Not planes, and automobiles, but lots of trains!

We left Martigny before daylight .  In record time we had left our hotel, stopped at a convenience store for juice, taken the bus to the train station, purchased a fresh bakery pastry, and were waiting for our train.

We were up earlier than the high school students this morning.  Our route today took us through several interesting areas.  We rode through more lush vineyards, and at Visp we took a train headed north to Thun.  This train took us through a very long (20-mile?) tunnel.  We took another train through an area I had read about that was supposed to be very rural and scenic.  We passed beautiful Swiss farmlands and the early morning sunlight made the green pastureland almost glisten.

By the time we arrived in Luzern we had ridden on five different trains through all types of terrain.  We stashed our big backpacks in a locker and caught another train (this would be #6 for the day).  This train took us to Arth-Goldau where we took Europe's first mountain cogwheel railway to the top of Mount Rigi.  This is a view taken from the train going up.

Mount Rigi is located between Lakes Luzern, Zug, and Laurez with a sweeping view of the area.  The day was bright and sunny, but it was hazy, so we could not as far as is possible on a really clear day.  We ate our picnic lunch when we got off the train. This was our view for lunch.

We couldn't resist taking an awful tourist-only photo.

There was still a ciimb (see behind us in the photo) to reach the true summit of Rigi.  They had the cutest sign showing two ways to reach the summit...the young man's way and the old man's way.  I will leave you guessing which way we took!

We stopped to watch some hang gliders sail off the top of Rigi.

We came down Mount Rigi by a lift that took us to the town of Weggis, where we enjoyed the view of the lake before catching the next boat back to Luzern for the nght.

Thanks to our wonderful Swiss Pass, we were able to enjoy the entire day at no extra cost.  At last count, we have taken six different trains, a cog train, a lift, and a boat today.  That sounds like "planes, trains, an automobiles", but actually we took only one of those three.  And, in addition, we have used a lot of shoe-leather on the paths and walks we took.

So, it is time to rest our weary feet.  From Luzern, Switzerland, good night.