Lucerne is a beautiful, clean city on a lake surrounded by mountains.  When we arrived on Monday, the weather was warm but the skies overcast.  We had a quick lunch on the water near the train station and then took a 2 hour boat cruise on Lake Lucerne.  Later we walked around looking for a restaurant that served fondue and settled for a place that had cheese fondue.  German is spoken in this part of Switzerland, but almost all the locals also speak very good English.  The photo above shows the Chapel Bridge, built in the early 1300’s and in the background is Pilatus, the mountain whose summit we visited.  We didn’t visit Pilatus together, as Anne, Chris and Henry planned to go early and then were leaving for Luxembourg.  Jeff and Sarah are staying at another hotel and they weren’t sure of their plans for today.  We bought a “silver pass” for the trip up the mountain.  The pass includes a city bus to the gondola site.  You start in a very small gondola (2-4 people) for about a 25 minute ride then transfer to a large gondola that holds about 25 people for the 5 minute ride to the summit.  There was a lot of snow at the top and many people throwing snowballs.  The temperature was about 54 degrees and it was windy.  We spent about 1 1/2 hours at the summit enjoying the amazing views.  The elevation of Lucerne is 1,428 feet and the Pilatus summit is 7,000 feet.  You can see 70 peaks and 5 lakes from the top.  This mountain is named for Pontius Pilate, and the legend is that he is buried in the lake and leaves it every Good Friday in an effort to cleanse his bloody hands.  We left the summit by way of the train, which is the world’s steepest cogwheel railway.  The descent took about 40 minutes.  We then took the train back into Lucerne.  The temperature there was in the low 80’s.  After lunch we walked to visit the “Dying Lion of Lucerne.” This is a sculpture carved into the side of a granite cliff.  It commemorates the Swiss soldiers who lost their lives in the French Revolution.  Mark Twain said it was the “saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world.”  In the evening we went back toward the Dying Lion to look for a Chinese restaurant we had seen earlier.  We were looking at the menu posted outside when Jeff popped out and said “it’s good.” We tried what they recommended and enjoyed it.  They told us they were heading up Pilatus around noon today and met Anne, Chris and Henry as they were coming down.  Jeff and Sarah are staying another day in Lucerne before heading for Geneva to fly home.  They talked to Sarah’s parents a few days ago and were told that both their cars were damaged by hail the night of the tornado in Hugo.