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Published: January 6th 2007
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Traveling to Luzern
Today we had to leave Kitzbuhel behind despite all of the fun we had enjoyed there. After breakfast we packed, checked out and got on the road. The trip to Luzern was a bit longer than we had taken in a while (4.5 hours) so we wanted to make sure we got on the road pretty early.
Liechtenstein… Tom Tom sometimes takes us on routes that seem a little circuitous but always seem to get us where we are going eventually. Today’s circuitous route took us through the principality of Liechtenstein. The country is situated in the middle of the Alps and is only 4 miles by 12 miles. Today I think we saw at least 80 percent of the country.
The capital of Vaduz is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. Due to the crazy weather in the area Liechtenstein looked closer to what I would expect it to look like in spring. The valley was a verdant green that was almost surreal while the mountains were still tipped in snow like someone had dumped icing all over a cake. We didn’t have long to see
the country, but what we did see was very pretty and probably worth a quick look if you are ever in the area.
Bachelor Parties and Fondue By time we made it to Lucerne the sun was going down and town had pretty much shut up for the day. It seems that shops in Switzerland close prior to 6pm so the old town was completely dead by the time we walked there from our hotel.
We spent about an hour window shopping in town prior to getting some dinner. Lucerne has an serious collection of watch and jewelry shops which have impressive window displays. For those who are not into watches, Patek Phillipe is a brand of Swiss watches that is incredibly famous. This particular company has been making wrist watches for over a hundred years and hand makes all of their watches in very small batches. Each year the company only puts out a handful of watches which means that a brand new one is incredibly expensive. A few shops in the area had extensive displays of Patek Phillipe and other amazing watches. One in particular had two restored Patek Phillipe’s from 1948 which
were each around 30,000 Swiss Francs (about US $24k). WOW!!
While walking around town we saw a group of men in orange reflective vests who were singing and putting on quite a commotion. We were completely unsure as to what was going on, but stopped to gawk like everyone else. Later when we decided to get dinner, we entered the restaurant we had planned on eating at, only to find this same group of men already seated having a loud but grand old time.
Turns out that the group was out in a bachelor party for their friend Steph (pronounced Steve). They all had matching orange vests that said, “Steph’s Highway to Hell” (a little AC/DC reference for ya). Steph was attired in a full biker’s costume they had bought him, complete with helmet, goggles, jacket, and leather pants. All were drunk and having a blast!!
10 minutes after entering the bar, they asked us where we were from. We reply, “the United States.” They all yell “USA, USA, USA”…at which moment someone cues up Born in The USA by Bruce Sprinsteen on the boom box (which they had brought with them into the restaurant and were
playing at dance party volume) and everyone starts singing at the top of their lungs. At this point we were part of the party.
After we ordered our meal, one of Steph’s friends Marcus came over and joined us. From that point on we were all best friends. Marcus spent most of the evening with us (while we ate) talking to us about his travels to Australia and about Switzerland. Throughout the evening other different guys from the group would join and leap into the conversation. At one point Kel was talking to a Swiss banker named Chris while I talked to Marcus about Australia. It was a ton of fun.
We managed to get pictures of the whole group, pictures with a VERY drunk Steph, and pictures with Marcus. Tomorrow we may end up going up into the mountains with Marcus. He gave us his cell phone number and told us to call him around midday (so he had time to deal with his hangover) and that we would meet up so he could show us part of the town.
Meeting people is so much fun. Its one of the big reasons we travel. Tonight was
a blast!!!
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