Luzern

Lucerne

First of all, the train ride to Lucerne was the most beautiful ride on which I have ever been. Switzerland is SO SO beautiful! Everything was so green and the small towns in the hills are adorable. There was a gorgeous waterfall around each turn and the whole time we were riding towards the incredible snow-covered Swiss Alps. I could not wait to get off the train and take some pics!

Cheese Festival
After shopping for some warmer clothes to keep me more comfortable the rest of the trip (unfortunately, I think I had my last beach day in Cinque Terre), we stumbled upon a cheese festival! I probably consumed my weight in free samples of cheese. I have no idea what anything was because everything was in German, but it sure tasted good! I had some famous Swiss cheese fondue too.

Chapel Bridge and Water Tower
Apparently this is the most photographed stop in Lucerne. The bridge is covered (convienent because it was raining) and has cool paintings of some of the history on the ceiling. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped to get some hot chocolate... made from swiss chocolate, yum!

Lion Monument & Hail Storm
My travel buddies (still 5 of us) wanted to go to a movie in the afternoon, but I didn't want to pay for it. Instead, I decided to take my chance in the rain. I wanted to go see the famous sleeping lion monument. I walked with everyone to the theater and then when I was walking back over the bridge towards the monument, it started hailing like crazy! I was being pelted with hail about 2 cm in diameter! It was crazy, and people rushed inside pretty quickly. I went to the lion monument anyway and it was pretty cool. The lion is carved out of this big rock and apparently Mark Twain is quoted about it from his travels. Since the weather was pretty awful, I was the only one there which was pretty cool. And the hail made it look like it had been snowing. I was pretty decently wet after that and got inside.

That's about it for Lucerne... wasn't there too long. On to Interlaken!

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Part of trip: Europa 2009!

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