To Lucerne, Switzerland

Our bus left Florence soon after 7 am and travelled through the Italian countryside and into the Alps area. As we passed Lake Como, the home of many many millionaires and the site of holiday homes for other millionaires, we knew we were leaving Italy and entering Switzerland. Switzerland is a truly beautiful spot. We had to pass through immigration and customs procedures at the border as Switzerland is not a member of the European Economic Union!

We travelled on towards Lucerne through the Alps. Only one word can be used to describe the scenery in this part of the world, simply AWESOME! You would travel from one beautiful spot then just around the corner is another spectacular view. Soaring snow capped mountains with picturesque Swiss homes dotted around the mountain base on a glorious green carpet of grass.

The bus passed through tunnels, one of which is over 30 kilometres in length! They have long tunnels here like we have bridges in Australia! You must click on these photos for a larger view, then "Back" to return to this page.

The bus arrived in Lucerne mid afternoon and we quickly left our hotel for a quick 'explore' of the shops and the city. As with most places in Europe, Lucerne is not cheap for shoppers so we did a lot of looking! We had decided to opt out of the evening's 'optional dinner', ( I hadn't spent this much money to go to a yodelling exhibition among other things!). We decided to fend for ourselves and find a local restaurant. We found we could manage some basic Italian when in Italy, but there was no way we could work out what was on the menu when it was written in German. So we had a bit of a problem!

Just behind the hotel was a Vietnamese Restaurant that looked reasonable, but best of all their menu was made up of pictures of all the dishes they served! We decided to eat there and at about 6 pm when we returned we found the small restaurant full. No problem, I would grab a couple of cans of beer, go back to our hotel room and we would get back to the restaurant about 7:30 when things had quietened down a little. We returned at 7:30 to find the restaurant was still packed, but just as we were about to leave, a table for four became available. We quickly took possession of it just as another Swiss couple entered the restaurant. We shared our table with them.

This turned in to one of the best nights of the trip. They spoke some English so we spent time chatting away and enjoying each other's company. From what had started out as a disastrous night, had turned in to one of the very best!

The next day we had opted out of the optional morning excursion to a typical Swiss Farm followed by a horse and buggy ride and used the time to sleep in. We were collected by the bus at about 9:30 am. Though the weather was overcast with a threat of drizzle, we were going to visit Mt Pilatus! We went up the mountain by cable car. The trip up took over 30 minutes and the temperature dropped as we climbed upwards. We reached the top and had a look around for over an hour. The cloudy weather meant there wasn't much to see. However on this peak we were higher than if we stood on the top of Australia's tallest mountain!


Our trip down was by cog-wheel railway! Again sensational scenery as we slipped quietly down to the station at the foot of the mountain through the mist and clouds.


While the rest of the group took an optional $100 per double 45 minute boat ride across Lake Lucerne (with drinks included) the bus dropped us back in Lucerne. We were going to use the afternoon to explore Lucerne fully! We walked across the Chapel Bridge - photo left -(recently restored after it had been damaged by fire) and into the city. Many of our gifts to be brought home were bought during this shopping experience. We caught up with some of our fellow tourists who were complaining about not having enough time to look around the city.

Like many places in Europe, these cities are set up for pedestrians, and Lucerne was no different! That night we had an included dinner at the hotel (this meant I did not have a beer with my meal because of the high charges hotels make for drinks!). We were leaving Switzerland tomorrow and driving to Paris.