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Published: September 1st 2007
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Yes, the wheels on our bus went round and round, all day long. We did some major driving today to get to Lucerne, a fabulous town in Switzerland. Thankfully, we had a few stops along the way to break the trip up. We left our little hotel in Wiesbaden fairly early in the morning - 7:15am…I am afraid these early starts will be fairly commonplace on our tour. No more sleeping in till 9am.
Our first stop was a couple of hours later in Heidelberg - still part of Germany - and were able to stretch our legs. The castle here is right up on a hill above the city, looking over a small town square. Like most places in Europe, it looks like it is straight out of a postcard.
Jon gave us the low-down on the city, and the amount of time we had, then Iz and I were off to explore the streets. It’s fabulous wandering down little lanes that were made hundreds of years ago, almost getting lost - except there are too many beautiful landmarks to guide you. The buildings here had many ornamental features - lots of religious statues and paintings.
We
decided to stop for a toilet break, and being stingy, shared one of the public loos. It cost 25 cents - and although we must have looked a bit suss walking in and out together, it was well worth saving the money. Some places can charge a fair bit to use their loos - but all the Macca’s and most hotels will let you use the facilities for free.
Our next stop was to grab something to eat. The bakery was packed with yummy delicacies, but we settled on a jam donut…known as a ‘berlin’. The strange thing was, there were at least 6 bees buzzing around all the cakes and buns?? I took this as a good sign. With a berlin and coffee in hand, we just had time to fit a quick stroll by the river front in…with gorgeous views of the houses and bridges nearby. On the way back, there was a small collection of vintage cars parked in the town square, so we tried to take some quick photos - it was odd seeing them parked in the ancient square.
Back on the bus, I continued to read my book and Iz had another
game of Spider Solitaire…I think he is missing Ryan’s company A LOT! No more long games of two-handed five hundred. Our next stop was another couple of hours away, this time in Strasbourg, a city in France. Wow - there was so much to see here, and we only had an hour!
After strolling down the main street with our guide, we turned into a side alley and had our breaths taken away by the Notre Dame Cathedral. I didn’t know of any other Notre Dame’s except for the one in France, which I’m sure will be the most impressive church on our entire trip, but this place was right up there. It was closed for the Astronomical Clock demonstration, so we decided to get lunch in a small French alleyway...and watched the dogs pass by - there are!
There was one gorgeous little black poodle, just like our peepsy, who went by in their owner’s arms…poodles are all the rage here in France. It definitely made us miss our little baby! After a quick look around, we headed back to the cathedral to take in its interior…it was spectacular.
We didn’t have time to climb the
stairs to the top and view Strasbourg from above, so we made a quick detour past another bakery (minus the bees) and then back to the bus. We are a fairly diligent tour group, who seem to rock up at least 5 minutes before we are due to leave!
With another 2 hour drive ahead of us, I decided to nap and read the time away, and managed to avoid the embarrassing sleeping photos that were being taken by some of the cheeky passengers. We are getting to know everyone on the tour pretty well - as we have a seat rotation system, which means we move 2 seats everyday - this ensures EVERYONE gets a turn up the front, and you sit next to some new faces everyday - a great system.
We finally arrived in Lucerne (in Switzerland) late in the afternoon, and Jon was keen to show us an impressive stone carving of a huge lion made in the rock wall of a garden. The lion commemorates the mercenaries that fought, and lost their lives, while fighting in the French Revolution. We also had an hour to look around the town centre of Lucerne, which
is very pretty. Iz and I couldn’t resist getting some Swiss chocolate to take home for after tea.
At dinner, we got to sit with some more new people, and found out we AREN”T the youngest ones on our tour - by a few years. Everyone here is getting along so well, and we are definitely starting to make some friends. After a couple of hours of chatting and a fairly yummy three course meal, it was off to bed. Tomorrow, we tackle the Swiss Alps - Yodel- la-he-hoo!
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