Mount Stanserhorn: View from the top of the world

Mount Stanserhorn is a 6300 foot mountain that lies southeast of Lucerne.  The bus didn't drive us to the top, and there begins the fun.  A funicular (train that goes up the mountain) took us up through the town and through farms to another station where we caught the cable car.

Swiss cows in Switzerland, complete with bells

 I was surprised at how big the cable car was; the placard on the inside said it held "37 +1" people, though I'm not sure how Swiss math works (shouldn't that be 38?).  The ride up was kind of scary, even for someone like me who loves roller coasters and is not afraid of heights.  The cable car hugged the mountain to some extent, but every time it hit one of the poles that the cable ran on, the cable car would lag a little and go straight for a moment (instead of up), which led to some swinging of the car.  Not a lot, but enough that you could feel it in your gut!  Our group was pretty vocal so we worried about plunging to our death together.  Several people were nervous, but the ride up in the cable car wasn't more than 15 minutes.

The cable car

Like our traditional outfits?

 The view from the top was amazing.  The lake looked beautiful.  There was a rotating restaurant and gift shop on the top, trails, and lookouts that were built into the side of the mountain so you were actually out over the gorge.  Very cool.

 From one side of the shop/restaurant you could see Lake Lucerne and the city of Lucerne and rolling hills and from the other side you could see the Swiss Alps.  The clouds rolled in and out, and it wasn't overly cold--I thought it would be that high up.

 They are building a new cable car that will open next May--it will have an open upper deck so people can stand on top in the breeze on the way up-crazy!  The promo picture shows a calm woman dressed in white releasing doves from the open top.  That seems realistic.

 The ride down was much less harrowing, perhaps because we had already done it, but it didn't swing as much on the way down.  Still, it was an amazing view!