Viking Rhine Getaway - Our photo intensive review on the Viking Ingvi, Summer 2014

[jpalbny]

Great Lucerne shots - we didn't have time to make it to the city walls. And you had much better lighting for the Lion Monument than we did. It is a moving piece of art... Looking forward to Mt. Pilatus, which we didn't do either.

 

I'm curious, though, why the train ticket kiosks gave you a hard time. We have used them exclusively for the past few years; it really beats waiting in line. Come to think of it, the ticket machines for the metro were a little tricky in Zurich, so maybe that's just how it is in Switzerland. I wanted a day pass for 3 zones and there was no direct way to get it. Had to put in origin, destination, and then upgrade the single-use ticket to a day pass. A little counterintuitive. Kind of like German grammar, to this inveterate English speaker... :rolleyes:

Edited August 25, 2014 by jpalbny

[SoccerMom#3]

And WE have to wait until LATE September 2015 for ours!!! Note where we are from! Where are YOU from in Colorado? Anne ;)

 

You do have to wait for a long time...and I thought April was a long time away :-)

 

How fun to find another Coloradoan going on a river cruise. We're very close to you..We're in Louisville.

Elise

[banditoo]

Jerry, how far of a walk is it to the Lion Monument from central Lucerne? We are hoping to do a day tour to Lucerne from Basel using the combo ticket that can be purchased at the train station and includes Pilatus. In addition to getting to Pilatus, we would want to wander around town for the highlights including Lion Monument. I understand there is a little tourist train that gives a quick overview and history of Lucerne but I think we are more likely to walk everywhere, maybe using Rick Steve's walking tour or something similar as a guide.

[ANSalberg]

You do have to wait for a long time...and I thought April was a long time away :-)

 

How fun to find another Coloradoan going on a river cruise. We're very close to you..We're in Louisville.

Elise

 

Thanks - I was curious [where you live] So many times when anybody compares something or states something - knowing where they are MAKING these decisions matters [ for you & I -LONG long flights to either Asia [us] or for River cruises in EU - have to be considered. Our cruise in another month from HERE is from Italy[ Venice] and we're flying British Air because there will at the VERY least be one [ probably more] plane changes we can avoid -saving a LOT of time. We fly DIA to Heathrow - THAT same day -Heathrow to Venice. Similar on the now projected flight to Bucharest NEXT [2015] Fall. Our TA from Gold Key here in Longmont found a similar changeover. BA is the only overseas carrier, I believe, out of DEnver without stops on the East coast or MORE [ Like Frankfort/ United/Lufthansa] I wasn't trying to JUST be 'nosy'......Ok, I WAS just nosy!

Edited August 25, 2014 by ANSalberg

[AZSwissGal]

I have been following your review since I was interested to see what your impressions of Switzerland are. I was born and raised in Switzerland so I am always curious what other folks think of my home country. The train you took from Basel to Lucerne rode straight through my home town. It is just after Olten on the train line. I am ashamed to say that even though I lived for 25 years only about 30 miles form Lucerne, I never made it to the wall:o Looking forward to your day "climbing" Pilatus.

 

Rita

[cruisinskier]

Great Lucerne shots - we didn't have time to make it to the city walls. And you had much better lighting for the Lion Monument than we did. It is a moving piece of art... Looking forward to Mt. Pilatus, which we didn't do either.

 

I'm curious, though, why the train ticket kiosks gave you a hard time. We have used them exclusively for the past few years; it really beats waiting in line. Come to think of it, the ticket machines for the metro were a little tricky in Zurich, so maybe that's just how it is in Switzerland. I wanted a day pass for 3 zones and there was no direct way to get it. Had to put in origin, destination, and then upgrade the single-use ticket to a day pass. A little counterintuitive. Kind of like German grammar, to this inveterate English speaker... :rolleyes:

 

The issue with the train tickets may have been as simple as user error. :o There were too many choices, it was like you needed to know the end of the line destination (not just your destination) and we also were trying to purchase return tickets (maybe we just needed to buy one-way tickets for our trip out and back). The ticket line wasn't very long and we had our tickets in hand in under 10 minutes. That way we knew we would have exactly what we needed. We knew we had over 30 minutes until the train was leaving so we had lots of time to get our tickets.

[cruisinskier]

Jerry, how far of a walk is it to the Lion Monument from central Lucerne? We are hoping to do a day tour to Lucerne from Basel using the combo ticket that can be purchased at the train station and includes Pilatus. In addition to getting to Pilatus, we would want to wander around town for the highlights including Lion Monument. I understand there is a little tourist train that gives a quick overview and history of Lucerne but I think we are more likely to walk everywhere, maybe using Rick Steve's walking tour or something similar as a guide.

 

Hi Betty. From the train station (which is also the same area as the bus station and also where the boats returning from Pilatus dock), it is about a 15-20 minute walk to the Lion Monument. There may have been a tourist train (I forget everywhere we saw one :confused:) but we chose to walk everywhere.

Jerry

[mimmy52]

I've read that if you want to use one of the kiosks to buy train tickets, you need to have a credit card with a chip.

[cruisinskier]

I have been following your review since I was interested to see what your impressions of Switzerland are. I was born and raised in Switzerland so I am always curious what other folks think of my home country. The train you took from Basel to Lucerne rode straight through my home town. It is just after Olten on the train line. I am ashamed to say that even though I lived for 25 years only about 30 miles form Lucerne, I never made it to the wall:o Looking forward to your day "climbing" Pilatus.

 

Rita

 

Hi Rita. To sum it up in one word it would be...."expensive!" :eek: We knew that before we left but for perspective, one of our group ran to Starbucks, grabbed 4 tea and 2 coffee and it was over 40 CHF (or over $50 CDN). We had a few nice meals and also knew there was a grocery store and other cheaper options in the basement of the train station. Overall we really enjoyed Switzerland, it is very scenic, friendly, clean, and appears to have a strong economy. Actually reminded me of Canada in many ways....I hope to see more of your country if we get the chance in the future. Thanks for following along!

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

Our goal on this day was to do the Golden Round Trip to Mount Pilatus. For anyone thinking of doing this on your own, it is easy to do. We were able to purchase our tickets right at our hotel front desk.

 

Here is the link to the Pilatus website: http://www.pilatus.ch/en/railway-cableways/golden-round-trip/

 

And the attached map shows the circle you basically take on this trip. Right now the upper gondola is closed as they are replacing it for 2015. Most people and groups start out with the boat cruise first however based on comments on these boards and on Tripadvisor, we were advised to go in reverse as the lines are much shorter....and this proved to be the case as we had no lines along our journey.

 

Here is the Pilatus route:

 

[cruisinskier]

I've read that if you want to use one of the kiosks to buy train tickets, you need to have a credit card with a chip.

 

Mimmy, that is correct. We are from Canada and all of our Credit Cards / Debit Cards have chips and a PIN so that was not an issue. We used our cards anywhere in Europe without an issue.

Jerry

[cruisinskier]

So we walked to the bus station and found Bus #1 headed to Kriens

 

 

Get off at the Linde - Pilatus stop and follow the Pilatus signs.

 

 

 

Keep following signs....

 

 

And after an 8-10 minute walk, mostly uphill, you will be here....

 

[cruisinskier]

So onto the gondola we go....

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

After 20 minutes or so, you get out of the smaller gondola and into a large one (this is what is currently closed for upgrades).

 

 

We had the gondola all to ourselves. Just the 6 of us...plus the driver.

 

 

 

We saw a small church up in the mountains

 

 

It was a little cloudy today but we could still see through the clouds

 

 

We arrived at the top at about 10:35 (roughly an hour after we had boarded the bus if you were paying attention)

 

[cruisinskier]

We had arrived

 

 

There is a hotel at the top if you want a unique place to stay...

 

 

We climbed to the top and also hiked along a few of the trails

 

 

There were also some tunnels to wander through the rock

 

 

The clouds were rolling in....

 

 

[cruisinskier]

You can see the construction had started for the gondola upgrades

 

 

The station at the top is also where the cog rail trains arrive and depart so it is easy to get your connection back down when you are done.

 

 

This is the world's steepest cog rail

 

 

There were cows in the upper pastures as we were coming down....and you can hear those bells a long way away!

 

 

 

There were some folks hiking down

 

[cruisinskier]

Here is a brief video of one of the cog rail trains passing us....gives you an idea of the angle going down.

 

[cruisinskier]

We arrived at the bottom station (you can see the line of people waiting to go up...we had NO lines going the other direction)

 

 

And across the road (which has a tunnel underpass), the boat was waiting for us...

 

 

The trains had started back up

 

 

And the hills along the lake were exactly the scenery you expected when you think of Switzerland

 

Edited August 26, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

We boarded the boat and settled in with a beverage for our boat trip

 

 

 

 

 

The skies were threatening but we were having fun regardless....

 

[cruisinskier]

 

 

And after 50 minutes or so, we were back at the dock in Lucerne, basically where we had started this morning.

 

 

We had all enjoyed our trip up Mount Pilatus...it was roughly a five hour journey at a relaxed pace.

 

[jpalbny]

Beautiful trip up Mt. Pilatus! Will have to put it on the "to do" list...

[AZSwissGal]

Hi Rita. To sum it up in one word it would be...."expensive!" :eek: We knew that before we left but for perspective, one of our group ran to Starbucks, grabbed 4 tea and 2 coffee and it was over 40 CHF (or over $50 CDN). We had a few nice meals and also knew there was a grocery store and other cheaper options in the basement of the train station. Overall we really enjoyed Switzerland, it is very scenic, friendly, clean, and appears to have a strong economy. Actually reminded me of Canada in many ways....I hope to see more of your country if we get the chance in the future. Thanks for following along!

Jerry

 

Can't argue with that summation, lol. Every time I go back home I go into sticker shock. That's funny about the Starbucks. My DD and I spent a couple of weeks visiting two years ago. When we were exploring Lucerne she saw the Starbucks and wanted to get one (she is kind of an addict), but she quickly changed her mind when she saw the prices:D Unfortunately, we could not do Mt Pilatus because my DD is afraid of heights, so the gondolas were out. One of the trips we did was to the Matterhorn, though, which was really cool.

 

I'm glad that you enjoyed it overall. It really is a beautiful country. When people ask me if I am going back when I retire, I tell them I can't afford to live there:rolleyes:

Rita

[jpalbny]

There are other expensive places on-par with, or even more so than, Switzerland. Two that come immediately to mind are Iceland and Norway, and my sense from having eaten in all of these places is that food there is more expensive than it is in Switzerland. I think (for me) the reason that Switzerland seems so expensive is that food is so much less expensive in Germany, right next door.

 

Concrete example - we had a casual dinner at the Rathaus Braueri, along the river in Lucerne (right by the end of the Chapel Bridge). 2 simple dishes - some meatballs and some brats, plus a few beers and glasses of wine were about CHF 90. A comparable meal can be had in Germany at a casual sit-down restaurant/café for half of that price. Going from one to the other, you will find the difference quite striking.

 

But the scenery makes you forget the prices! Hopefully since I mentioned Lucerne, this isn't too far OT. Apologies to cruisinskier, and back to your great review...

[cruisinskier]

Can't argue with that summation, lol. Every time I go back home I go into sticker shock. That's funny about the Starbucks. My DD and I spent a couple of weeks visiting two years ago. When we were exploring Lucerne she saw the Starbucks and wanted to get one (she is kind of an addict), but she quickly changed her mind when she saw the prices:D Unfortunately, we could not do Mt Pilatus because my DD is afraid of heights, so the gondolas were out. One of the trips we did was to the Matterhorn, though, which was really cool.

 

I'm glad that you enjoyed it overall. It really is a beautiful country. When people ask me if I am going back when I retire, I tell them I can't afford to live there:rolleyes:

Rita

 

When I was planning this trip, I really had hoped to fit in a trip to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn but just not enough time this trip. It is on my very long bucket list :D :D

Edited August 27, 2014 by cruisinskier

[cruisinskier]

There are other expensive places on-par with, or even more so than, Switzerland. Two that come immediately to mind are Iceland and Norway, and my sense from having eaten in all of these places is that food there is more expensive than it is in Switzerland. I think (for me) the reason that Switzerland seems so expensive is that food is so much less expensive in Germany, right next door.

 

Concrete example - we had a casual dinner at the Rathaus Braueri, along the river in Lucerne (right by the end of the Chapel Bridge). 2 simple dishes - some meatballs and some brats, plus a few beers and glasses of wine were about CHF 90. A comparable meal can be had in Germany at a casual sit-down restaurant/café for half of that price. Going from one to the other, you will find the difference quite striking.

 

But the scenery makes you forget the prices! Hopefully since I mentioned Lucerne, this isn't too far OT. Apologies to cruisinskier, and back to your great review...

 

I will add Monaco to the list of places where food is so expensive. And again, go a few miles on either side to Italy or France and the same meal is much more realistic.

 

With regards to Switzerland, there was a constant long lineup in the grocery store in the basement of the Lucerne train station. I got the feeling that lots of people were looking for a cheaper way to eat....