed 6th July Pilatus

 Today was the day to climb the Mountain we have been looking at from the balcony in Horw. It was sunny first thing but before we even caught the bus there were clouds drifting around the peak. Regardless we set off catching the bus to the base of the mountain in Luzern.This was because we have the Grand Tour to complete today.  Once we walked up from the bus stop to the chair lift we were up and  away. From the chair life we transferred to a cable car which holds 55 people. That took us right to the top. The view was stunning but cloud was driftingin and around all of the top in patches. Hence most of our photos have cloud picture frames.

We took some photos of a couple of senior citizens who came up to play their Swiss Horns. It was a very melodious performance. Later we came across a couple of women who played jaunty tunes on small accordiians. Meanwhile we went for a walk up to the summit and then climbed down some steep steps and a path to a lunnel which went through the perimeter of the mountain and back to our starting point. Maria then led us down to the "Dragon's Cave" which had an audio visual presentation of a local myth. We played with that for a while  and then went for some lunch. This was on the terrace and by then the cloud had decided to envelope that area and it was time to have jackets on as it was pretty chilly. After a visit to the shop to see what might be there we headed for the funicular which took us down the opposite side of the mountain to our trip up. Along this route we could see the hardy types who were either walking down or climbing up.

Once at level ground again we walked over for the second last trip of the day. This was a ferry ride down the lake to Luzern central.  Here we stopped for a drink at a Restaurant and brewery managed by a friend of the family.  After a drink and some pretzel bread we moved to another of her restaurants to arrange reservations for a Traditional dinner Night for the four of us plus Lea and Michael on Sat evening. From there it was the bus trip back to Horw to kick off our shoes. It was a fantastic day despite  the clouds frustrating us a times. I will post some of the photos in two batches.