Update on our visit to Lucerne, Switzerland

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This update was written as we headed from Lucerne to Paris on Monday 15th October. We arrived in Paris on Monday afternoon and spent yesterday afternoon evening at the Eifel Tower and today at the Palace of Versailles. As I finally have a decent internet connection, tonight I have uploaded some photos from our stop in Venice, if you go back to that entry hopefully you should be able to see them.


Monday 15^th October 10:40 am

We are now on the fast TGV train from Basel Switzerland to Paris. The trip should take about 3:00 hours.

The last 2 and a ½ days in Lucerne, Switzerland have been very nice, although eating out was unbelievably expensive, fortunately the apartment at the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at had our own kitchen so 2 of the 3 nights we ate dinner in.

Only one of the accessible mountains near Lucerne had snow on the peak (Mt Titlis), so we headed for that on our first full day after catching a train to Englebert we then caught a bus to the base of the Mountain but unfortunately the Cog railway, was not working so we caught 3 cable cars to the 3000m summit. It had been snowing on the mountain the previous day and the snow was very powdery, it was -4 degrees, and the kids had a great time playing in the snow, there was also a Glacier cave which we went into. On the return trip we took a boat back to Lucerne.

That night we went to a local restaurant which was evidently ‘cheap’ and genuine swiss. The lady at the tourist information desk as well as the owners of the B&B had recommended. We order 3 Sprites, 1 coke, 1 small beer, 1 pizza and 2 (very nice) veal permijarnia’s however the bill came to 93 Swiss franks (about 100AUD) . If that was cheap Im very glad we didn’t eat somewhere expensive. The next night we ate in our apartment, swiss cheese and ham on toast done under the grill.

Our last full day in Lucerne was spend exploring the old town, getting lost trying to find the Lion Monument and then exploring a Glacier Museum which contained excavations of where a glacier had once existed, the museum also contained information on the evolution of the earth through various ‘Ice Ages’ (Ice Age, even John was interested) as well as a Mirror exhibition which contained a maze of mirrors and various effects that could be made using mirrors. The kids enjoyed this very much.

The weather had been very nice in Lucerne, however when we got up this morning to leave the rain had settled in, so looks like we got our timing just right again.

We are now 2 ½ hours out of Paris, John is sleeping and the girls, plus Tanya are updating their travel journals.

Take care and best wishes

Darren, Tanya, Carolyn, Hayley and John

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Photos

Catching a nap
On the train from Rome to Milan.

And While Mum Sleeps (Or....the cat is away)
The mice will play.

Still havnt lost this Pixie
As hard as we try, he just keeps appearing

On arriving at Milan to change trains
Sadly our high speed train had collected a hood ornament. John was quite saddened.

The friendly baggage handler
Waiting for our train to Switzerland.

Some Swiss country side
As the train was nearing Lucerne.

Out the front of the Lucerne railway station
We all loved Lucerne, all except the credit card.

All aboard the Snow Express
Heading to the snow

John had a very important job
....Moving the snow....

Then it was time for a lunch break
A vegemite sandwich and defrosting the legs and feet.

This was cool
Very cool, inside the glacier cave

Our Snowman
After our lunch break and the Japanese tourists had finished having photos with John we made a snowman.

Heading down from the snow
John was still smiling

And when we arrived at the bottom of the mountain
Mum was still smiling too.

Whilst waiting for our boat back to Lucerne
All this snow play had made us thirsty

Infact, very thirsty
Even Dad needed a drink.

Inside the glacier garden museum in Lucerne
We found some warm wooly clothes

They had some great displays
This was looking at the formation of ice under a microscope at minus 270 degrees celcius

Inside the glacier garden
This is actually what was left behind by the glacier in the last Ice Age