Alright that's my soapbox moment, on with the story... :-D
Die Schweiz
The night we left we went out with some of the best people I know. Caught a 1:40am train to Zurich for a connection to Lucerne. Sat next to a pretty cute guy. Slept until about 6 when a police officer asked for passports. I decided to stay up and watch the sunrise. Oh, the old lady across from me makes weird noises every now and then. We were also on a Harry Potter train as my friends have started calling them, thanks to me :-)
When I woke up I could see a mountain silhouette with Orion setting behind it. It looks like he's standing behind the mountain firing his bow. One of the coolest images I've ever seen. I wish I could get a picture to do it justice. Alas I'm not a photographer and there'd be a bad glare from the window.
Finally made it to Zurich. One nice thing about die Schweiz is that their trains are always on time and at the track they say it'll be located, unlike Linz haha. Oh and I spoke German to the kasse and he understood me! So exciting! Also, on the train the do announcements in German, French, and English. I love hearing the French, it sounds so pleasant to the ears haha not harsh like German.
Just had a movie thought. Didn't part of the Bourne Trilogy take place in Zurich? I feel kind of like a spy with my small black duffel and timberlands but the resemblance ends there as I'm wearing a sweater dress with tights and I have pink tags on my duffel.. Eh, I can dream right?
I just saw a Starbucks. The past three times I has been in the same area as a Starbucks I didn't get to go. Nothing will stop me this time from getting a grande hot chocolate with a shot of peppermint, aka Christmas in a cup.
On another note I'm really excited to be going back to Lucerne. It's been about four years since I've been. It's the first time my friend has been so we're going to try and see it all. Meaning Mount Pilatus, the lion monument, the bridge, and of course somewhere with exceptional hot coco (besides Starbucks).
We passed a beautiful farm house in a valley. We are a bit higher than the house and the fog and frost enveloping the house and land was gorgeous. Something you don't see everyday. Oh and there were mountains in the background. I'm so glad I decided to go on this trip.
We walked along the river the first day. Saw a million swans and ducks. The lake was silhouetted by the alps. It was a solute gorgeous. We walked all the way down to the transportation museum. However the planetarium was not open because the projector was broken. We decided to head back to the train station and retrieve our bags from the locker and head to the Hostel.
We checked into the Hostel and promptly fell asleep. It was the best nap I have ever taken! I apparently turned my alarm off in my sleep thus didn’t wake up. Julie had to wake me up and force me to get up. We needed to eat so we headed to a local Pub called Mr. Pickwicks. However it was PACKED! Karaoke was apparently a big thing in Luzerne. We decided to go there the next day and find somewhere else for now. We ended up at a little restaurant that had pizza. I had a mushroom pizza and a glass of not so great wine. However it was fun none the less because we were in Luzerne.
Oldest Wooden Bridge in Europe
The fog rolling in from the Mountain
What AView
Gorgeous :-D
The next day we planned to go to Mount Pilatus! I had been there before and couldn’t wait to go back. If you ever get the chance to go, DO IT! We had to go buy tickets at the info desk at the train station. Little did we know that we showed up an hour before they open. Oops. We sat in the terminal waiting. Then Julie left for a bit to use the restroom. Naturally as she left two ticket enforcers came in asking for tickets. IN FRENCH! I don’t speak French! I tried a little German, that was a no go. Then I spoke English. One guy looked at me and said hold on. He went and got his buddy and asked what I was doing there. I answered stating that I was waiting for the info desk to open. They spoke in French for a minute more and when they looked back at me I did my best Fi, Fiona in Burn Notice, impression. Meaning I had a nice smile and may have batted my eyes at the cute ticket guy. He smiled back and said ‘Okay’. I was afraid they were going to pull an Indiana Jones “No Ticket” to me.
Thankfully the info desk opened then and Julie finally came back and we bought our ticket to the Mountain. We had to take a Train and a Cogwheel train up the mountain (Longest in the world). We got to the top and it was just as I remembered it. Breathtakingly Gorgeous. We hiked up to the top of two peaks and enjoyed the view. We also had Swiss version of grilled cheese. Yes this girl, who hates cheese, at a grilled cheese like meal. The Swiss cheese was melted and mixed with some kind of beer and poured over two delicious pieces of bread. I ate one whole piece and half of the other.. After a while I could smell the cheese and couldn’t eat anymore.
There's the Cogwheel Train!!
The Classic Point Pic
The Delicious Grilled Cheese and View of the Mountain
We then headed back down the mountain in a cable car. That was fun! We went all the way down to a town called Kriens. We then were to take the #1 Bus back to Luzerne Altstadt. I saw a sign that said #1 Bus with an arrow. Naturally I thought it pointed to where the seats were that indicated there was a stop there. Boy was I wrong. Thankfully an English speaking family walked by talking about how the walk to the bus stop wasn’t that far. Julie and I followed them and eventually found the Bus stop. We arrived back in town around 2 in the afternoon. We had just enough time to walk to the museum and catch the show at the Planetarium.
We walked all the way there and got out tickets. As soon as the show started I realized that I’d seen a similar show before and promptly fell asleep. Oops. I woke up for the actual lecture that was to be given after the movie. I wish the lecture was longer since it was fairly interesting. They pointed out my favorite constellation Orion. We then walked around the museum and finally headed to Mr Pickwicks for dinner and drinks.
We finally made it around 5:30 to Pickwicks. We shared a table with two people from Scotland. The nice lady, Caroline, started talking to us when she noticed that we were drinking Guinness. Her friend Darren, who is a sniper for the police in London, came back and we had a fun night drinking, eating, and talking about Scotland, London, and the States. We also talked about the football games that were going on. I don’t know much about football (When I say football I mean Soccer. I know plenty about American Football haha!). Julie and I left around 10 since we needed to be up early to check out. We walked to the train station and she got some Nutella to eat since she had a bit more to drink than I did ( I only had one Guinness and a Magners, she had three Guinness’s). We finally made it back and I fell asleep pretty quick.
The next morning I hear an alarm going off and I know it’s not mine. I thought that Julie had her phone with her and would turn it off. Next thing I hear is “Alex? Can you Please turn off my phone? If I try to climb down I’ll die.” (We had a bunk bed). I turned off her phone and then got ready for the day. We checked out and headed to the train station to lock up our bags. We then headed to the Lion Monument. The Lion Monument is a monument to the fallen Swiss Guard Members that died protecting King Louis the XIV.
After we went to the monument we got breakfast at a little bakery/restaurant. It was pretty good. Then we went to Starbucks. I wish that my giftcard worked there but alas it didn’t. I still got a Grande Iced Black Tea Sweetened. We stayed there for about two hours then went to the train station. When we arrived at the train station there was some sort of SWAT like training going on. Of course they were starting to lockdown the area with the lockers. Naturally Julie and I go around and get to the lockers just as they’re asking people to leave. They have the whole area roped off and we couldn’t go out a side entrance. There was a massive man standing there, arms crossed shaking his head and eventually pointed in the direction we needed to go. Talk about Scary! Julie told me they were after me since I confused them the other day. We laughed about it and went about our business.
Starbucks!!!!
Finally the time came to board the train back to Salzburg, with a stop in Zurich. It was about a 45 min ride to Zurich and we got off and walked around to the river. I couldn’t believe that I was were Jason Bourne, aka Matt Damon, ran through the streets avoiding capture. If you haven’t noticed I’m a bit of a movie buff. We headed back to the train station to board the train back to Salzburg.
Did I mention that there was a Christmas Tree in the middle of the station!?
We got a great seat of the train with a table and would you believe it, outlets to charge phones! EEK! I got to charge my iPhone during the 5hour ride. About two stops in a bunch of soldiers on leave for holiday got on the train. That’s when things got loud haha. They all got off with Julie and I in Salzburg. We got dinner at the Burgerking, don’t get the onion rings, and finally headed home.
All in all it was great trip and very relaxing. I wish I could go back because school is crazy now with tests and projects.
Here is a little Extra for you all. A sneak peak at WEINACHTSMARKT!!
The Big Christmas Tree
Another Pic of the Tree!
Me and the Tree
A bit blurry but Pretty all the same
Awesome pics and stories - keep them coming!
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