Airbnb was a home run for us in Lucerne...incredibly so. Tony and Dominique rented their spare room to us, but treated us like family. They are young professionals in their mid twenties. "Domi" works and also goes to college part time. Tony sells hotel meeting space at one of the nicer local hotels.
We got to know them last night sitting on the terrace on the roof of the apartment (incredible views of mount Pilatus). David played guitar while we socialized. During the conversation, Domi mentioned that she and her best friend Julie were planning to hike mount Pilatus and asked if we wanted to join them. Couple of things about Domi: she is a Swiss alps ski and snowboard instructor and she avoids the tourist routes. I should have thought that through a bit more before committing...but commit we did!
While a normal tourist would have taken a mountain train to the midway point and hiked some well groomed paths to the top (or taken the train all the way to the summit), we caught a local train to the other side of the mountain and then a local cab up to the base...and then, the hike of the year began.
We will attach pictures, but there is no way they can convey the challenge of it nor the beauty of it. I can't tell you how many times I had to keep telling myself to just take the next step...meanwhile, up ahead, the two girls were chatting away like this was a stroll in the park. And David has dolphin lungs and beat us all to the top. I used my GPS and an app to track our hike. I don't know how to compare, but we went up just over 3000 vertical feet in a span of 4 miles! I WILL be sore tomorrow!!
After the hike, the girls went on back down while Dave and I ate sandwiches we had brought with us. After that, we took the mountain train back down, then took a beautiful boat ride around the huge lake, seeing a variety of different small towns for a a few hours. Arriving back to Lucerne around 6 PM.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment,Tony and a friend of his worked preparing delicious fondue for dinner for us. We all carried various items to the roof and had a delightful fondue dinner as we watched the sun set...a perfect ending to a perfect day in Lucerne Switzerland.
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