A mineral bath on a mountain. Below you, a sea of clouds. Above you, nothing.
Rigi
Cows graze below the treeline; above it, thirteen lakes come into view.
Rigi rises between three lakes, Lucerne, Zug and Lauerz, a massif of pasture and pine reaching 1,797 metres at its summit, Rigi Kulm. The railway from Vitznau to the top opened in 1871, the first mountain rack railway in Europe, and the line still runs today, joined now by a second route from Goldau and a cable car from Weggis. The ascent takes about thirty minutes, past grazing cows and timber farms, the lake dropping away with every bend.
From the summit, on a clear day, more than a hundred named peaks and thirteen lakes come into view. The Rigi Kulm Hotel has stood just below the top since 1816, open still to guests who prefer to watch the sunrise from where they slept. Trails lead off in several directions for those willing to walk back down.
Usually visited together
More in Weggis
In the glass cabin of the Hammetschwand lift, you ascend 153 meters vertically in less than a minute.
Grass, lake wind, and the spot where three cantons once swore an oath.
High above the lake, the air smells of hay and quiet water.
The lake shrinks to a ribbon of light before the gondola even reaches the top.