Blog 2 May 23 Monastery

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Day 2 was strange! I and several other people woke up at 5:30 am!! That never happens! I decided to go for a morning walk. The weather was nice, the sun was rising, and I was awake to early. I grabbed my map and I left the hotel to find the trail. I was a little apprehensive about walking around by myself but I felt okay. I walked for about 30 minutes and I took pictures of the scenery. It was absolutely beautiful! I came back to the hotel and I had breakfast which was amazing! We got dressed and then the group walked over to the Engelberg Monastery. I have always wanted to see a Monastery. We met with Brother Thomas who is becoming a Monk. You go in and you can see if you like the Monastery and decide if you want to stay. The architecture of the Monastery was great! There is so much history inside of this building. The Monastery had the 5th largest organ in the world! The rooms had double beds and anyone is able to spend the night. The cost of the room was $80 a night and you get breakfast as well. We went into the library and saw some of the original and old library books. This is something that I have never seen before! Some of the books were able to be saved after the fire. After touring around the Monastery, we left and we across the street to “Schaukaserei” which is a cheese factory. We saw a man making cheese and we tried different samples. We were going to have a lecture by the Director of Hotel Europe, but he had an emergency so we had a few hours of free time. Me, Ryan, Janet, Jaime, and Mrs. Bradley, took the cable car up to one of the mountains, then we took a chair lift to the top. This was definitely scary because I have never done this before. The batteries in my camera decide to die as I get to the top of the mountain! Luckily, I had people take pictures for me. This scenery is gorgeous! There is a small lake at the top that people were playing in, and it was cold water. There was some snow where we were, and we played with it for a little bit. There is also a restaurant there but since we weren’t eating, we had to leave after a while.

We took the chair lift and cable car back down so that we could get ready for our next adventure; a casino. We arrived at Grand Casino Lucerne and we learned how to play Blackjack and American Roulette. We had a great educational time learning things we did not know. I left to go play on the slot machine, hoping to win money! I played $20, and I won nothing! I was quite disappointed, but I at least had good self control. We took the bus back to Engelberg.

Most of the group went out to a local place here in town. I and several people talked to some of the locals in town. There were really nice! We hung out with them and really got a chance to get to know them. This was a great way to end the night!

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