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Published: April 8th 2007
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Craig & Kellie
Craig & Kellie atop Mt Titlis At 3am this morning Jet Lag was clearly affecting Kellie, and so at these early hours of the morning, whilst writing the day before's blog, she decided that the day was going to hold new adventures. Gathering as many tour brochures as she could find from the hotel lobby at 3am in the morning Kellie embarked on trying to find the tour that will help them to see quintesential Switzerland, in just ONE DAY!
THE DECISION WAS MADE..... WE WERE GOING TITLIS!
Apart from the helarious name, the tour sounded amazing and would turn out to be a day full of firsts, and a day we will never forget. The day consisted of a bus tour out to central Switzerland through a town called Lucerne where we stopped briefly in the morning to see a war memorial of an amazing stone carving in the side of a cliff (created in memory of the Swiss army soilders that died protecting the FRENCH KING from his own people! Sounds bizarre but in those days the Swiss Army was hired to do such things. Almost every soilder died.
From there we drove to Mount Titlis in the Swiss Alps. Mt
Cafe Latte
Here's where we had the best Cafe Latte ever Titlis is 10,000 feet high, so high that oxygen is low. To get to the top of Mt Titlis in itself was an adventure. Starting with a cable car ride (a little one with only 6 people in it) up to about 1800m, then they squeezed us into a big cable car that fits 80 people (and believe me... they fit 80 people). When it is almost full the man who operates the car pushed more people in like he was packing a scrum. The remainder of the hike up the mountain is a ride on the FIRST REVOLVING CABLE CAR IN THE WORLD - a massive cable car that fits about 30-40 people where the inside floor of the cable car revolves around so everyone gets to see all angles of the view whilst German pop music plays in the background. Hot tip, whilst squeezed in the cable cars with that many people, be careful not to get hit in the head with a pair of skies, majority of people on the mountain are actually there to ski.
Arriving at the top of Mount Titlis, it was -3 degrees, and yet when we stepped out of the cable
Kellie Titlis
Kellie showing off that she's Titlis car, it was fresh and lovely, but we WERE NOT COLD - it was the strangest thing. At the top of the mountain is a 4 story building, in which level 1 is simply a souvenier shop etc plus what they called an 'ice grotto' which I will explain later. Level 2 is a restaurant, an icecream parlour (with what they said would be the best icecream in the switzerland) and the HIGHEST BAR IN EUROPE, Level 3 was an expensive watch shop ($5000 plus), and also where you could get strange photos taken of yourself in traditional swiss clothes in front of a picture of the mountain (it's hilarious when the Indian and Asian tourists dress up in swiss clothes!) and then the top level is where you walk out onto the top of the mountain.
Bare in mind that at this moment, Craig had NEVER seen or touched snow before....so that moment when he stepped out on to the snow and looked out over the cloudes at 10,000 feet, it was simply fantastic. "not at all what I expected" he said, but he was completely won over! After taking in the amazing views from all directions, we
Lion Memorial
Lion carved into the wall in Lucerne had a go at this helariously silly rubber ring ride, sliding around on snow like a water slide- classic! Then we took a ride on the ICE FLYER, which was a another small cable car that takes you over a glacier. We then headed back to the building where there is a deck outside overlooking the mountains, where there was a chef cooking what must have been the most delicious fetticine in the whole world - so amazing that even with vegetables in it (including Peas) Craig hoed into it and didnt look back!!! Seemed a strang thing to be eating fettucine at 10,000 feet above sea level - but that was our day - full of strange and amazing and surprising experiences. Then we headed inside to the famous icecream stand, where we purchased a small coffee and walnut flavoured icecream - and again, it was the BEST icecream we have ever eaten - simply to die for.
We went and looked at the watches, as Kellie wanted one with Rose god in it... $12500 was the first one... "a bit cheaper" we said in unison, so the girl showed us a $9000 one. So as you might
Cable Car
Craig in the revolving cable car have guessed, Kellie didn't get her rose gold watch. We took ourselves downstairs into the ICE GROTTO, this is a cave built into the mountain attached to the building, and this little cave takes you through and under and into a 17,000 year old glacier - where you could touch the ice that was 17,000 years old! They had set up a little bit of a light show with classical music Choreographed with the light to add atmosphere, very touristy, but all the same a fun experience.
Our day ended wth a very quick stop in the souvenier store before rushing down the mountain the same way we came up to ensure we reached the buss on time - our tour guide, who was the FUNNIEST SMARTEST, MOST KNOWLEDGABLE MULTI LINGUAL GUIDE EVER (we loved him if you had not guessed) told us that if we did not make it to the bus in time, he would leave without us ....
But can you believe it - HE ACTUALLY DID THIS! Not to us, but to an Indian family of two adults and 5 children, that at EVERY stop had held us up, who kept waundering off and
Kellie
Kellie on Mt Titlis going shopping and not listening to instructions, and never doing what the guide asked. He had clearly had enough and when they were not at the buss by 2.45pm, we left!!!!! Rest assured, the company had another bus at the mountain that was going to pick them up, so he didnt just leave them in the middle of switzerland - but it was helarious!! Their bags and everything were still on our bus. We later got word that they arrived at the car park where our bus had been parked - ONE HOUR LATE!!!!! So he had made the right decision to drive off at least! At this point, we would just like to make mention at how surprised we were that such a massive number (2/3 of our tour group) were from India, spoke OK English & were relatively young; We guessed they all worked for Telstra.
On the way back we stopped back at Lucerne where we had an hour to site see the ancient town (really touristy stop but nonetheless, absolutely gorgous). The bus trip home was when kellie Crashed! AFter being awake for 14-15 hours now, and jet lag still present, that was it for
Craig
Craig on Mt Titlis Kellie.
The tour was amazing, the day was amazing, and in Craig's words "I have to come back....there is no where else in the world I would want to learn skiing".
What better way to end a day of touring Switzerland, than with a traditional Swiss dinner! So we went in search of a traditional Swiss restaurant where we could eat the famous traditional dish - KASE FONDUE (cheese fondue ). Traditionally a basket of bread cut up into squares and a fondue of melted cheese (blended with some white wine) is served and is very filling after a long day.
Well the verdict....... At least we tried it!!!!! CRAIG'S TRAVEL GUIDE HOT TIP: push the dipped piece of bread as far into your cheek as possible so that the food never touches your tongue and you can't taste it!
It was possibly the most disguisting meal we had ever eaten - we later discovered in discussing this with a girl at our hotel, that it sounded to her from our description that they had over done it with the white wine. Because - when you put it in your mouth, it literally STUNG your mouth
Titlis Building
Mt Titlis Arrival centre the dry white wine was so strong. - Oh Well, you win some, you lose some. Luckily we also purchased a Bratwhurst served with caramalised onion and Rosti potatoes, and that was lovely.
So heading back to the hotel - Craig stopped at Maccas for some fries, and then when we got back to our hotel we had desert at their restaurant - Kellie tried Lemon sorbet with ice cold vodka (in the bottom of the sundae glass) - Craig had to have the vodka part as it was too strong, very unsual but a really fantatic desert. Craig had his chocolate sundae again.
This was a great way to end the day.
Then.................................. we went to bed!
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Jac
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BBRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can we have your warm clothes for Ipswich winter. Bring me back a Latte will ya. Looks fun. Aden had a trip to Hospital in Ambo yesrterday at Ipswich Funday. he had an Asthma attack, so was given ventilin and oxygen. Hes good now. Not a great start to his holiday. Will follow your trip , its cool. Jac