Blog 7 Thursday May 28

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Our first stop was the Glass factory and I do find this place to be a tourist destination. It is not every day that you get to see glass being made and have the opportunity to make your own glass. Glass making for the Glasi has been around for 190 years. The Glasi Hergiswil was established in 1817 in Hergiswil. We had the opportunity to observe people making glasses, bowls and glass stars. As they were working I found it very interesting that most of them were where shorts, flip flops, short sleeves, and no protective eye wear. Back in the states I am sure that if anyone was working with such extreme heat they would have to wear long sleeves close toed shoes and protective glasses. After we were done watching them work we went over to blow our own glass. I almost didn’t do it but I am glad I did. It was a great experience and even though we didn’t do much it was still lots of fun. We were also able to play with glass and view 2 museums of glass, which some of them were up to 100 years old. After that we were able to purchase some glass in the two stores they had out on the street.

After the glass factory we went to Lucerne to visit the Palace Hotel. The hotel opened May 7, 1906. The hotel has 136 bedrooms and over 260 beds. In 2005 the closed the hotel for 3 months for renovations. The tore up the carpet in the lobby area and found the floor to be checkered underneath and decided to keep it. They also gave up 30 beds rooms for the spa area. The hotel also has 2 restaurants with 2 kitchens and 2 chiefs. Our tour guide informed us that there rack rate is between $680- 750 and the percent of occupancy for last year was 64-67%. She also told us that 40% of the people that stays there are Swiss. She also told us that they have 130 employees and most of the employee’s are seasonal.

After the Palace we were on our way to France. We made a stop an hour and a half outside France to exchange money. We were so use to getting more money for the American dollar but paying more of things such as food. When I gave the lady $76.00 I was shocked that I only got $48.95 back in euros, but we were informed that everything was cheaper in France so it would all work out. After that we continued on our way. I actually felt as home for a while because we went through land that was farm land and we even saw some deer. When we finally arrived at the Chateau we dropped our bags off and went and at our first French meal. It was such a relieve to see the prices of food and drinks decrease unlike in Switzerland.

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