Swiss Misses

Friday's travels brought us to Lucerne, Switzerland, via Zurich.  It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so we quickly dropped our bags at the hotel and headed out to explore Old Town.  Lake Lucerne was lovely, with clear water and populated with white swans.

One of the main attractions in Lucerne is the Chapel Bridge, one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) wooden bridges in Switzerland, dating back to the 14th century.  It also houses old paintings under its roof.

The bridge was partially destroyed by fire in 1993.  83 of the 110 paintings were destroyed.  Some of the blackened paintings were left in place to show the fire damage.

Later in the afternoon we took a boat cruise on the lake.

Saturday afternoon found us on another bus, headed to Mount Titlis, the highest summit in the area at 10,623 feet (I had to look that up).  It boasts the world's first rotating cable car, an illuminated glacier cave ...

... and the highest elevation suspension bridge in Europe, allowing for gorgeous panoramic views of the Alps (that is, if it's not fogged in).

 As you can see (or can't see due to the fog/clouds), we didn't have the best weather for visiting a glacier.

While Shelley stayed within the relative warmth of the station, Abbey and I wandered around the glacier, getting lost at one point and having to return to our starting point.  But we soldiered on, making our way across the bridge to ride the Ice Flyer, a chair lift/ride that took us out over crevasses and abysses (so they claim - we couldn't see diddly-squat).

We also took advantage of the sleds, going for a quick ride before heading back up the conveyor belt.

All in all, not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Upon our return, we did some more sightseeing, finding the Lion of Lucerne monument, a stone, mortally wounded lion carved in remembrance of the Swiss guards killed during the French revolution of 1792.

Sunday found us dragging our bags to the train station for our final train ride of the trip.  Zurich would be our final destination.

Zurich also boasts a lake and an Old Town, so we hit the trail for one more walking tour.

As the majority of shops were closed, we just wandered around from cafe to cafe, drinking coffee (and/or beer) and reading.  For lupper (lunch + supper) we decided to eat as the Swiss eat, so we ordered fondue.  It was delicious and was a fitting culinary end to our European adventure.

After a 24-hour day of travelling, we finally arrived back home on Monday evening.  While it's wonderful to travel to new places, try new foods and explore new cities, it's wonderful to be home again and sleeping in my own bed (with my four pillows).

That's the end of our journey.  Thanks for joining us on this edition of Teresa's Travels!  Ciao!

Munich: Even better than the movie

After a not-so-restful overnight train from Budapest, we arrived in Munich.  Fortunately for us, we were able to check into our hotel and take a nap before heading out for the hop-on, hop-off bus tour we had booked.  Due to a traffic snarl involving an oil spill, our inner circle tour got expanded to the full tour.  Therefore, I got to see where I will need to go when I pick up my next BMW.

We also drove by Olympic Park, which Abbey and Shelley visited to see the pool where Mark Spitz won all his Olympic gold medals.

Later that evening, we joined a small group beer tour of Munich, which was kinda, sorta like a pub crawl.  We learned lots of interesting information about beer making in Germany, and more importantly, got to sample several different beers.

Our tour guide, Keith, a Scotsman ex-pat and local beer distributor, was both knowledgeable and personable. The outing was quite a hoot due to his wisecracks and out-takes.  A group of ladies from Ohio also provided some entertainment, as they got a little loopy after the first beer (lightweights) and then proceeded to lose each other in the crowd of 23 people, prompting them to call out each other's name repeatedly in a poor attempt at Marco Polo.

Like me, did you wonder why Europeans served their beer at approximately room temperature?  Well, it seems that unlike American beer, European brews have flavor so there is no need to deaden the taste buds by serving them ice cold.  At least, that's why according to Keith.

After a full first day in Munich, our second day included a day trip by tour bus to the royal palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  We first visited Linderhof, a lovely (and surprisingly small) palace.  We weren't allowed to take photos inside the palace, so we got our selfies in outside in the extensive gardens.  

The second royal palace was the perched-on-a-mountain Neuschwanstein Castle.  To get to the palace, we had the option of hiking up a one mile path or taking the bus for 2 euros.  We took the bus - this is vacation, after all.  Again, no photos of the interior were allowed, so please enjoy these exterior photos as you ponder "how in the heck did they get the materials to build this castle to the building site?"  

Our last day in Munich was pretty relaxing.  We strolled through town, visiting Karlsplatz and Marienplatz (Karl's Square and Mary's Square) and did some reading and beer drinking in the English Garden (a park larger than Central Park in NYC).  

We finished up with some shoe shopping.  The Europeans have the right idea when it comes to shoe shopping - the racks were organized by color, type and size.  Brilliant!

Friday will find us in Lucerne, Switzerland - see you there!