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Published: January 2nd 2008
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Day 21 Tuesday 6th February 2007
We awoke to see it snowing in Munich and what a wonderful feeling you get when you watch snow fall and cover the roofs of houses. The pureness of the snow just makes you believe that today is going to be a great day. Today we would enter into 4 countries - Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and finally Switzerland. We entered into Liechtenstein, the 4th smallest country in Europe, the 10th smallest in the world. From north to south it’s about 25km and east to west it’s about 6km. We entered into Vaduz, the tiny village masquerading as the capitol city. Here on top of the mountain is the Schloss Vaduz (Vaduz castle) home to Prince Hans-Adam II. Although it’s not open to the public, it graces many photographs, a gorgeous palace with a stunning mountain background. While there’s not a lot to do in Leichtenstein, we took the opportunity to exchange some money into Swiss Francs and admire their postal stamps, famous for being very colourful. Some trivia about Leichtenstein, it’s the world’s largest false teeth exporter!
After lunch we entered into Switzerland, famous for cheese, clocks, chocolate, Heidi and banking. Time for another
history lesson. Switzerland was originally inhabited by the Helvetii (celtic) tribe. In 1291 the Swiss Confederation (formed by the communities of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden) was formed. They began seizing land however were eventually defeated by a superior force of French and Venetians, they then declared neutrality. The Swiss carefully guarded their neutrality during the WWs and emerged with an expanded commercial, industrial and financial base. The Swiss rejected EU membership. The Swiss are generally polite, law-abiding people however they are a very paranoid nation and are obsessed with improving their national army in case they are ever invaded. Every male is a member of the Swiss Army and has to complete a certain amount of training every year once they reach 16 years of age. They even have a fake concrete mountain formed amongst the Swiss Alps!! It’s virtually impossible to become a national citizen, even if you marry someone who is Swiss you have to take an exam in the 4 recognised languages of the Swiss. Time now for a geography lesson. Mountains make up 70% of the Swiss environment. The Alps occupy the central and the southern regions of the country. The Aletsch Glacier (169 sq km)
is the largest valley glacier in Europe. We entered into Lucerne shortly after lunch. This is the land of Heidi, an area of breathtaking beauty - mountains, lakes, tinkling cowbells and alpine villages. We were fortunate enough to be staying at the top of the Swiss Alps at Mt Pilatus, 2132m above sea-level. It’s a 45min trip on 2 gondolas to reach the hotel. Ahh the serenity!! Pure white snow all around and looking down to the pine forests and town of Lucerne below, a magnificent alpine panorama. Up here dreams surely can come true and the world is very peaceful, ‘a slice of heaven.’ It’s amazing that a hotel can exist up here. After a relaxing rest in our rooms we headed off to dinner and then to the ‘Swissco’ (traditional?? Swiss disco, complete with DJ and very expensive drinks, but at altitude it feels like for every drink you consume you’re actually consuming 2). The girls in the group were very disappointed when we learnt that the week before 200 Swiss Army soldiers were at the disco and not a female (other than staff) in sight! Oh the pain - if only!!!! Anyway a thoroughly enjoyable night.
Day 22 Wednesday 7th February 2007
A sleep in as the first gondola doesn’t go down the mountain until 9am. We descended down into the photogenic town of Lucerne, complete with a lake and cobbled streets of the medieval old town. This town is situated on the Reuss River. We caught the bus into town and went to H. Ruttimann, Lucerne’s foremost watch-store and gift shop. Here was a large selection of brand watches, Swiss Army knives, Cuckoo clocks, Swarovski crystals and chocolates! Here I had the delicious Dubler (goey meringue covered in rich dark chocolate) and instantly became addicted! Oh how I wish I could have yet another Dubler!!! We then walked across the Kapellbrucke (Chapel Bridge) and over to the Lion Monument. This stone carving represents the French defeating Switzerland during the war. This monument if you look closely is stating that the Swiss think the French are pigs, as the outside of Lion cave is in the shape of a pig. A fascinating monument.
We then walked through the cobbled streets of medieval old town to the Stadkeller Restaurant for a traditional Swiss Fondue 3 course lunch. Entrée was Swiss cheese Fondue with bread. Legend has it that if you drop your piece of bread into the melted cheese, then you have to kiss the person on your right. All the boys sat at the same table and were very careful their pieces of bread were firmly stuck on the Fondue forks. The cheese fondue was very strong and to be honest I would have preferred it better if it was strawberries that you had to dip into chocolate! For the main meal it was Roasted Swiss Bratwurst and Rosti potatos (delicious!) and then Swiss Chalet for Dessert (meringue with applesauce and strawberry ice-cream). Feeling very full, I headed back up to Mt Pilatus for some tobogganing while Peace and some of the girls went shopping. Tobogganing down the Swiss Alps was definitely a highlight of the tour. It was a super sledging adventure down the 6km long run, very steep at times and scary not being able to fully control the toboggan but it gave you the biggest natural high. It was something that you wanted to do again and again no matter how sore your legs and hands got or how many times you feel off. Getting airborne over the hills, dodging rocks and trees, just pure fun! Was absolutely saturated by the end having face-planted a fair few times or stacking the toboggan and had some impressive bruises to show off. Luckily the heating at the hotel was great and my clothes didn’t take that long to dry. A relaxing evening watching EuroTrip, the movie. It was great to watch something in English and to actually have a TV. Slept very well that night!
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