Zurich, Switzerland (Alpes - Titlis) Part II

April 7, 2015

My day began at 8:00am with an absolutely amazing view of the sun rising above the mountains , while I enjoyed an elaborate breakfast buffet. By 9:00am we were back on the Dragon gondola to bring us back down Mountain Pilatus! We had a small trek through the city of Luzern one last time and of course once again got a Starbucks (which btw is freaking crazy expensive!! Two medium coffees cost 19 Franc which equals about $35.00). We then trekked to a nearby bus station and waited for our ride to the Luzern train station. Switzerland's public transportation looks and operates exactly like OC Transpo in Ottawa, except it's always on time, is extremely reliable and you know all those other things that OC Transpo is not... Their bus stops however, are all electronic and only operate in German, luckily enough, the people of Luzern are rather friendly and very helpful :) Once at the train station (which was our meeting point) we hopped on our coach bus and headed for the village of Engelberg.

The village of Engelberg is like most places in Switzerland; they are traditional and seem to be very determined to keep away from modernization. Most houses are log cabins, most individuals must go to bigger cities in order to work, and of course the scenery is beyond beautiful! Most habitants of Switzerland speak 2 to 4 different German dialects, English, French (although they prefer not to speak it even though they are amazing at it) and Spanish. Most people that you encounter speak at least 5 different languages! Our tour guide explained that Switzerland is a small country which often must reach out to other surrounding countries and in order to do so language is important and is a key to success in Switzerland. 

The giant ice mountain you see in the distance is the monster we would soon climb! I thought Mount Pilatus was a difficult task, but nothing could prepare me for today's excursion! 

In the village of Engelberg we spoke with many locals but also people from across Europe! Many come to the village of Engelberg to ski. Out of curiosity I asked them how long it takes to ski down the hill for a good skier... the answer... approximately 2 hours! 

As we carried on through the city there was an awesome outdoor photo studio taking pictures... and well as you can see the results are on the right (I couldn't help it)! The photo is poor quality because the photo I have is a physical copy so I took a picture of a picture essentially. 

For those of you dying to know, yes I did indeed yell RICOLA! The photographer asked us to do 3 funny poses and that was the only funny thing I could think of. The entire studio broke out into laughter, and thanked me for "being a little out there"... still not sure this was a compliment, but hey, I made a bunch of people smile and thats all that truly matters. 

GONDOLA VIEW OF ENGELBERG

This photo was taken at approximately 5,000 feet above sea-level from a gondola cart. The village of Engelberg is quite diverse, as you can see in the image; on one side it is surrounded by a beautiful forest, and the adjacent side is populated by a small village (Engelberg) that lays on a breathtaking hillside with a small lake. Beyond this forest and hill side is where we then find these majestic mountains! 

Once up the gondola we trekked through a small forest and began our climb! The increase in altitude proved to be rather difficult and made it quite hard to breathe (especially for gimpy lunged people like me)! However, I was determined to make this trek a success and it was something I had wanted to do for a long time!   

There were many steep peaks along the way, which seemed to have a pulling motion when you looked down. It was also very tricky to trek through such deep snow, especially since Mount. Titlis is a glaciers. Sometimes our footing would slip, and once in motion it was hard to stop the downward motion. 

Now we did indeed trek and for many hours and through difficult obstacles but we had a lot of help up this giant beauty. Many part of Mount. Titlis are far too dangerous to climb during the winter, so a gondola helps with much of the hike. 

Once we reached our peak (which capped at 10,000 feet above sea-level) we were left to wander this beautiful snow desert on our own! 

I say snow desert because that is exactly what it is! You see mountains upon mountains and they seem to appear out of no where. After a while of traveling it gets hard to tell which mountain is which, and your direction or path is quickly lost.

After walking for hours I was truly eager to return home with my mind full of amazing sights!

THE DESERT OF SNOW - MOUNTAINS, UPON MOUNTAINS

When I finally stood at the top this was my view... Every fright, pain, and exhausting moment that I experienced was worth while just to stand and see this! Not to mention how accomplished I felt!

This is just another beautiful view from the top of Mount Titlis. The sun was shinning and although it was a little colder than what we experienced on Mount. Pilatus, it was nothing we haven't experienced in Canada! 

The pictures don't really do the mountains much justice, and it is hard to deliver the depth, however, they still look beyond amazing!

HANGING IN SUSPENSE

A suspended bridge 10,000 feet above sea-level connected two peaks and gave you the perfect view of what I've been calling the "snow desert". Crossing this darn thing for me was one of the more challenging task of this entire excursion. Seems silly considering everything else on this trip was far more dangerous... however, it felt the least secure, it moved quite a bit, and was slippery due to the ice that covers it during winter. It also made some pretty awful sounds when a strong wind would hit, which happened to be every few mins today! Nonetheless, I crossed and the view on the other side was more than rewarding. 

                       

                               MOUNT. TITLIS ICE CAVES

We finished off our day with some exciting cave skating! On the inside of Mount. Titlis is a small ice cave (because its a glacier). The ice is so smooth and the floor is like a skating rink. If you lift your feet and walk normally it tends to be quite slippery as you make your way through (which is why its better to just skate). However, if you ever plan to visit this for yourself BEWARE of the Frost sprayer! Gauthier was a head of me filming and I was racing to catch up to him and I had not only one... but two typical "Sandra" moment. The first was that as I raced to catch up the cave ceiling was a tad lower than I estimated and that thing took me right out. As I got up to try and catch up to him ever more aggressively than before (cause he was laughing at me) 3 frost sprayers went off and of course caught off guard... down on my bum I went again. Fair to say I got up slowly, took a bow and allowed him to bathe in glory of his wonderful victory (it was earned as I truly had an epic fail). The last little kick, was probably the Chinese couple that looked at me and said "aren't you from Canada"? I think if anyone was starring at me they could see the steam leaving my ears.





We made our way back to the train station of Zurich, had a wonderful dinner and now we are heading to bed! Tomorrow morning we leave for Germany around 9:30am! Hope you enjoyed today's blog entry, that my epic fail brought a smile to your face and of course I hope you are all well!

Thanks again for sharing the excitement and following along!

- San