I’m off the clock, tour guide wise. We’re sitting in our hotel in Lucerne and it’s all up to Charlotte, the Tauck tour guide to figure out which train station is which. We’re meeting in a few minutes for a brief walking tour and then the welcome session starting at 6 PM. It’s always interesting to meet the folks with whom we’ll be spending the next week.

Today went without a hitch, logistically speaking. We woke up at 6 AM to make the 7:15 AM Eiger Express gondola up the mountain. The gondola takes us about halfway up the hill to the Eiger glacier, a 15-minute ride. There we transferred to the Jungfrau railway, a true railroad that took us to the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe. (You have to watch the folks over here. Just about everything is the largest/highest/longest whatever in Switzerland/Europe/World.) Junfraujoch refers to the saddle that connects two mountain peaks: the Munsch and the Junfrau. 

We had nice views in the gondola but, somewhat to my disappointment, the Jungfrau Railway is drilled entirely into the side of the mountain. It runs through the Eiger and Munsch mountains. Nap time. Nothing to see. The Swiss have a thing about drilling holes in the ground for tunnels. The road from Lucerne down to Grindelwald had a bunch. The amazing thing is that the original railroad was constructed in 1890s pretty much by pick, shovel and wheelbarrow and the occasional stick of dynamite, I suppose. Today’s railroad is thoroughly modern. The Eiger Express, an overgrown ski lift but really fast and really nice, is brand new.

At the top there are a number of activities available. We walked through a system of tunnels, stairwells and the occasional elevator. The temperature indoors was warm enough; outside the thermometer read 3 degrees Celsius, about 37 degrees back home. Here’s what we did:

• We had a coffee shop lunch first thing, which gave us the first nourishment of the day and a chance to sit and catch our breath. At 11,300 feet breath was hard to come by. We all experienced dizziness and shortness of breath, especially Nana and I.
• We visited the Sphynx, a platform with views of the Jungfrau Mountain proper and the Aletsch glacier the largest/longest (depends on who you talk to) in Europe. See the pictures.
• We walked up a slight incline (pant, pant) to the start of a snow packed trail leading to the Monchsjoch Hut, the highest altitude serviced hut in Switzerland. Carter started up the trail but when he got ¾ of the way there he dropped his water bottle, which rolled down a long downhill section of the trail. He retrieved it but, feeling a headache coming on, decided he’d done enough and returned.
• We toured the Ice Place that sports not only ice sculpture, but a large network of caves and passageways made entirely of smooth ice. 
• By then Carter was feeling it: altitude sickness was our diagnosis. We tried a little cafeteria food but that wasn’t working so we called an audible and rushed to catch the 11:47 train down.
• Carter was somewhat improved, but still with a headache. The good news was that our driver was in town so within 15 minutes we were on our way back to Lucerne, where we arrived around 3 PM.

But despite the issues we had a great experience in the heart of the Swiss Alps.

Our Tauck tour group sent us out on a city walking tour to see the old parts of this 80,000-person town. Lake Lucerne is, like most European cities, is medieval for the most part. We walked across a wooden bridge, originally constructed in the 12^th century, that formed a perimeter defense for the city. A section of it burned in the 1990s but has been restored. 

Lake Lucerne, and the river we crossed by bridge, is fed from glacial melt. Last year, the town suffered flooding from high waters. In fact, the damage to the bridge was so extensive because the water level was high and the fire boats couldn’t fit under another bridge to reach the scene. This year, the river is unusually low.

We attended a cocktail hour mixer affair. Turns out, a family of 15 are all from Winchester, MA, a town next to Melrose. Small world. There are 35 people in all, divided roughly equally between kids and adults. There are some Carter’s age but a number who are Esme and even Griffin’s age. 

Tomorrow we’re off to near-by Mt. Pilatus for a ride up on what is said to be the steepest cog railway in the world. We’re on the bus at 9 AM so we’ll avoid the crazy early morning schedule of the past few days.

Sorry, the pictures are out of order but it’s too late at night to fix ’em. Maybe later.