Day 4 - Lucerne

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We arrived in the hotel late evening, and had a set dinner arranged for us upon arrival. We were all quite tired after a long day on the bus after travelling approx 5 hours from heidleberg in germany.. Arriving in Fluelen was a sight to see, as it is banked on the Lake Lucerne and surrounded by swiss mountains.. Aside from the trains travelling past our hotel (Every 8 minutes) this was such a pretty place both by day and by night. Our views provided many wonderful opportunities to take some great photos.
When I have access to the internert, I will upload some pics for you to see! Currently, I am working off my Blackberry. These mobile devices are amazing, and provide you with access almost anywhere to email / phone or Internet. If only you could download your photos on them!

Up bright and early, we drove into Lucerne, and were dropped off for a walk around the town, and to check out. the shopping. Plenty of Swiss army knives, Cow Bells, Cuckoo Clocks, chocolate, not to mention Swiss Handmade Watches. I have fallen in love with Watches! The Rolex's (Real Ones!!) were off the list, howver I have my eyes on a few nice Tissot Watches-lucky i have a Birthday coming up (Hint Hint!!!). Rachel however had her eyes on a beautiful diamond encrusted Ladies Rolex Watch - 98,300 swiss franks.. I think she will have to marry a rich Swiss man, or we will move home again with her Mum and Dad, and sell the house, cars....

Mid morning, we visited the Lion monument. - an amazing stone sculpture in honour of the heroic swiss guard of Louis XVL. The unfortionate story, however was that when the sculpture was completed, the city was not happy with it, and they refused to pay the dutchman, so he retaliated by carving a pig around the outside of the sculpture!! HaHa!!

Next was Mt Titlis. We travelled 45mins to the base carpark, where we passed many keen cyclists. We left the bus, and traveled via cable car to the 3048 Metres (10,000 Foot) summit. Mount Titlis is Switzerlands most popular Ski Resort!!! Sure beats Buller!! The ride to the top was split into 3 parts. A 4 seater enclosed capsule, then a 30 person Capsule, followed by a rotating (360") capsule which travelled to the summit. Rach nearly wet her pants, however she impressed me with her bravery, and sure would have made her Mum proud. Otherwise there were some amazing views, and great opportunities to take some cool photos.

At the summit, we had lunch in the resturant, and Simon and I took to the slopes on the tyre tubes. They had a run designed which was heaps of fun, and gave us thrill seekers an adrenailine rush, not to mention a wet butt.

Down off the mountain, we were back in Lucurne, and stocked up on some more shopping, and headed back to the hotel

I was impressed how clean the city is, and were reminded of how proud the swiss were of their country.
Lucerne (In particular) provided us with a great taste of Switzerland, and would have to be our favourite place to date on the trip. With their Snowcapped Alps, Impressive City Walls, Ornate Patrician houses & Lined cobblestone Streets, this will hopefully not be our last trip back to Switzerland.

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