Wanderlusting Woman

It's our last full day and I'm running on fumes, but I sucked it up and got up early this morning so we could do one more remarkable thing while we were here, which was to go to Zermatt and attempt to see the Matterhorn. From this mountain peak, you can see Italy, France, and Switzerland...at least I think I recall reading that somewhere...(it's over 14,500 feet high). So this morning, we took a train from Lucerne to Bern, Bern to Visp, and then Visp to Zermatt (we're getting really good at navigating the Swiss railway system!) Our train from Bern to Visp was delayed by 4 minutes (which NEVER happens, all trains are on time almost to the second. It's impressive.) So when our train got to Visp, we had to locate platform 3 and SPRINT because we literally had less than a minute to make it. We DID make it because we are Swiss railway CHAMPS now (btw, if you ever go to Switzerland, buy a Swiss Pass: best money you'll ever spend here.) Once we made it to Zermatt, we r...

Today we made our way up to Mt. Pilatus (all 6900+ feet). It was such a breath-taking view, we didn't want to leave...so we didn't. We sat in the window and had drinks and ran outside every so often when the sun came out to try to get a better picture than the last one. Eventually we made our way back to Lucerne and had dinner on the water, then said goodbye to Laura and Don, who left for Zurich for their flight home tomorrow morning. All good things must come to an end...a fact of life that sucks...oh well. Safe travels, Laura and Don! Until our next European adventure, Auf Wiedersehen!

Another day of winging it. We got a late start today in Lucerne because I was up until 3am last night. I thought we would just walk around Lucerne today and take a million pics of the famous covered bridge (built in the 17th century). But after walking out to Lucerne Lake, we decided to hop a boat to Weggis. At Weggis, we were going to wander around and have lunch, but instead, we hopped a bus to Visnau where we got on a cable car to Rigi that took us high high high up into the clouds and snow-capped mountains where my inner Frauline Maria felt a stirring. Unfortunately, thick clouds and snow-capped mountains were not the right setting for singing The Hills Are Alive. I needed some green green grass and mountains for my backdrop, so we headed back down the mountain on the cable car until we reached a town where we were no longer in the clouds. Still, I could not find the right spot for my Fraulein Maria moment, so instead we sat and had Swiss cake and champagne in a quiet little empty ...

Today we traveled from Zurich to Lucerne, dropped our bags off, and headed through the mountains to Lugano (the Italian side of Switzerland). It rained most of the time, so when we got off the train, Mike and I found a cute little bar/restaurant on the water, and ate fresh Bambina cheeses (from Lugano cows) and drank wine while we waited for the storm to pass. Our waiter was an adorable young Italian named Lorenzo who felt bad that we had nothing to do on our one day in Lugano. The conversation between him and Mike went something like this... Mike: What's there to do here? Lorenzo: In Lugano? Mike:Yeah. Lorenzo: This week? Mike: No, today. Lorenzo: TODAY!? (He looks outside at the pouring rain) Well...in summer you can swim in Lake Como. You and family. You can walk around city center, there is jewelry and banks. Ummmmm...(he struggles to think of options for us)...I mean, if you want to come over MY place... So poor Lorenzo felt so bad that our one day in Lugano was a bit of...