Swiss Holidays: Lake Oeschinensee to Lucerne

After waking up early for the third morning in a row, we were one of the first downstairs for breakfast. The sun had finally come out strong, so we packed up our bags and went for one last hike before leaving.

We followed our first path past the lake and up to the chalet restaurant, where we perched on another big rock to take in the view for a final time in the sun. At another chalets we watched the locals haul two logs up the mountainside with a cable and a winch.

We wanted to do the whole circuit hike, but my knees wouldn't have it. So we descended from there, taking our last longing looks at the lake and mountains.

Back at the hotel we grabbed our bag, waved goodbye to the staff, and hiked back to the gondola station. Next to the station was a hillside toboggan run, which I convinced David to take with me, just once.

At the bottom of the cable car run, back to Kandersteg and civilization, we rejoined our car, changed our clothes, and set off with a collective sigh.

Two hours later we arrived in Lucern. We parked the car, stopped for a quick lunch, and visited the Chapel Bridge, which is Europe's oldest wooden bridge.

We drove along Lake Lucern to our hotel, where we were given a lovely room overlooking the lake. We had been quite lucky - every room we'd had on this trip was facing a lake.

Shortly after settling in, the front desk receptionist arrived with a snack of bread, dried meat, and cheese. We sat on the balcony and snacked, and I took advantage of the hotel wi-fi to catch up on news.

We went back to Lucern for a traditional Swiss dinner, then retired early. We'd only had a short hike that morning, but maybe the culmination of the three days in the mountains caught up with me because I was dead tired.