Instead of taking the William Tell Express from Luzern to Uri we took the regularly scheduled train. I wasn't really looking forward to a two hour boat ride crisscrossing the lake, and the local train uses the same tracks as the scenic William Tell Express, so off we went.
Here's Bob waiting with our suitcases. We had to heave those two big guys up the train steps and onto the train, and it wasn't easy until Bob decided to get on board first and haul my suitcase up after him. Nice!
While we were killing time at the train station I checked the vending machine to see what kind of chocolate they sell. I found Twix and Snickers along with some surprises we wouldn't find in a vending machine in the good old USA. Zoom in on the picture and near the center you can see the MAYBE BABY test kit right over the can of CANNABIS ICED TEA! That made me chuckle the rest of the trip, and it was in every vending machine. I checked!
When we got to Lugano we happened upon an Alp Horn concert. What fun!
Lake Lugano is surrounded by many small towns, most of which are in Italy.
A park along Lake Lugano.
The first part of the William Tell Express is a bus trip from Lugano to Tirano and it goes through Italy for a little while, so we were able to see a part of Northern Italy too.
We had a short rest stop in Italy, and I noticed that the roof of this house was held down with rocks!
We reached Tirano and boarded our train for this leg of the William Tell Express . I was worried because we needed reservations for the William Tell Express, and we made our reservations just the day before.
When the train arrived we searched for our car and the conductor told us that it was on the end of the train. What a great surprise! We were the only people in the train car. The one next to us was packed, so I guess they added another car for two people!
We read about Switzerland's wonderful arches used for trains to climb a steep grade, and they were fascinating.
Once again, the scenery was beautiful.
We stayed in Pontresina for a few days, and again, we loved it there.
While we were in Pontresina we hiked in the Alps again, and this time we took a funicular to Muottas Muragl, which was at 8,105'.
That's St. Moritz in the distance.
There was a restaurant up there, and you can rent deck chairs or start your hike. We chose to hike.
The trail was fairly flat, and went across the side of Alp Muottas.
We hiked past another little restaurant, which was closed, but we packed a lunch so it didn't bother us.
Someone has a sense of humor up there. Look at the sunglasses on the ibex!
They really want you to stay away from their cows on this trail.
It's easy to see the trail in this photo.
This was a nice place to stop for lunch. It had a little bench and a beautiful view!
Bob noticed the avalanche barricades high on the mountain. Pontresina is directly below us, and they don't want their town wiped out by an avalanche.
This part didn't thrill me at all. Another tunnel!
Going down wasn't really fun. I don't like heights and this ski lift was high with a turn at the end, plus it was a windy day!
Pontresina had a lot of nice hiking trails, and we definitely would like to hike more of them. Not this time though, because tomorrow we'll board the Glacier Express and head to Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn!!!
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