Europe!! First stop–Switzerland!

Hey everybody!!  I know it has been a while since I’ve posted, but I took a little trip to Europe!  16 days to be exact.  I tagged along with my bestie Melissa, her dad Randy and his girlfriend Bernie, their college friends Don and Julie, and their son Kevin.

Melissa and I before our first long flight!

Our trip started out with a cancelled flight, but we were able to make it to JFK in time for our flight to Zurich.  We arrived in Zurich early in the morning and planned to keep moving all day so we wouldn’t fall asleep due to the time change (did I mention that I cannot sleep on planes?!?  eeeekk!!)  Once in Zurich we immediately hopped onto the train.  We bought Eurorail passes for the trip to make transit easier.

This is our first train!  Please note the backpack—I was pretty proud of myself for my packing skills.  Clothing for 16 days in there, and it only weighed 30 pounds!!  I also had a carry-on back-pack that I took on the plane and could actually fit inside the pack as well.  Skill!  haha!

Our first stop was Lucerne and the Lion of Lucerne.

It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.

Next up, we walked around the old town of Lucerne.  As you can see, the old and new town are separated by a crystal clear river.

Taken at the top of a tower along the wall that used to surround the old city.

This was my favorite of Lucerne’s walking bridges.  Probably because of the flowers 🙂

Our second day in Lucerne we took a scenic train to Interlaken.  This was one of the few places that none of the group had been to.  The ride over there was basically like riding through a fairytale.  Switzerland is very green and picturesque.  The lake water between the valleys was super green.  Our theory was that it was reflecting off of all of the trees.  Very scientific, I know 🙂  Most of the ride to Interlaken was high up in the mountains looking down in the valleys.

Interlaken was a nice surprise with an awesome backdrop and perfect weather.

Our view from lunch.  Not too shabby ehh?

 

 

We finished the last of our day in Interlaken walking along the river to the lake.

Group pic!!

For our third day in Lucerne, we rode the boat to visit Mount Pilatus. We took a ton of pictures on the boat ride but I will contain myself : )

 

When we arrived at the bottom of Mount Pilatus, we missed the cog rail train that we wanted to ride on. So we took a stroll through the town of Alpnachstad.

Following our stroll we took the cog rail to the top of Mount Pilatus, topping out at around 7,000 feet!  And according to Wikipedia, it is the world’s steepest cogwheel railway, crazy!

This is Royce, and he rode the cog rail up with us.  People here take their dogs everywhere with them, and they are so well behaved.  Riley wouldn’t last ten minutes there.  Dogs lay under the tables in restaurants, ride the trains, etc.  Once we were walking in an underground-like mall, and we saw a dog sitting outside a store waiting for its owner, not tied up or anything.  It was crazy!!

The top of Mount Pilatus has two hotels and is a popular spot to paraglide. Once at the top, we climbed even further to get the best view.

 

 

 

 

This pic is for my friend Kim—a real live mountain goat!

These were caves that you can walk through around the mountain.

 

There was even a church!

 

See the switchbacks?  You can even hike up, only takes 6 hours going up!  I’ll pass : )

On the way down, we rode a cable train.  The drop down was a bit scary–I was glad they packed it so full that I couldn’t even see out the windows.  After the cable train, we switched over to these little guys.

And just for kicks, one last group pic from my favorite bridge in Lucerne.

Sorry for the picture overload : )  Be on the lookout for the next post–Germany, Austria, and Italy!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jess