Confoederatio Helvetica

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After spending the morning in Innsbruck, chasing ambulances and eating incredibly large pretzels, we drove through Vaduz, Liechtenstein. I think the only reason for the stop was so that I could write "I've been to Liechtenstein." right now.
From there we traveled to Flüelen, Switzerland. Again another lovely drive that had me licking the windows with the desire to paddle the heck out of alpine lakes.
Our hotel was literally on the shore of Lake Lucerne, which was excellent!
The next day we went to the city of Lucerne, where we visited the beautiful lion monument, chapel bridge, and, again stumbled upon a cluster of ambulances. Those Swiss have some awesome EMS uniforms. I feel my uniform is lacking some serious hi-vis; my pants have none!

I firmly believe that a mark of a good trip is the use of various forms of transportation. In the trip to, up, and down Mt. Pilatus, we used four. A boat took us across the lake to the foot of the mountain. We then ascended the 7000' mountain on the world's steepest cog railway (48% grade.)
I really don't know enough adjectives to accurately describe the whole experience. In short: amazing. It's not everyday that I get to see 12,000' mountains. It is also not everyday that I get into a car supported by cables and let it fling me down a mountain. That was the first stage of getting back down. When that torture was over, we clamored into smaller four person gondolas to take us the remaining maybe 5000' feet. And it wasn't a short ride, we had 30 minutes to enjoy the view and relax a bit (once I accepted that we probably would not fall to our deaths, and the thing wouldn't sway in the wind.)
Happy to be safely on the ground we returned to Luzern for some free time to stock up on Swiss army knives and Rolexes.

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