There are charming drives round about. After breakfast we took a carriage and drove out of town along a well kept road. We were out in the lovely undulating countryland amid vineyards and orchards. I feasted my eyes on the beautiful country-scene, and inhaled with delight the sweet smell of the perfumed meadows and fields, where the grain was tall and golden. We saw a tourist camping in the fields under an improvised tent made by means of his cloak suspended on his stick, making water-colour sketches of the lovely landscape. Our driver wanting to give a rest to his horse, stopped before the “Jardin des Glaciers,” where an old guardian was explaining the museum belonging to this garden, to a little group of anxious sight-seers, in monotonous tones. An immense plan worked in relief of all the Swiss cantons especially attracted our attention. Close by the “Jardin des Glaciers,” the “Lion de Lucerne,” is carved out of the rock of the cliff. His size is colossal; the great beast’s protecting paw rests upon the “Lilies of France.” This gigantic thing serves as a monument to the memory of the Monarchists killed in France during the horrors of the Terror. (A singular mausoleum for a Republican country!)
On our way back to the hotel, we crossed a long covered wooden bridge which contains about three hundred pictures by old Swiss masters. We got back to the hotel just in time for lunch. I generally avoid being on show at tables-d’hôtes and was very displeased with Sergy for insisting on my going down. My eyes wandered rapidly about the table and it did not improve my appetite, for everybody was so unattractive! Just opposite me sat a fat bejewelled matron, who had made her appearance on this planet some seventy years ago at least, and who at a prehistorical period could have been rather nice; but she did look such a guy now, dressed ridiculously for her age and outrageously painted, with black circles about her eyes which made them look like goggles, and a permanent blush palpably not due to nature. Her old face and youthful clothes presented an alarming contrast, but she considered herself still irresistible and affected little moues and attitudes that sat incongruously upon her elderly looks. She rolled her eyes like a love-smitten cat, showing off her rings and bracelets, and coquetted with her neighbours showing her false teeth in a hideous grimace. This old crony was a laughing-stock to everybody; she saw these mocking glances, but being completely satisfied with herself, she evidently attributed them to envy. She stared about her with a long-handled lorgnette and turned it rudely on me, eyeing me disagreeably. I returned her stare with a look of defiance. Already put into a nervous state by the cross-fire of masculine and feminine glances, I could not eat my lunch, and as soon as the horrid table-d’hôte was at an end, I hurried up into my room and indulged in a good cry. By dinner-time I was still in the same mood and would not go down, declaring that I had no appetite. I was much too disfigured by weeping to dine even at a separate table.
Next morning when Sergy went to take his bath in the Réus river, his bather, an old retired Swiss soldier, asked him if it was true that our Russian soldiers served under arms the whole year. In Switzerland, as it appears, the soldiers are only assembled during eight weeks; every two years they assemble again for the grand manœuvres, and this is all the service the Swiss warriors go through. It is true that they have not at all a martial air, arrayed in long coats that touch the ground and tangle about their legs. After lunch we went for a sail on the “Lac des Quatre Cantons,” and had a delightful trip to Fluelen; with a gentle breeze we steamed off on the smooth waters. All the passengers, English for the most part, wearing leather gaiters and green Tyrolese felt hats with a feather in them, were laden with Alpenstocks with a bunch of Edelweiss on the top, and with cameras and knapsacks strapped upon their backs. We had dinner on board, whilst a troop of Tyrolese singers danced on the deck. On the blue and limpid lake fishermen were spreading their nets and preparing their tackle for the day’s labour. Here is a steamer coming towards us; the waiters on it are waving their napkins, instead of handkerchiefs, saluting their comrades on our boat. We are passing now the tiny chalet of “Wilhelm Tell,” situated on the shore of the lake. A little further on we saw a large monument erected on the rock to the memory of Schiller. We glided for some time side by side with a railway train which made off in the direction of St. Gothard, appearing and disappearing in numerous tunnels. Roaring water-falls and picturesque cascades leap from the heights of high and steep hills. We are now approaching the village of Fluelen, the nearest spot to the snow mountains, whose white peaks were dazzling on the blue sky.
On approaching the small town of Viznau, from where one mounts by a funicular line on the summit of the Rigi-Kulm, a vast hill mounting to the sky, we saw an engine inclined almost perpendicularly, pushing one car up the steep mountain. From the peak, tumultuous torrents formed by the melting of the snow fell down. The road up the Rigi is an extraordinary piece of engineering, and how the funicular manages to climb it, is a matter of surprise. The weather was so clear that we could actually see the people walking about on the top of the mountain, and it gave us the desire to follow their example the next day.
We were back at Lucerne towards evening, and after taking tea, we sat for a short time in wicker-chairs under the chestnuts on the quay and went to end our evening to the theatre to see a new play. I felt thoroughly fatigued and dozed off during the performance. The play appeared awfully dull and I thought the acting was atrocious, so did everyone, for the curtain dropped and nobody applauded.
The next morning we started from Lucerne to make the ascent of the Rigi-Kulm. We went down the lake on a steamboat and got ashore at Viznau. I was eyeing the ascent above me with great awe. It was not an easy affair. We had to climb a road leading skyward, like an interminable staircase, by the funicular railway. It was incredible that the locomotive, standing on his hind legs so to speak, should creep up the mountain; I thought no one but a goat could surmount it. The funicular contains two cars, roofed but open from the sides, the seats are tilted back, which enables the passengers to sit level while going up the steep incline. Whether going up or down, the engine is always at the lower end of the train. The passengers sit backwards going up, and face forward going down. Our engine began to climb laboriously the steep mountain which is 6,000 feet high, grappling slowly step by step to the toothed rails, having on each side gigantic precipices clothed with pines. Loud cataracts roared below unseen. The road lay between high granite walls. Through a gap in the rocks unfathomable depths disclosed themselves below us, chilling my blood and making me dizzy. I gripped Sergy’s arm pinching him very hard, but Sergy, whose nerves were stronger than mine and who didn’t see any danger at all, said laughingly to me that it was quite unnecessary to give him the blues, but I only grabbed his arm the tighter. The view grew fairer and fairer as we mounted. From here one could see the four lakes in the shape of a cross, on which the water appeared a smooth sapphire floor sparkling with sails no bigger than pin-heads, and the far stretching large and fertile valley. Now we began to climb up a narrow bridge thrown over a precipice at the bottom of which a rapid torrent rolled. I will not pretend I was not frightened, I was very. Footpaths are traced for pedestrians here and there. We saw a tourist resting against a huge stone in the crevice of a rock. We crawled higher and higher till we met the clouds that rested on the mountain sides. We are in the clouds now. The sun is shining above us and underneath the whole space is covered with thick clouds forming a milky ocean, and screening our way completely.
When the clouds dispersed, we discovered wonders in the immense Alpine landscape, and made out in the distance a group of cows with huge bells on their necks, lying phlegmatically amongst the clouds. All at once there was a full stop, it happened to be a drowsy black cow, immovable and contemplative, lying placidly on the rails, which we had nearly run over. The air grew quite chilly; though warmly wrapped up I was shivering with cold and Sergy drew his cloak close round me. Our fellow travellers had their collars turned up to their ears, I could only see the tops of their glowing noses; my neighbour, a thin, poorly looking individual wearing a chauffeur’s cap, had tied his handkerchief over it. The wind was very strong and I was nearly thrown off my seat and clung terror-struck to the sides of the car, wishing that I had never consented to this aerial drive. We had left below us every vestige of vegetation. A flight of rooks are screaming overhead. At every stoppage our ears begin to tingle. At last we have reached the final bit of ascent to the summit of the “Rigi,” and have to quit our car. We can hardly see two steps before us. Suddenly out of the fog came the sound of a bell: it was a sign given from the “Rigi Hotel” in order to aid us to find our way to it in the thick mist which enclosed us. We walked slowly one behind the other, following the direction the sound came from, and shivering with cold.
On reaching the Hotel, perched on the top of the mountain, we entered a large dining-room filled with a cosmopolitan crowd of tourists, sitting at a long table-d’hôte, who have assembled here to survey the sunset from the mountain top. It was delightful to get into the hall with the thick fragrant warmth of a fire of monster logs burning in a huge chimney-piece, reaching half way to the ceiling, which could easily contain a whole tree. We sat down at table and were soon thoroughly warmed by the steaming soup. There was a loud animated talk, in a curious mixture of languages; you might hear every tongue of Europe: there were Americans, Germans, Englishmen and a large number of countrymen of ours. Directly after dinner, the whole company climbed up the last bit of rough land which led to the top of the summit of the “Rigi-Kulm.” I found it tiresome work ploughing our way slowly towards it, but the view from there was more than a compensation; we seemed to look into fairy-land, and though I was by no means a sentimental person, I uttered a cry of delight in looking forth on the wide expanse of hill, forest and plain that lay beneath us. Suddenly a cloud rolled by beneath our feet, completely obliterating the landscape. Sometimes the mists would part and disclose glorious views, then again they would form an impenetrable curtain. The keen mountain air was very fresh on the windy summit, and everyone was shivering and jumping about to keep warm. After having admired this spectacle, we returned back to the station in order to make the ascent of another peak of the “Rigi,” the “Schneideck.” We plunged again into an ocean of clouds, nearly at hand’s reach.
When the clouds cleared away, we mistook forests for patches of green grass, and mighty trees for thorn shrubs. It was as if we gazed down from a balloon. An odd sensation, I had never experienced it before! When we reached the Kaltbad station, a group of yellow-haired children brought us bunches of Edelweiss, a small white flower which grows on the top of high mountains. Kaltbad is famous by its splendid and spacious hotel, full of bustle and movement. The vestibule was filled with English and American tourists, walking about and talking. They all seemed to know one another. The hotel has a splendid situation about two thousand feet above the sea-level, and offers every possible comfort to its guests. Notwithstanding its great altitude, it has every modern improvement, even gas-works. We were far above the clouds, whilst we took our coffee on the verandah. A storm broke out beneath us suddenly, peals of thunder resounded and the rain began to fall in torrents, whilst above us the sky was perfectly blue and the sun shone brightly.