A Week's Travels, Part 1: Lucerne and Interlaken, Switzerland

We left early (as in 12:45 AM) last Friday morning for Lucerne, Switzerland, on an overnight train. Never, ever doing that again. Four people (the three of us plus one other woman) trying to sleep in a compartment that can sort-of-comfortably sleep three is not an experience I care to repeat any time soon. Anyway, we got to Interlaken at about eight in the morning, checked into our hostel, and then promptly all went back to sleep and didn't get up until after noon.

Lucerne was pretty enough, but since most of the city's attractions are actually outside the city, and thus require a dedicated day-trip, and we were only there for one night, we didn't actually do all that much. One thing we did do was check out the Glacier Gardens, which is an area that was carved out by glaciers thousands of years ago. It's really quite something to see.





At the top of the Gardens, which is really the side of a small mountain, there's a rickety old observation tower where you can get a great view of the city.



Also, just below the Garden there is a monument to a group of Swiss Mercenaries who fought on the side of King Louis XVI during the French Revolution and were sent to the guillotine by the victorious revolutionaries.



Aside from that, though, there really wasn't much to do in Lucerne, like I said, so we just mainly hung out near Lake Lucerne and the Reuss River.





One funny story from our time in Lucerne: the three of us (Samantha, Dreama, and myself) were waiting for the light to change so we could cross the street when a brand-new Ferrari (F430 Scuderia Spider 16M, if you're really interested) turns the corner and roars past us. Me being me, I stare after it with my mouth hanging open. Sam and Dreama just roll their eyes and say "Dude, come on, it's just a car." To which I respond "It's not just a car, it's a Ferrari." They repeat themselves. "It's just a car." "It's a Ferrari." "It's a car." "It's a Ferrari." So we go back and forth like that for a minute, and the whole time there's this little old man standing on the sidewalk with us. All of the sudden he turns around and gives us a stern glare. I figure he's about to yell at us for being rude Americans when he starts wagging his finger at us. Then he starts to talk. "Is a Ferrari," he firmly declares in the thickest Italian accent I've ever heard.

So, the next day, Saturday, we took a train to Interlaken. Only spent a few hours there before our train to Paris left (actually the train that took us to the TGV that took us to Paris). Oddly enough, even though we were only there for five hours, I think it was my favorite spot in the whole trip, probably because it was so beautiful.









One interesting bit of trivia about Interlaken; they filmed a good portion of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service near the town. The hotel that features prominently in the film, Piz Gloria, can actually be seen from the town square on a clear day. BTW, if you've never heard of the movie, it's the only one where George Lazenby played 007. If you haven't seen it, rent it. Despite the no-name actor in the lead role, it's actually one of my favorite Bond films.

So, after spending too few hours in Interlaken, it was off to Paris, which will be featured in my next post. So look for Part 2 of my write-up coming soon!

Also, the Toblerone bars in Switzerland are absolutely huge!



That one weighs 400 grams (the ones you can find in the states only weigh 100, for comparison), but they come even bigger; 750 grams are also common, and if you look hard, you can find bars that weigh a whopping 4.5 kilograms! Unfortunately, while I did see a few of those huge bars, I couldn't afford one; they cost upwards of 25 Swiss Francs (one SF is just about equal to one US Dollar).

So, anyway, look for my write-up on Paris soon (probably tomorrow). Until then, peace.

-Raptor