Got another early start on the day. Unfortunately the musically that we just bought is less cereal than the last one but it still good. How was your usual breakfast of cereal toast or croissants, and juice or coffee went quickly and we are on the road. Today was the first clear morning and the mountain view was spectacular. We drove to Engelberg and parked and bought our tickets.

We first rode the funicular up to the first station. It was it a very steep grade and had beautiful views. Unfortunately, they no longer ran the cable car from that first station which they neglected to tell us. Of course all the signs were in German twitch made it a little hard for us to know exactly what was going on. We hung around with a nice guy who drove the funicular and then rode the funicular back down the mountain and got on the first cable car we could.

The first cable car brought us from Engelberg at the base of the hill up to the station at Stans. We stayed on the cable car on up to the next station where we got out and then go online for the fancy rotating cable car. They advertise that they have the only rotating cable car anywhere. So we rode up to the top the mountain at 10,000 feet in the rotating cable car and once we got out it was warmer than we thought it would be. We were concerned that weather would be too cold for us and we’d have to buy or rent ski gear, but it was confortable – about 40 degrees and no wind. We started on the first floor of the ‘lodge’ and walked up to the fifth floor where we went outside to take pictures. They had the usual component of places to eat, buy souvenirs, drink, take pictures in traditional Swiss garb, etc.

It was a really nice observation deck outside and the scenery in all directions was gorgeous. We we surrounded by other peaks, but higher than most anything we could see. The Alps are prettier in real life than they are in the movies (OK – that sounds silly). We, not a big surprise, took a bunch of photos and then took a walk off of the observation deck in the snow to see what else was available. We climbed to the top of a large snow-mound, probably 50 feet high, and took more photos. We then took a walk across the snow and took a ride on the Ice Flyer, a six person wide ski lift ride which took us several hundred yards down the mountain to another station where they had skiing and tubing. It was actually very warm out that day even on the top of the mountain. We rode the Ice Flier back up the mountain and then walked across the Cliff Walk which was 300-foot suspended bridge over a 3000 foot chasm. Again opportunities for more photos.

We then climb the snow mound again since the family photo we took earlier didn’t turn out well and we really wanted one from that location. We climbed and slid down the snow mound, although Ryan and I had more luck sliding down the first time.

We finally decided to sit there and have some lunch. We had a couple of bowls of soup, a large bratwurst (surprise) and fries. We even broke down and bought a couple of apple sodas and a Coke. After lunch we headed back into the building and took a walk through the Glacier Cave, a 450 foot-long path cut through a glacier on the mountain. It was very cool, in more ways than one. It had a very pretty ice sculpture, and a full-size bar. We have a great picture of Heather behind the bar and another picture of Ryan laying across the top of the bar. After finishing with the Glacier Cave, we headed back to the cable cars have made our way back down the mountain.

Before we left town, we stopped at the local Abby and monastery, which was very very pretty and also had its own cheesemaking facility and she shop. We missed the last cheesemaking demonstration of the day, but wondered around the store and found some delicious eggs and some cheese with wild garlic.

We actually made it back to the house before 7:00 PM for the first time all week, and took the opportunity to make a nice dinner of scrambled eggs with cheese and tomatoes, a nice salad, apples and crackers with cream cheese spread and smoked salmon. The evening was spent sorting through pictures, doing laundry and packing up to leave for Zürich in the morning.