We were out of the hotel before 8:30 this morning to catch a…you guessed it…train. Only for the first time on the trip, this train took us to a boat! That boat took us to the small town of Bauen so we could hike from there to Seelisberg along the eastern portion of Lake Lucerne known as Unersee.
This was probably our last significant hike of the trip with a duration of a few hours and a climb of about 1400 feet. The weather has turned very warm in the last day or two with highs in the mid-90s, so we tried to start a bit earlier to avoid the hottest part of the day. Most of the climb came in the first third of our route, so that part was pretty challenging. Things leveled off somewhat after that and even started descending as we got closer to Seelisberg. It was 80° when we started our climb around 10am and temps topped out in the mid-80s before we were done. The elevation and the fact that much of the trail was in the shade both helped us stay relatively comfortable despite the weather.
We had our choice of transportation back to Lucerne once we reached Seelisberg. We could either take a bus and a train to get back faster, or a funicular and a boat which would take longer but would undoubtedly be cooler. Which do you think we chose?
We bought funicular tickets shortly after we got to the station and boarded almost immediately to head down to Treib. There we had a late lunch at one of the busiest restaurants of the whole trip. I had something basic, but Amber tried a really interesting deconstructed salad that included a variety of different items including sausage. most parts had some kind of vinegar finish, but she really liked it.
Our waitress was running herself ragged in the heat (did I mention all the tables were outside?), but she seemed to enjoy coming to our table (in fact she told us so) because we weren’t dissatisfied with the speed of her service like everyone else. So after we split a giant ice cream dessert (hey, we already hiked four miles), I made sure to leave her a nice tip. All I had was US dollars at that point, but she seemed thrilled anyway. Tipping is not expected here like it is in the US, so we’ve only done it when the service was really good and this certainly qualified despite the attitude of her other patrons.
Our ice cream finished, it was time to board the boat back to Lucerne. It took almost two hours, but we were able to stand and then sit outside in the shade where we could feel the cool breeze over the water. It was definitely the right choice for a hot day!
The boat ride ate up the rest of our afternoon, so we went straight back to the hotel to shower and figure out where to have dinner. We settled on an Italian place called La Cucina, and made a reservation with the plan to splurge a bit. We ordered a bottle of wine and each got different veal dishes. Amber’s was better, but mine was still good. For dessert, Amber got mango-passion fruit sorbet and I got Lindt chocolate mousse. Yum!