Switzerland

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Switzerland was a breath of fresh air, quite literally. The difference in the quality of the air was quite noticeable almost as soon as we crossed the border on Monday morning- the scenery from the train (when you're not in a tunnel) is picture postcard, and arriving in Lucerne you immediately felt safe - unfortunately you also felt quite damp as it started to rain almost as soon as we arrived. Lucern is quite a pretty place and so well sign posted you would have to work really hard to get lost there!We were lucky enough to stay in an authentic Vietnamese Swiss Hotel....which meant the smells wafting up out of the kitchen even before breakfast had you thinking about Peking Duck for lunch before you'd even had your muesli.Our plan for Lucern was to venture up the extraordinarily steep cog-wheel railway to Mt Pilatus for the adrenalin rush and for the amazing views to be had from there. Well, I tried as hard as I could to persuade Mr Weather that the clouds were definitely going to clear away, but funnily enough he didn't believe me and so instead I was made to shop, drink vats of milk coffee and eat swiss chocolate instead....I had a shocking time ......Wednesday morning we hopped on to one of the super efficient swiss trains and set off for Geneva.Well (more meticulous planning.... ), who else would be lucky enough to arrive in Geneva to stay for the ONE day that is a holiday in Geneva, but no where else in Switzerland? I would tell you what the holiday was for but no one else seemed to know either.Anyway, it actually turned out to be a good thing- in Geneva they hire bikes for free, so we located one of these depots and we were able to ride around the near deserted streets and the lake until our bums nearly fell off.This actually turned out to be a bad thing because this made us so tired we decided to go back to our (luxury!) hotel for a rest. This is where I had my first encounter with the European insect (flea, mozzie- not really sure) to which my gene pool had I am apparently highly allergic. After a short afternoon nap I erupted into approximately 16 inflamed and throbbing volcanic swellings closely resembling those of The Plague. Of course, Dean had not even the teeniest mark. ...how unfair is that!So, I was quite glad to get on the train to Lyon Friday morning and hopefully leave the ferocious little beasts behind.

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Photos

Switzerland
You can nearly see the fresh air from the train

Switzerland
The very latest thing in Switzerland apparently is to wrap churches in bright red plastic -it does add quite the festive touch to the scenery.

Lucerne
"Dean! The clouds are DEFINITELY clearing."

Lucerne
"They are definitely NOT clearing....drink your coffee"

Lucerne
While we were waiting for the weather to clear we went to the Lion monument, which is a tribute to the Swiss Guards. The saddness here is almost tangible.

Lucerne
"This is Mt Pilatus behind me - by the time we get up there I'm SURE the clouds will have gone!"

Lucerne
Could NOT convince him - had to eat these mulberries instead-

Geneva
Peddling around the Lake

Geneva
A stop to rest the glutes -we had to have several of these.

Geneva
The view from one of the "rest stops".

Geneva
The blanket we suspect of harbouring the highly ferocious European Plague flea.

Geneva - looking out the window of our room
All our hotels were picked with location and price the main priority - didn't think to check on the View! A nice touch was how the sun caught the top of the spinning thing and added a lovely strobe effect to the room.