The Swiss have a knack for trains and railways. There's no other way to explain it. From Tirano to St. Moritz and from Andermatt to Zermatt, they have laid daring railway lines across their mountains, which are still major attractions for tourists from all over the world. Here, on Lake Lucerne, the red snakes of trains have been whizzing up almost every mountain since 1871. Even those that are difficult to climb on foot.
We pedal up a steep gravel road to the Rigi (1797 m), one of Lake Lucerne's local mountains. We have already climbed over a thousand metres in altitude and have soon reached the highest point that is accessible by bike - when the train comes stomping up behind us. The red carriages overtake us on the left-hand side. The tourists wave and take photos of us exhausted bikers. Then they turn their lenses back towards Lucerne and the lake, which surrounds the mountains with its octopus arms - welcome to Switzerland.
Lake Lucerne owes its name to the four cantons into which it extends: Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Lucerne. Waldstätte is the name of the original Switzerland, which consisted of these four cantons. Even on the motorway heading south, I fall in love with this fjord-like landscape of lakes and mountains.
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