From Lucerne, we went up to nearby Mount Pilatus. We weren't sure if we could do it or not as that morning, the power went out in all of Lucerne. We had to make our way down a dark stairway using our phone lights just to get out of the hotel. But the busses and trains were all working.

Mount Pilatus stands overlooking Lucerne and consists of a range of mountains with the highest peak being at almost 7,000 feet high. The name Pilatus has multiple legends about its origin. One claims that Pontius Pilate was buried here. Yes, the official that presided over the trial of Jesus. But there are other legends about the name as well. It's generally just called Pilatus.

We went up the mountain on a cogwheel train, commissioned in 1889. The train climbs up at a maximum gradient of 48 percent, making it the steepest cogwheel train anywhere. It took about 30 minutes to get to the top and we had views of meadows, rock formations, and we even saw a mountain goat. It started snowing on our way up the mountain and they had three to five inches of snow last night on the mountain.

The first photo is a train photo on the way up. The second is at the top and you can see the train tracks on the left side of the photo.

On the top of Pilatus, we managed to have clear views which were fabulous. We watched a movie in their theater about the mountain, took lots of photos, and even managed to take a short hike. Our hike was shortened by all the snow and most of our hike was done inside the mountain on a trail.

One crazy thing about Switzerland as well as Italy and so many other places in the world is the placement of churches. I cannot imagine the thinking about where to put some churches in the world way back then. But in this part of the world, the mountain tops seemed to have been a highly desired location for churches.

Can you find the church that I'm talking about in the next photo? It's on the mountain in the snow.

It has a red steeple. I can't imagine how they could have ever had a congregation at this church.

The Swiss people seem to be real outdoors people. Outdoor activities were evident wherever we went. From riding bicycles, boating, skiing, hiking, to everything else, and usually at elevation. Maybe that's why I never saw any overweight people in Switzerland.

The next photo is a photo of a map at the top of Pilatus. If you can see closely enough, they have hiking trails that go right up the mountains in many places. These have to be really difficult hikes but evidently not too difficult for the Swiss. Plus there are ski runs and many other activities.

We went down from Pilatus on the north side, using a gondola cable car. It was a fast ride with great views. We stopped at an intermediate station, called Frakmuntegg. You can see one of the red cable cars on the right side of the photo. Lucerne is below at the end of the lake.