As we entered Switzerland Hans gave us a brief history of Switzerland. Switzerland is known for several things: chocolate, cheese, timepieces, the Swiss Army (their knives being quite popular worldwide), Swiss bank accounts, and the pride in being neutral for the past 500 years. If you ask me, the Swiss are a bunch of shady folks who are up to no good. If the Swiss pride themselves on being neutral, why is it that they have a Swiss army that they can call up in 48 hours? Mark my words, they are just secretly preparing to invade Liechtenstein. |
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We went through the Swiss border without incident, though Hans warned us there might be a Swiss border patrol officer who might board our bus and check all of our passports. I hoped that if this should happen, at least I'd get another stamp in my passport. I had already been to five countries and only got one stinking stamp at Heathrow. No luck, the Swiss border patrol trusted us. Drat. |
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As we pulled into Lucerne, our first stop was supposed to be Mt. Stanserhorn, but it was cloudy and visibility was terrible. Hans rescheduled our excursion for first thing the following morning, hoping the weather would be better. So we were off into Lucerne for a quick walking tour. Our first stop was the Löwendenkmal, Lucerne's Lion Monument (1), which honored the 700 Swiss guards who died in 1792 defending King Louis XVI and his family, not knowing that the royal family had secretly escaped. |
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Our next stop was the Kapellbrücke, or Chapel Bridge (3), which was built in 1333. Just shy of its 660th birthday, a tourist (the story blames an American) was smoking next to the bridge, as there is no smoking allowed on the wooden structure. When he finished, he flicked his cigarette, which landed on a nearby German Shepeard. Feeling something burning on its back, the dog freaked out and ran onto the bridge. After it shook the cigarette off it ran back to its master. Shortly thereafter the middle section of the bridge burned down. This is why there is a sign at the bridge's entrance that does not allow German Shepeards (2) or smoking. |
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As we crossed over to the other side, I thought this was actually a pretty cool little town (4), (5). At the foot of the river that feeds into Lake Lucerne, I filled up a travel size bottle with some rocks, sand, and water for my coworker Jason. He collected bottles of water from around the world. He requested water from the canals of Venice, but knowing that it was sewer water, I opted to wait for something cleaner. Before we went anywhere exploring we had to go to the obligatory Swiss watch demonstration. |
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At the demonstration Hans pointed out some cool Swiss Army knives (and USB thumb drives) and some snazzy watches. One of the watches featured was the Tissot T-Touch watch, which retailed for 700 Swiss Francs ($600). Granted, it is a badass watch, and the retail price was correct, but I told everyone that I had bought this exact watch for Dan (my boyfriend) only five months earlier for WAY less than $600, so don't get fooled into thinking anything in that store was a bargain. |
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There was an honor-system internet café above the demonstration store, and I ran up to check if my brother had made any last-minute requests before I began a quest to locate a specific Swiss Army knife and clip that he wanted. I checked it and then headed out without paying. Oops. |
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I went to the tourist store across the street to see if they had either item I was looking for. I even spoke in German, and the cashier thought I was visiting from Germany. Wow, my accent must be really good. Unfortunately the store didn't have what I was looking for. Onto the next cluster of stores, which happened to be down Hirschengraben (6). Yay, something with my last name on it (Hirsch)! |
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Certain things are plentiful in Lucerne: chocolate (7), (8), and Swiss Army knives. We bought some chocolate to hold us over until we could get some real food. Yummy! I went into practically every other store in Lucerne searching for this stupid clip for Hans (my brother, not our tour guide). Finally I bought a phonecard and called him with the bad news. Once I finally connected (the phonecard system is very confusing), he told me he'd like some German motorcycle magazines and the Swiss Army knife with the lighter built in (since it is not sold in the States). |
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I went back to the shop (9) where I had found the Swiss CampFlame, as it was called, and bought two (one for Hans, one for Dan). The cash register was filled with American money. That's one of the things about Swizterland that I think supports the whole "Shady" notion. You can buy whatever you like there with whatever currency you have. They'll just give you change in Swiss Francs. While it might be nice to get rid of your British pounds, if you are only staying in Switzerland for one night (like we were), the Swiss Francs were going to be useless to you the next day. |
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We ran into Christian, Crissy, and Alberto, who had just bought new Swiss watches and were happy to show them off (10). They paid retail (a sin for a shopper like me), but at least they can say, "I bought this Swiss watch in Switzerland." I kind of equated it to when I was on an Alaskan cruise (in 2004), and during our one Canadian stop I bought the new Avril Lavigne CD, which had come out only two days earlier. Stupid comparison, I know. But I can say, "I bought this Canadian's CD in Canada." |
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We wandered around Lucerne for a couple more hours while everyone else had the option to go on the Lake Lucerne cruise. Since it was overcast, it sounded like a waste of time to me. Although there were plenty of shops (ALL of which sold Swiss Army knives, but NONE of which sold the clip I wanted), it was impossible to find a decent meal. We stopped at a place that sold Lindt chocolate (I bought a bunch for my coworkers) and lots of really cute chocolate pieces that were in the shapes of ladybugs and other cutesy insects. The place also had a mini deli, so I grabbed something (a full size pig-in-a-blanket). How does a city not have any restaurants? Maybe I was blind, but I certainly didn't see any other food options. In fact, I didn't even see cheese, which is one of the things the country is known for. |
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| When we got to our hotel that evening, we were thrilled to see our accomodations. Anything would easily beat our rooms in Italy, but we had down comforters again. Mikki even took a picture of me while we were both lying on the bed to illustrate how fluffy everything was (11). We all had dinner together in the Hotel (pretty good), and then most of us ended up hanging out in the bar, where we tried to use up our leftover Swiss Francs. Simon bought a drink for 20SF that had 17 shots in it. I then encouraged Jen to have one. She had rubbed me the wrong way (two know-it-alls do not a good combination make) and I wanted her to get drunk and have a nasty hangover (does that make me evil?) [NOTE: Sorry Jen.]. I even agreed to buy the drink for her. So she and Simon (12) had a grand old time, though I don't think she finished hers. Mike, Simon and I started talking about football (his passion). I remember Simon (well beyond drunk) (13) getting excited when I mentioned that Brett Favre was cute. I'm not sure why, but he kneeled down and kissed my feet. I guess he though I was cool for #1, knowing who Brett Favre was, and #2, thinking he was attractive. I was floored by his reaction when I told him I went to the Green Bay-Redskins game (his two favorite teams) the prior fall. He grabbed my face and kissed me on the lips! I was speechless, but I guess he really likes football. :-) After Lisa did a little bar dancing and strip tease with the crazy bartender (you'll have to beg me for the video), I decided to call it a night. But not before helping an intoxicated Simon find his room. (Even I, who was not drunk, had a hard time locating his room in the illogically room-numbered hotel.) |
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| Day 14 • Thursday, May 19, 2005 • Mt. Stanserhorn, Switzerland |
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Bright and early Thursday morning we packed up and got breakfast. I was surprised to see Simon looking chipper as usual. He somehow had escaped a hangover...lucky. After breakfast we headed to Mt. Stanserhorn, which is a mountain that overlooks Lucerne. We took the first available mountain car (for lack of a better term) (14) and gondola (15) up to the summit, and fortunately the visibility was much better than the previous afternoon. |
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Once we got up there, we only had about half an hour to wander around before having to rush back down. We all took pictures of each other with other mountains as our backdrop, and thanks to the position of the sun and its light reflecting off the snow I thought I was going to go blind. It was just that bright. I could barely keep my eyes open for a few pictures. |
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While the summit was cool (complete with quaint cabins) (16), it wasn't quite the top of the mountain. A little more hiking (and slipping on the snow and ice) and I reached the actual summit of Mt. Stanserhorn (17). It was bizarre when Christian told us this was the first time he had experienced snow first-hand. I guess there isn't much snowfall in Melbourne, Australia. |
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I insisted on taking a picture of everyone that hiked up to the summit. I didn't even have to worry about being left out of the picture or asking someone to take the picture of all of us, thanks to my new mini tripod that I had bought in Rome. Finally, the perfect opportunity to use my purchase (18). |
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Our time atop Mt. Stanserhorn was way too short (I didn't even get to look in the gift shop), but we had a long day of travelling ahead of us. We all boarded the descending gondola and mountain car (19), and after we arrived at the base, prepared to leave Lucerne. A bunch of us made a last-ditch effort to spend up any leftover Swiss Francs at a nearby bakery before we left Switzerland. France wasn't going to be as welcoming with foreign currency (without a hefty surcharge). |
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Shortly after we began our trip heading north for Paris, Simon's hangover finally kicked in. He realized that the reason he woke up feeling fine was because he was still drunk. The nine-hour ride to Paris was not going to be fun for him, I'm sure. |
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