LUCERNE

We went to Lucerne last friday. We left Lyon at 6am, stopped over at Geneva to change train, and reached Lucerne at about 12 noon.

At geneva.

Lucerne:

The gate at the train station.


Wooden bridge with paintings of death.


Viola, painting of "dance of death".


The 9 watch towers of Lucerne.


The stone carving of a dead lion, dedicated to the hundreds of Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution.

We then went to see some huge glaciers:

And play with some funny mirrors in the garden of mirrors:



talk about Self amusement.


One of the many churches around. After awhile, all the churches seem the same in Europe.


Me with some swiss mascot.


As you can tell, I wasn't so crazy about Lucerne's town area. What I loved about lucerne was the mountains!!!
The next day, we went up to mount Rigi. We were a little hesitant about the cost, but looking back, it was worth the cost. We paid 77 francs (about 100SGD) for a boat ride to the foot of the mountain, a train up, a cable car ride down, and a boat ride back.



Boat ride against the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains ,and the lazy town.


Taken inside the train during the train ride up the mountain. We 3 chinese girls were squealing our heads off when we saw the snow. Yea, we were the only crazy ones taking zillions of photos.


1752m above sea level. The weather was fantastic and even though there was snow, it was quite hot up there.

We rented sleigh-boards and sleighed down the slopes.



Group photo.


Me and my board.

The great thing about mount Rigi is that you get two different types of views. On our right, we could see trees and a huge river.

And on our left, we saw snow mountains.



After amusing ourselves for 3 hours, sliding down the slope (I got quite good at it, going at insane speeds and nearly falling off the cliff a few times), we took the cable car down.

View from cable car.

We walked around the town at the foot of the hill while waiting for our boat.

Nice view.


This dude even has a garage for his motor boat.

We took the last boat back and managed to catch the sun set behind the mountains. It was truely breathtaking. Notice how the mountains and water change colour in each picture.






One of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. Going to swit was fantastic. The only sad thing was the COST OF THINGS. It was so bad, we only ate one proper meal per day and I survived on a pack of 8 pain au chocolat for the other meals, eating 2 pains per day + a box of muesli bars.

Oh and chocolate was dirt cheap. I bought a bar of fantastic swiss chocolates with cornflakes for 75 cents (about 1SGD), and a bar of chocolates with nuts for 60 cents. Didn't buy any swiss army knifes or swatch watches, though I was tempted to. I have no use for them.

Next up... Lausanne!