3500 feet

An uneventful week of training- the last before the health club closes for a week.

I was able to catch the church bells last Sunday on my route

I had 4 days of workouts in a row due to weather and it made for a tough training schedule. Weather was generally cooler and had a few days of rain. Here are some shots from my shorter/lower hikes of the week around mount Sonnenberg

On Thursday I was too drained to do the self tour, but did go into town and had an ice coffee which was expensive, but very yummy.

Nothing is worse than trying to track distance or altitude and have my watch go on pause- either be I forgot to turn it on or because it hit my arm. This happens several times, but do think I got to 3500 feet and hike lasted about 12 miles. The last part before turn around was an exposed trail and I turned around before the chains installed to help pull you up. I met some who turned me on to a more reasonable assent for next week where my goal is 4000. This wasn’t a fun hike- was a grind. The middle picture shows the ski lift mid-station stop. If you look closely you’ll see the cables that take it further - to the top of Pilatus.

Today weather was wonderful and I had the energy to do a self guided tour of Lucerne. Of the 12 stops, the most impressive were the 2 covered bridges built in the 1600s with paintings of the same time period still visible along the way across the bridges, the city walls, and most impressive was the lion carved in rock. Lucerne was one of the first true tourist destinations in Switzerland, visited, by none other than Mark Twain. It is so hot that there is no snow on the alps, but at least it is cooler as you get up higher. Afterwards I treated myself to a very expensive bratwurst at a restaurant on the lake.

On another note, I finally finished streaming GOT to see all the filming locations we saw in Dubrovnik. I wouldn’t say it was worth the time, but interesting nonetheless because I slept through major parts of the story first time through.