Aug. 18th - Stanserhorn Summit Visit, Then a Special Dinner at Old Swiss House

Stanserhorn caught our attention because it’s the one with a cable car that lets passengers ride outside on the roof. We took the train to Stans and walked three blocks to the station for the funicular which takes us up to the cable car, which in turn takes us to the summit. Here’s the station for the funicular, with Rita and Lynn at the end of the line:

And here’s a video of both the funicular ride and then the cable car ride. (Just clips, of course — only 5:15 in length)

Here’s a view inside the 1893 funicular car:

At the summit, we took in the amazing views before going into the cafeteria-style restaurant and buying ourselves a light lunch and a Heineken beer. Then Lynn and I did the lengthy hike around the summit. All that is included in this 3:17 video clip.

After approximately one hour total, we took the 2 p.m. cable car and funicular back to the train station where we soon boarded an express train back to Lucerne and our hotel room. A couple hours later we walked the half-mile or so to the Old Swiss House restaurant, where Bartholomew (who we met with his girlfriend Nora on Sunday) is a chef. It was a fantastic (and fantastically expensive) meal, thank to ordering two $75 bottles of wine, their $100 special wiener schnitzel which is cooked tableside (for me) and two other veal plates for Rita and Lynn. Here they are jovially waiting for the wine and dinner:

Here’s an 8-minute video of our waiter, Luca, preparing my wiener schnitzel dish:

For dessert, we shared a serving of crepes suzettes, which was also prepared table-side. Here’s a 4:56 video of it:

After dinner, Bartholomew showed us the upstairs, where there were special rooms for larger private parties. Originally, the structure, which is probably several hundred years old like everything else, it seems, was a shop of some kind, and the shopkeeper’s family lived upstairs.

Then we walked the half-mile back to our hotel where we prepared for bed — and for writing this blog post.