As already announced the month of May started strong with activities, during the bridge weekend a friend was visiting and fortunately it was a sunny long weekend.

So, in preparation, we bought day passes like before and decided to spend some time riding the train to the city of Lugano. To get there you have to take the Gotthard panorama route. This is the older train route getting to the south, as the newer base tunnel is still only partially usable for public transportation. This is due to a freight train accident back in August 2023. Since I wanted to have some views from the train anyway, I did not mind the extra hour of travel time. The time is well spent, in my opinion, if I can stare out of the window and admire the different views in the valleys, up the mountains and at the various rivers and bridges.

As usual with SBB the train itself was punctual and we arrived in Lugano on time. The train station is situated above the main city center, so to get down you either have to take the stairs and a windy path full of shops and cafes catering to tourists, or you can take a cable car directly down to the city center. Since we didn’t mind the walk after the long ride, we quickly descended and had our first look at Lake Lugano from the balcony of a nearby church.

Coming down, we decided to walk along the lakefront. There is a great path that invites the visiting tourists to stroll along the river. As in other touristy towns various typical vendors and transportation methods where available you usually see at these places. Still as the main tourist season has not started so it was not too crowded even with the sunny weather.

After some time walking, we decided to stop and have a coffee for breakfast. Away from the main places the prices were reasonable and the coffee was good. Same as last month in Fribourg, we had to order food with a waiter who spoke a different language, while still in the same country.

After finishing our dessert and coffee, we headed back to the city center. In between there are still the tracks of an old cable car that brought people up the mountain. From this system only the tower for the counterweight and some stairs were left. Since we had the chance to see the city and the lake from a different angle, we „hiked“ up the stairs to enjoy the view.

Coming back down we visited the city park at the lakeside. Many families were enjoying the bridge day, playing around in the water or on the playgrounds. Next to the water were many warning signs about the danger of heat shock caused by strong currents that can suck you into deep cold water. After visiting the park, we decided to head back to the train station as we had another stop planned for the day.

From Lugano to Zurich there are only a few stops (Belinzona, Arth Goldau and Zug). Arth-Goldau is actually two rather small towns, but the station has a good geographical location to be a major hub for traffic in Switzerland. As mentioned above, trains from north to south over the Gotthard pass through, as well as trains from east to west. Next to the main station in Arth-Goldau is the platform for the rack railway up the Rigi. A special feature is that these trains are included in the Swiss Day Pass and can be used free of charge. So we decided to use this opportunity to go up the mountain and enjoy the view.

The Rigi has two lines. The line from Arth-Goldau almost all the way up to Rigi First with blue trains (CHECK) and the other line from Rigi First back down to Vitznau. The other line has red trains, but today it has newer trains in the shape of a golden banana.

On the way up, we decided to walk along the edge of the mountain, there are good paths that lead to the communication antenna at the top of the mountain. From there you have a great view over the lake of Zug to Zurich, Rotkreuz and on the left side the Vierwaldstättersee with Lucerne and in the background the Mount Pilatus.

To go back down, we decided to take the other line (the one with the banana) and get off at Rigi Kaltbad. Here you can take a cable car back down to Witznau. The ride is also included in the Swiss Day Pass, but due to the time of day it was really crowded as many wanted to get back down from the mountain. Unfortunately we were a bit too late to catch the last ferry to Lucerne so we had to resort to using the bus to get back to Rotkreuz.

On Tuesday school started after the long break. After the first class we did the usual and went to the cafeteria for lunch. Back in class we got the announcement that the teacher was sick and the class was canceled. While everyone was leaving, I was planning what to do on this sunny day. There were several options: explore Zurich, go shopping, or go back and focus on my studies. But two of my classmates had a different idea. They decided to use their General Abonnement (GA), the monthly pass for the Swiss railways, to take a trip to the Rigi. After some hesitation, I decided to join them and go up the mountain.. Again.

Since the weather was great and the view was still amazing, this turned out to be a good decision. We used the same route to get up the mountain, but got off at a different stop to take a little walk. Coming back down, we used the entire banana route to get to Vitznau. From there we were able to catch the ferry this time and extended the trip over to Lucerne. So if you now see similar pictures twice, trust me, they were taken on two different days.

Other classes were already coming to an end. In the one bachelor module I elected, the final coaching session took place. In this session we had to show the progress of our project work. The module is called Programming Concepts and Paradigms (PCP) and covers different programming languages and the alternative solutions and differences compared to the classical imperative procedures of the major programming languages (C, C++ or Java). For our project, we decided to use the Rust programming language. The task was to get to know a different language and introduce it to the class through a presentation and some coding examples.

The next weekend was another long weekend with Easter Monday and on Saturday the next activity was planned, the ESN Train Rally. On that day, several different student organizations participated in a coordinated train rally, where each team was assigned three different hidden destinations that they had to figure out during the trip using clues and completing various „challenges“ at each destination and during the ride.

The day started early with me getting up at 5:30 to catch the 6:11 train to Lucerne. There I met up with the other participating students from Lucerne. We were divided into two different groups and took the same train to Geneva. The other group got off in Bern while we went to Fribourg (I have been there before). During the ride we got some clues about our destination (old town with roman ampy theater) but we where unable to tell the exact location. With some hints we finally got it right. From Lucerne we had to take the bus to the now revealed location of Avences.

When we got there, the first thing we had to do was wait a few minutes for the Basel student group. We quickly met up with the other group and headed into town to see the theater and do our challenges. This was fun, but time was short as the other group had to leave early, while we had some time before our next train left.

So we decided to have a coffee. The last time I was in French-speaking Switzerland, in Firbourg, I wanted a coffee with ice cream, so after studying the menu and ordering a Frapee, what I got was a milkshake. This time I ordered a coffee with ice cream, what I got was a cold coffee. Next time I will be really explicit and hopefully get what I want. Anyway, during the break we already figured out the next two cities, Lausanne and Thun, as these are a bit more known and one student figured out the latter pretty fast after getting the prompt.

So we took a slower regional train to Lausane, which was great because just before you enter the city you get a great view of the vineyards and Lake Geneva. In a faster train with smaller windows, you’d miss that view, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We arrived in Lausanne at noon, so naturally people got hungry and decided to go to the nearby fast food chains to get something to eat. Since I had prepared snacks the other day, I had other plans. I decided to join another guy from the group and use the free time to go up to the big cathedral called Notre Dame. When we got there, we had a great view of the city, but once inside the cathedral, we realized that the view could be even better if we went up the church tower. So we informed the group that we were going to be late and went up the tower.

Up there you have a great view of several mountains, Lake Geneva and of course the city. To get back down, we decided to take the metro. Lausanne, although not the biggest city, has one of the very few underground metro systems in Switzerland. The trains are fully automated so you can go to the very front and enjoy the ride.

We met up with the group and spent some time at the lake. Getting back was a bit tricky as we took the metro again. During the ride, the train suddenly stopped in the tunnel and a French announcer informed us about something. Suddenly the train returned to the previous station. Confused, we decided not to get off the train right away and went one station further towards the lake. This meant that we just missed our train because we had to go to the other side of the station at the next stop and go back to the previous one. To pass the time, we went to the supermarket and bought some beers.

The next destination was Thun, to get there we took a fast train to Bern and from Bern a regional train to Thun. There was a music festival with loud music in the city center. We briefly met another student organization, but they were already on their way to the final destination. As it started to rain we quickly ventured thru the old street of Thun which had a pretty interesting layout, the sidewalk was raised above the streets with the usual markets while the street had to dip down, mostly due to the rain and other events there was not much open at that time. So we reached the castle and waited for the rain to stop. Luckily the rain ended soon and we were able to walk back down without getting wet.

Back at the river it was finally time to go to the last stop. The last stop was Zurich where the main event took place. The ESN group had rented a venue with loud music. In the end I decided to leave early as it was going to be a long day with a lot of traveling around.

In summary, my train rally experience was great because I was assigned a group that only visited places I had not been to before. The other HSLU group was not so lucky (in my opinion) as they were assigned Zermatt, a place I had already visited as a day trip last month. It takes some time to get there and I would be mad if I had to go there a second time instead of seeing something new. And spending only an hour or two there would be pretty short to see or do anything. Another problem I had was how the meeting with other groups was planned. We only really met the one group at the first stop. They had to board at a different time and in a different direction. And with the group in Thun, thanks to the missed train, we had no real time to meet new people. Anyway, the time in our group was well spent, we had a good time and played a few rounds of the game „That’s not a Hat“.

Since the weather was good for the next two days, I spent some time riding my bike in addition to studying and preparing for my final projects. One trip on Sunday was rather short, but after some rest I was able to squeeze in a longer tour. This time I decided to go around the Baldeggersee. Part of the trip was done on good ciycling routes, other parts along the lake were unfortunately on a bigger road. Still the sights were interesting and I visited some castles.

During the week I decided to roam around Zurich a bit more. There are several cable cars in Zurich that go straight up the mountains. One of them takes you from next to the train station up to the ETH, the famous Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. So I walked through the different corridors and enjoyed the interesting architecture. After exploring the univercity, I took a tram to the next cable car, which I had spotted earlier while looking at the map of Zurich. The Rigiblick cable car takes you right up to one of the many forests surrounding Zurich. From there I walked along the edge of the forest until I reached the tram station of the Zurich Zoo. Once there, it was just a short ride down the hill back to the main train station. But still time flies, because slowly but surely the exams and the preparation for the final exams started.

The next weekend my parents visited me again in Rotkreuz with their bikes. From there we decided to cycle around another nearby lake. This time we chose the Sempachersee. The lake is about 10 km south of Lucerne and it took us about 2 hours to get there.

In the south of the lake is the namesake town of Sempach with a small but beautiful old town where we had our first stop. Then came the long stretch on the eastern side of the river. Unfortunately, the Swiss bike network failed me there, as route 3 goes along a road with fast traffic. Reaching the northern part of the lake, Sursee, we had our next stop. Here we parked our bikes and walked into the town center as it was market day. We had a look around and had lunch. On our way back we decided to ride the other side of the river, the west side. Here was a much narrower gravel road, but you where cycling right next to the lakeshore with the train tracks passing on our right side. There were some nice bathing places where you could go for a swim (water temperature was 16 degrees that day) and later some places where you could go for a BBQ. All in all a much better route, thanks to my cousin who suggested it.

On our way back to the south, we took another small bike route and had some great views of the Alps. Even though the route went right next to a road, there were still several paths where you could ride undisturbed by traffic. I don’t know why the main route along the river was so much worse before.

In the end we reached our final destination with a total distance of about 70 km on this trip. After this trip, my parents and I went to visit our relatives and had a final BBQ in the evening, which was really delicious. I decided to stay there for the night and spend some more time in Zurich.

The next day we left quite early and went to the Uetliberg (if you are a faithful reader you will notice that I have already been to this mountain once in the last month). Anyway, the view was amazing and since I have been exploring other areas of Zurich, I was able to see these places from up there. Unfortunately, the „Nice Here“ sticker has been removed since my last visit. No, I’m not going to go up there and put one up for myself, I don’t do that sort of thing.

Anyway, we went back to the city, had a week of biking that was a bit underwhelming, and finally had a lunch break at a local beer garden.

The following week was the end of my exchange semester. In the last classes we had the final topics and a really interesting guest speaker about the use of machine learning in cancer cell detection. The talk gave some examples of where the challenges are and why this cannot be adopted as quickly as one might think. The main problem is that the samples are not currently digitally scanned, so a machine cannot inspect the sample. On the last day of the week I even had the final presentation in the PCP module. Here we had to present the Rust programming language and it’s features regarding memory safety, channels, threading and traits. The presentation went quite well and the presentations of the other students were decent. One thing that puzzles me is that if you are taught during the semester (we often had to present our code via the IDE) that a dark IDE does not show up on the projector, why would you not prepare the program for the final presentation? Some of my classmates made exactly this mistake. Anyway, we did the right thing by showing up early and testing our setup and the presentation itself.

After the presentations we celebrated with snacks and beer. I had to leave early because I was already late for the cabin weekend. The last big event of ESN, but that is a story for next month.