PTM // Contiki: Day 4 - Paris to Lucerne!

Another early morning! Everyone was up early to get to the bus so that we could head off to Lucerne, Switzerland. Kennett our tour manager said that this would be one of the longest drives on the whole tour.

We stopped twice during the 6 or 7 hour drive, once for 45 minutes, and then another 15 minutes. Personally, I would’ve rathered to drive straight there, but some people had to use the bathroom, stretch their legs, etc.

Finally after arriving in Lucerne, Kennet took us to the famous Wooden Chapel Bridge here in Lucerne. A bridge that USED to be the oldest wooden bridge in Europe, but due to a man tying his boat up to it and burning most of the bridge down back in 1994, it is no longer Europe’s oldest wooden bridge, Too bad huh? The Swiss restored the bridge, but lost most of the paintings that were located on the ceiling of the bridge in the process. Luckily the Swiss made copies of the paintings just before the Wooden Chapel Bridge burnt down so they were able to put artificial copies of the paintings back up on the ceiling.

The bridge itself is beautiful. It’s surrounded by mountains and hills and even Lake Lucerne. There are swans that live in the river below the bridge and they too are part of the Wooden Chapel Bridge’s beauty. Along the edge of the river are cafe’s, pubs, and hotels. There are tables outside along the river and along side the bridge, and I’m actually sitting at a table right now typing this blog!

After getting a look at the Chapel Bridge, we headed over to Harry’s, a well known Swiss Watch and Swiss Knife shop here in Lucerne. I took a look at a few watches, but after seeing some of the price tags, I took a stroll outside.

We had about a half hour free time to walk around Lucerne, so I took a walk by myself around the town and grabbed a plate of french fries for the walk. As I headed back to meet the group I stopped at a water fountain that was about two minutes from where we were all supposed to meet. This is where things got a little weird. I was standing enjoying the view of the fountains when all of a sudden I heard a woman say Hey! I turned around and there was a building on the corner of the street in front of the fountain with tall hedges covering the door. As I turned I saw this woman signaling me to come towards her. I started to say what?, what?. Because I couldn’t understand what she wanted. Then when I started to walk away around the other side of the street where I was meeting with my tour she crossed the front of the hedges and whispered “Hey Baby!”. I was sort of shocked so I turned to her and said Hi. Again she signaled for me to come towards her, so as I got closer she began to ask me all sorts of questions, where I was from, how long I’m in Lucerne, etc. So, I proceeded to ask the questions right back at her! Two or three minutes into our conversation she asked me if I wanted to make love. Haha! I asked her, what is this a strip club or something? She said Yes, but we have a room upstairs but shh… It’s full contact, we make love! I couldn’t believe what was going on, and my tour was in sight to my left so I politely said no and changed the subject a bit and she kept on asking me. “C’mon, how many swiss francs is too much?” I again politely said no and ended up walking away to catch up with my tour. That experience was the last thing I would’ve thought would happen in Lucerne, I mean I can see if I was in Amsterdam, then that would be a different story.

Once I got back on the bus, my tour manager Kennett told everyone over the loud speaker that I had been in Switzerland for 30 minutes and I’d already been offered sex from a Venezuelan woman. Everyone was cracking up!

We headed off to to check into our hotel and everyone went straight to dinner when we arrived. It was an included Contiki dinner at the hotel, and it wasn’t too bad. I would say that it’s free, but in reality I paid for it in my tour price. After dinner, some people gathered in the hotel lobby and drank, but I was locked in my hotel room trying to find wifi so that I could update my website for you all! After an hour or two of attempting, I gave up and went to bed. Unfortunately I’ve been having some issues finding free wireless in the last couple of cities. I hope that I’ll have wifi access in my hotel in Nice, France this weekend. We’ll see!

Til’ next time…