Interlaken and Lucerne

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Oh man... took ages to reach Interlaken. Left La Spezia at 6.40am, arrived aboout 2.30pm.. Go figure! Anyway, the trip through Switzerland was very picturesque with 70%!o(MISSING)f Switzerland being mountainous, plus we were in 1st class coach, hehe. Interlaken is basically a small town surrounded by mountains... and pretty touristy too! Our hostel was pretty crap.. rooms were old and the place was a fair hike from the train station (bus services stops about 7pm for the area). However, the view from the balcony was great! But then again, hard to get a bad view from anywhere in Interlaken.

Switzerland is a pretty expensive place as most people would say... but the hit isnt as bad if you think of it in euros. Tried the cheese fondue (and never again) and rosti (my fave!). Other things werent worthy of mention.

Anyway, we went about to exploring the region.. south of Interlaken is the Jungfrau region, which our eurail pass does not cover! Head off to Lauterbrennen, and connection to Murren via funicular and cable car. There was this one waterfall in Lauterbrennen with a walkway (short but steep climb) to a 'cave' behind the waterfall. From there, you can watch the water cascading over, plus getting drenched along the way The views along the way to Murren was great with huge mountainside and nice countryside. Similar scenery along the way to Gimmerwald.

Next up was a daytrip to Lucerne... with our railpass! Took the Goldenpass Panaromic train with huge windows in 1st class... saw the Lake Brienzersee along the way, a huge lake surrounded by mountains. Nice scenery along the way too..

Anyway, Lucerne was a busy city with plentiful tourists milling around. Saw the Chapel Bridge which had triangular paintings on the wall.. unfortunately, quite a number were destroyed in a fire in 1993. Someone finally decided to replace some of them in 2003. Another popular place was the Water Tower on the side. Also saw the Lion monument, carved into natural rock! We took a boat excursion on the lake (again on our pass!) out to Wiggen. Unfortunately it rained towards the end.. but still saw good view of area and Mt Pilatus!

Next... Munich!

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