For the past few months, ever since the reality of this trip began to sink in, I would wake up in the middle of the night and think, “Will I do it? Will I be brave enough and physically capable of joining Carter in some of the adventures this trip includes?” Specifically, the rope course.

I’ve done a rope course before, 10 years ago in Mexico. Carter’s family was along on the trip but Carter, age 4, was too young to do the course. Ever-thoughtful Nana volunteered to stay behind with little Carter. (Lou, Carter’s other grandmother, wanted the honor but somehow Judy won out.)

Rope courses entail two activities: crossing from Point A to Point B using a suspended series of contraptions that swing in the breeze and require balanced, coordination and mental stamina to complete. Then, you hook your harness to a zip line and traverse from Point B to Point C where you encounter another rope challenge. There is a bit of balance, coordination and mental stamina required in zipping. One hand keeps you from rotating as you traverse the line and the other grasps the line to slow your speed as you approach Point C. Too much braking, and you have to pull yourself hand-over-hand to Point C. Too little breaking and you crash into Point C. Check out the picture of me to see the result of a crash landing. Here’s a link to a description of the course: https://www.pilatus.ch/en/discover/pilatus-rope-park/parkour.

Ten years ago, I didn’t score very high in the balance, coordination and bravery categories. Today, 10 years later, things haven’t gotten any better. But when Charlette said, “Raise your hand if you want to do Ropes, I looked at my poor little grandson (who now is officially a quarter-inch taller and 60 years younger) and said to myself, “You can’t let the little tyke do this All By Himself.” I raised my hand. Besides, I wanted the bragging rights.

Carter and I made a good team. He led the way except for one really scarry spot where he asked me to go first. I managed somehow but after watching me he hooked his zip line mechanism to the belaying line and zipped across rather than trying to duplicate my clumsy and scary technique.

In the end, I did it and didn’t fall or, worse yet, embarrass myself too terribly. We did two easy courses before thunder sounded and they closed the course. Our guide told us the second course we did was in fact quite difficult and I’ll take her word for it. Unfortunately, as happened when I rode on a camel in Egypt, I was too terrified to pull out my iPhone and shoot any pictures but I did live to tell you the tale.

While we did ropes, Nana did a mountain toboggan run that was lots of fun. It was a good thing because she would have died a thousand deaths watching us from the ground.

All this took place on Mt. Pilatus, a mountain overlooking Lucerne. The mountain is named for Pontius Pilate, you know, the guy who order the execution of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross two thousand years ago. Seems that Pontius committed suicide. No one wanted his body and it found its way to France and then somehow to a mountain in Switzerland where it was dumped in a lake. Mt Pilatus thereby, in local lore, was said to house not only the body but Pontius’s ghost. Local folk were prohibited from climbing the mountain for fear that such intrusion would wake the ghost, which would create mayhem – storms, floods, pestilence and whatever. It wasn’t until British mountaineers demonstrated that there was no lake on top of the mountain and that climbing it would lead to nothing evil.

We rode up in the steepest cog railway to near the summit where the Swiss have constructed a complex of viewing platforms, hiking trails, restaurants and cafeteria food services and a hotel. We spent a couple of hours hiking to nearby peaks on the mountain and had lunch. Carter did some more photography using the telephoto lens, specializing on bird pictures. Then, we descended about half—way down to another stop in a spacious gondola to the ropes course complex and later went the rest of the way down in a four-person gondola.

Before leaving for Mt. Pilatus, we walked a short distance to the Lion of Lucerne, a carving in the side of a former quarry that commemorates the death of 1,000 Swiss mercenaries who signed up to fight on the wrong side of the French Revolution at the end of the 18^th century. In medieval times people of Lucerne were extremely poor so the men hired themselves out as mercenary fighters for the French and Italian and other kings. That came to an end with this terrible loss. Today, it is against Swiss law for a Swiss citizen to serve as a mercenary. The Swiss Guard who protect the Pope at the Vatican are the only exception.

Now we’re chilling in our hotel rooms. It’s raining and thundering. We were lucky today; the clouds didn’t sock in the summit until we were ready for lunch and the rain didn’t start until I was ready to cry Uncle. Carter and I spotted an Italian restaurant on the river not far from our hotel and we even have a bead on an ice cream stand between here and there. The rain is supposed to let up by 8 PM.

Tomorrow, we have a boat ride on Lake Lucerne and then take the five-hour Glacial Express to St. Moritz.

The rain actually quit by 6 PM and we really enjoyed the Italian food (a guy can only take so much wienerschnitzel, bratwurst and potatoes). We took a nice walk along Lake Lucerne before hitting the gelato stand nearby.