Every View is a Postcard

Hmmm, yes… a bit crazy. A few days after returning from Boston, I’m back in the air again. This time after work on Edelweiss Air’s seasonal nonstop flight from Calgary to Zurich, Switzerland. Another flight itinerary dictated by when i could get the flights I wanted on points, but it worked out exactly as I had hoped! This is another interesting aircraft to me, as it is an A340-300, which is the smaller brother to the A340-600 that I flew from Frankfurt to Boston last week. There are still quite a few of these going though, but it’s a treat to fly on one as they are indeed rare. I was able to select one of the throne seats, so I’ll call myself King of Switzerland for this flight.

It was my first time flying Edelweiss, and it was interesting to see some of the differences between itself and Swiss, the mainline airline that owns this leisure focused carrier. Such as an amenity tube, instead of amenity kit. It still contained socks, an eye mask, and toothbrush (but no earplugs?).

Goodbye, Calgary, be back soon!

The flight was just fine and I got a few hours of sleep on the way over. As usual I didn’t wake for breakfast and got up about an hour before arrival. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day in Switzerland.

We were delayed for air traffic flow management and circled a few times west of Zurich, but touched down just a bit ahead of schedule.

I had a quick shower to freshen up at the Swiss arrivals lounge and then headed out on the train to Goldau, a town south of Zurich in the mountains.

I’m taking a cog railway up to the top of the local mountain massif Rigi – “Queen of the Mountains” where I’ll spend the day hiking and enjoying the views.

It was my first time on a cog railway, and it was pretty steep indeed. The way up was scenic, with a few stops on the way where people got on and off to check out various trails and viewpoints.

When we were about 2/3 of the way up the landscape opened and we could see the top marked with a large antenna, beyond steep meadows dotted with trees.

At the end of the railway, there is a restaurant, and even higher, almost right at the summit, is a hotel. Yep, it’s Switzerland alright!

There were two lines that went up/down different sides of the mountain that joined at the top. This summit, the highest point, is Rigi Kulm – 1797 metres above sea level.

Here is the train that we came up on.

Alpine moon daisies abound in the sunny meadows.

It was possible to ascend a stairway several metres up the antenna tower, so I did that and got above the people on the pathway. Really great views already.

This is Lake Zug (Zugersee) below on the northeast side.

Another cog train, this one heading down to Vitznau on the south side.

The line to Vitznau runs above Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee) on the western side of the massif.

Wow is right! At Hotel Edelweiss along the path.

There were quite a few opportunities for stops on the path. Some memorial benches, such as this one.

Plenty of barbecue areas stocked with wood, but there were fire restrictions so weren’t in use today.

A distance marker to notable major cities.

This stunning viewpoint of Lake Lucerne was surprisingly empty.

This was a typical section of path. I’m sure it gets very busy here on the weekends.

This small chapel was tucked away behind rock walls on 3 sides at Rigi Kaltbad.

I stopped at this terrace for a coffee and pastry. I could have really gone for a burger but it was 34 Swiss Francs (about 60 Canadian dollars) so I figured I’d wait.

Another train heading to Vitznau, down the steep slope.

I found these double sided chairs so interesting. One side for sitting, one side for lounging. There were a lot of them.

Another restaurant in a beautiful setting that felt very Swiss.

Lookking back now, you can see the Rigi Kulm summit where I started. Yeah, I cheated a bit by starting at the highest point so most of the hike would be downhill.

All across these hills were cows scattered about grazing, and the wind was very calm so you could constantly hear cowbells clanging faintly from many directions.

Part of the trail follows a former cog railway route, which contained this pretty bridge.

I made a mistake here though, and realized it too late. I went over top of the bridge, but should have taken the lower path below the bridge, closer to the lake, for some more stunning wide open views over the lake.

I did have a consolation prize on my route however: an old tunnel.

Here is one of the local residents.

I neared the end of my hiking journey at the Scheidegg summit. A bear had been carved into this stump, very cute.

There were quite a few paragliders taking advantage of the great weather today.

There was a small village basically right at the top.

And even a resident harvesting hay. I saw one of these on an extremely steep slope earlier in the hike. Would be scary.

The very top had a small observation platform which was nice to get above the trees and buildings.

More local residents.

Time to head back down towards town, this time on the gondola which will bring me back to the first cog railway.

Looking back up at Rigi Scheidegg from the Kräbel station.

Curiously, this train had an open air, non powered, trailer car. That would have been nice to ride in, but being one of the last stops, it was already full.

And now back at the mainline SBB railway station Arth-Goldau, here’s my Trenitalia equipped train from Milan which will take me back to Zurich.

It was only about 45 minutes to get back to the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

I felt that I deserved McDonald’s and had the McRaclette – a burger with bacon and onions on a ciabatta bun. It was only $30 for the combo. I always forget how expensive everything is in Switzerland.