After breakfast we all headed for the coach and went into town to see the famous Lion Monument here in Lucerne. After seeing the Lion Monument we had about an hour free time so I headed off on my own to see if I could get access to wifi along the river. Eveyone I had asked told me that there was no free wifi, and that I should go here, and there to pay for it. I decided to park myself on a bench next to the river and see if I could get a connection. At this point, I’m feigning to get on the internet, reply to emails, update my website, and everything else that I hadn’t done in days.

At last I found a connection, but at that point it was time to meet up with the group to go on the Contiki Optional boat cruise around Lake Lucerne. We boarded the boat at around 10:30AM, and it took us on a small loop around the lake. It was beautiful out, the sun was out but yet there was a nice cool breeze. I stood up on the top deck for a few minutes before I went downstairs and laid down on the front of the boat as it cruised around Lake Lucerne. I’m not sure if I would recommend this optional, because I thought it was sort of short and wished we could have explored more of the lake. I wasn’t really satisfied with it to be honest. Each person on board was given a token for a free drink, beer, wine, soda, or water. At 16 Euros, or 25 CHF it was just a little expensive for what we got.

After the boat cruise, most people decided on doing the Swiss Fondue/Folk Show Contiki Optional, but I decided not to do that one. I just wasn’t interested in it at all. Plus, I was on a mission to find a wifi hotspot, which I did on my hour and a half free time. I headed over to Starbucks, and I was surprised that they limited me to only 30 minutes on the internet, and you had to buy something which makes it even more pointless. After my quick 30 minutes was up, I went outside to the tables that they have along the river and jumped on another wifi hotspot that was in unsecure in the area. It worked out well. I ended up getting a lot of stuff done and even made a few calls on Skype.

At 2:00PM I had to meet up with the group again so that we could head off to Mt. Pilatus a mountain in Lucerne that reaches over 7,000 ft. This is one of the Contiki Optionals that I was really looking forward to. I couldn’t wait to get to the top of Pilatus.

We hopped on the 4 person Gondolas which took us up to just about half way at a little over 3,000 ft. When you jump off, there is an adventure sport park and a toboggan course which was closed. There were also zip lines and other really cool things to do, but none of that was for us. We still had to take a 25-30 person Gondola up to the top of Mt. Pilatus.

When we arrived at the top of Pilatus it was pretty chilly. The temperature dropped at least 10 degrees from when we were at the bottom about 30 minutes prior. Everyone really enjoyed the views on the way up, and especially from the top of the Mountain. There were all of these stairs and platforms that you could climb to get even higher view points. The views were incredible and unfortunately while walking around taking photos at the top, my camera battery died and I had left my spare battery in my backpack on the bus. Oh well! I got some great photos, and footage prior to my battery dieing so it worked out fine.

After taking a few photos and videos I went down to the snack bar and ended up paying 12.50 CHF for a hot dog and bottle of diet coke. Yeah, quite expensive! Our tour manager had warned us that buying anything on the top of Mt. Pilatus would be very expensive, more expensive that Switzerland is in the first place. And, he sure was right!

Our group decided to take the last Cog Railway train down the mountain (5:30PM) instead of the gondolas. The only problem was that the temperature dropped big time before we left, and it got really cold and it was pretty much a white out at the top. We all moved into the waiting area, and gift shop to keep warm until our train came.

It was a really cool experience to be descending down Mt. Pilauts on the steepest Cog Railway in the world! The train basically goes straight down the mountain side. The views were really cool. I was so tired from such a long day that I ended up sleeping for the last 20 of the 45 minute descent down to the base of the mountain.

Once we got to the base of Pilatus it was pouring rain and I think it just made everyone even more tired. We headed back to the hotel for our Contiki Included dinner and I headed straight back to my room to relax. Overall today was a great day, mostly due to the Mt. Pilatus optional and the weather this morning was really nice here in Lucerne.

Overall I thought Lucerne, and Switzerland in general was simply beautiful. The city of Lucerne was so clean, so fresh, and the water is some of the cleanest water in Europe. You can drink from any fountain, any sink, even the toilets if you’d like. Well, I wouldn’t recommend that, but that is how clean the water is here! I hope to come back to Switzerland later in the summer, but we’ll see what happens. One down fall about Switzerland is that it’s pretty expensive compared to other major countries in Western Europe. Expensive, but AWESOME! If you get the chance to go to Switzerland, definitely do it! It’s worth the money…

Tomorrow morning we head off to Nice, France. Yep, back to France again! But this time we’ll be heading to the south of France where the French Riviera lies. It’s going to be a long bus ride and I’m told that once we arrive we’ll have about an hour before we head off to one of the most high class countries in the world, Monaco! Should be a great time!

Til’ next time…

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…