Several more trains with connections in Milan and Como finally got us on a local train to Varenna, one of the many small towns on Lake Como. It was nearly 9 pm when we got there, nearly 10 hours after leaving the Alps. We decided to walk to our hotel from the station which may not have been the best idea. It was a long hot, up hill hike. Our hotel was on top of a hill so several inclines later we were there. The hotel was a multi story building but since it used to be a hermitage, the levels were broken up by gardens, lake view terraces, and a chapel. Our room also had a perfect view of the lake, which we had to relish. We changed for dinner and walked down to town ... read more

We were ecstatic about starting our full day in the Alps. Our hotel recommended that we have breakfast in Schiltorn, which was the highest point you could be as a visitor. It was in the 40's so we bundled up with as much as we could. Since we deliberately packed light and were going to be in so many different climates, our Swiss Alps gear was limited. We took a cable car from Gimmelwald to Murren and then a vertical cable car from Murren to the summit. Visibility was limited because we were literally in the clouds. It's definitely not something one who has a fear of heights should try. :) There was a huge multilevel structure that looked like something out of a sci fi movie and on one level was a rotating restaurant where ... read more

The train ride into Switzerland was exactly as we expected it to be...breathtaking. The transfer in Geneva meant seats for us on the train to Lucerne. We took a number of pictures as we rode speechless at the absolute beauty of the country-mountains, lakes, countrysides... We arrived in charming Lucern in the late afternoon and took a cab to the hotel though we could've found our way by foot if it hadn't been pouring. We checked into the hotel and relished the view from our window of a typical street in Lucerne. We settled in quickly and asked for directions to old Lucerne, which was only a 15 minute walk. We quickly realized that Lucerne was not too big and very walkable. The old part of Lucerne was beautiful with a river flowing through the city, ... read more

We woke up in Villefranche with a view of the Med Sea clearly before us. We had to run a couple of quick errands like doing much needed laundry (which was an adventure) in itself and going to the Eurarail office in Nice to change our tickets to Roma. We explored Vieux Nice and walked the Promenade des anglais, which was essentially a boardwalk. What made it interesting is that it was paid for by the British who would come to the coast to vacation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promenade_des_Anglais). Lunch was oceanside in Nice which was swimming (pun intended) with tourists from all over the world. Grilled vegetables and a mozzarella salad were on the menu for this meal and were fine. We remembered reading in our Rick Steves reference books that one should lower their palate expecations when ... read more

Dijon: Early Tuesday morning, we hopped on our first train in France to Dijon. A first class ticket made the journey so comfortable as we were both able to lay down in the compartment. We reached Dijon, a small town in the Burgundy region on our way south, in a matter of hours. We didn't have set plans on where to go and what to see in Dijon so we decided to just explore in the 4-5 hours we had available before our next train. We found a hotel near the train station who we were able to convince to let us leave our bags there. This was after trying 3 other hotels. We headed to the tourism office and took a map to the city. They informed us of a free bus that would take ... read more