Our first and only time on Public Transit in Europe

Everyone said how easy it is to use the subways in Europe.  We were a bit intimidated, so spent more $ on taxis.  The last day we were in Paris, we had a tour planned to Versailles.  We were to meet the group at Muse d'Orssy, then travel to Versailles together.  We assumed we would be going on a bus, so were quite surprised when they handed out the subway tickets.  

We were glad to be with a seasoned person who had used the subway before, as the signs were in French.  The station and platform were quite dirty.  The train itself was nice, including beautiful paintings on the ceilings and walls.  The people on the train were pretty normal, except for one family.  The mom had 4 or 5 kids with her, and they kept climbing up and sticking their heads out of the window.  We were so sure they were gonna get their heads chopped off by a passing building or bridge.

Paris at night

After the farewell dinner, we went on a river cruise along the River Seine and then a bus tour by night to see the Paris lights.  We didn't actually get to see the lights in total darkness, as the sun went down about 9:30, so by 10:30 when we were done, it was still twilight.  But it was still beautiful.

So you'll love me forever....

A sweet tradition, or a racket by the padlock companies? The romantic will say the first, the cynic will say it's a racket.

At several overpasses over the Seine River, the bridges have metal fencing along the walkway.  There are thousands of padlocks attached to these fences.  Here is what it's all about...

When you and your sweetie are in Paris, you are supposed to go buy a padlock (you can't bring one with you, you must buy it in Paris, hence the racket) and together lock it to the bridge fence.  They you throw the key into the river together.  The legend is that the lock will stay there forever, since the key is now lost. And because the lock cannot be opened, you will be together forever.  

However, as the tour guide pointed out, the public works people have to come through every so often and cut all the locks off, or else the bridges would fall down from all the extra weight.  So, does that mean when they cut the lock off, your relationship is damaged as well?  I guess you can pick the pieces of the legend you want to have meaning based on how you feel about it.

A neat thing they do at construction sites in Paris

I noticed this a few places around Paris.  Instead of just setting up scaffolding with netting like many places do to control debris from falling into the streets as construction is being done, many of the builders in Paris use these nets which actually look like buildings.  From far away it is hardly noticeable, and closer up it looks really nice.

Should kids be allowed to order this???

As I mentioned before, every place we went had a different brand of "Sprite".  I don't know that I would want this one to be a regular drink for Zack to order.

Farewell dinner in Paris

On the last night of the tour, we had a farewell dinner at the Grand Cafe in Paris.  Unfortunately, we were the last people into the restaurant because of where we got seated on the bus that day.  This meant that there were 4 seats left, but at 4 different tables.  Since Zack wouldn't be comfortable sitting with someone else, we asked the staff and they were nice enough to find us our own table.  Josh really wanted to sit with people from the group, so he did take one of those random seats.  He had a great time.

We have arrived...finally! And have a great view from our room of.... garbage!

After a LOOONG 8 hour bus ride, we finally arrived at our hotel.  

One thing we learned on this trip is that although the hotels the tours put you in are very nice, you don't always get the rooms with the views.

Our first view of "Zack's" Eiffel Tower

Zack was sooooo excited to see the Eiffel tower.  That was why he was going to Paris!  As we entered the outskirts of Paris he had his eyes peeled and would squeal every time he caught a glimpse of it.

Bye, bye Switzerland

This was the border control at the Swiss/French border.  

The borders between Switzerland and the rest of Europe are the only controlled borders left in Europe.  Switzerland did not join the European Union when it was created in 1993.  They have always been a neutral country, so did not want to join anything (They are also not a member of the UN).  When entering and leaving Switzerland, our bus driver and Tour Director had to go to the Border Control office and pay road taxes to each country.  They also told us to have our passports ready, as the agents could enter the bus and ask for them, but they never did.  The Tour Director has all our Passport information from when we registered for the tour, so he verifies with the agents that everyone on the bus has been previously cleared to travel in Europe.

I've heard of Mountain Goats, but Mountain Cows?

On our way down the mountain we saw these cows.  The farmers let their cows roam the mountainsides during the days.  This way they can be fed for free and get exercise and it saves the farmers from having to build and maintain stables.  They have cowbells on, so the farmers can find them at night to bring them closer to home.

Are they trying to tell us something?

It is nice of them to say bye, but this was just before the entrance to the train that goes down the mountain.  Should we be concerned, or are they just really friendly???

No, the picture's not blurry... we are in a cloud!

At the summit station we had about 2 hours to wander around and explore.  There are neat walkways through caves that have lookout points every so often.  This is the first lookout point. The clouds were thick and getting thicker.  We would soon find out why...

We had made it all the way to the end of the cave walk.  We were about to go up a staircase to the 2nd of 3 levels of the summit.  Suddenly there was a flash and a HUGE boom! It sounded like they were dynamiting the mountain. We were actually ABOVE a thunderstorm!  That scared the bejeebers out of Zack. We high tailed it back to the cave then back into the summit station building.  After about 5 more booms the storm was over and soon cleared to a beautiful afternoon. About 50º and sunny.

Coke is healthy in London!

My coke has vegetables in it! Whoo hoo!

Our trip up Mt. Pilatus

Doug was very excited to be going up the mountain with the steepest cog railway in Europe as the way down. We thought it would be cool but scary.  It turns out we were correct, but ut wasn't scary in the way we thought it would be. 

We began our trip up the mountain in a 4-person cable car.  This was very cool. We could soon see all of Lake Lucerne and the surrounding area.

The next leg of our journey was in a 40-person Gondola.  This was not as cool, as we had to stand, and Zack couldn't reach the above head holding places.  It was also a bit scary, as it was much faster and every so often we would go up a steep incline and over a cliff and the people by the front window would freak out a little bit.

We reached the summit station and had about an hour and a half to explore. There were three options: go up a small set of stairs to the next level; go up a lot of stairs to the summit; or go through some cave walkways to see the surrounding area.  We chose the cave walkways first.  These were very cool. You walked through a cave tunnel and then there was a lookout over the side of the mountain to see the land below. There were several of these tunnels and overlooks.

We got to the last tunnel and it started raining pretty hard. We got our umbrellas out to go to the last lookout place.  Suddenly, as we stepped out of the tunnel into the open air, FLASH! Then BOOM!  We were ABOVE a thunderstorm. This was pretty cool to experience, but it scared the bejeebers out of Zack.  We quickly headed back to the tunnels and into the building.

After a few minutes the storm cleared and the view was beautiful. Josh and Zack went up to the next level and played in the snow. Then the boys and Doug tried to climb the stairs to the summit. Josh made it, but it was too much for Doug and Zack.  Soon Josh came down and convinced Zack to go with him back to the top.  And he made it!

Our trip down the mountain was on Europe's steepest cog railway.  This was what we thought was going to be scary. It turns out it wasn't so bad.  The train was pretty neat.  It was stadium style seating, as the train itself was on almost a 45º angle, and this way all the seats were level.

It took about 45 minutes to descend the mountain.  The views were very nice. There were lots of little houses scattered along the side of the mountain.

After we got to the bottom of the mountain, we crossed the street and took a boat ride back to Lucerne.

This is the thing Doug wanted to see the most

As we were going through the Swiss Border, Doug told me he really really wanted to see a St. Bernard rescue dog with the wiskey keg around his neck when we were in the Swiss Alps. 

I found this little guy in a gift shop... not exactly what he had in mind.

The man in the mountain

This is Mt. Pilatus.  The legend is that this is where Pontius Pilate was sent for eternity as restitution for his role in the death of Jesus.  You can see his nose as the highest peak.  Depending on the side of the mountain you are on, at times he appears to be crying out in agony.

It's my birthday!

June 20 was my birthday.  We were in Lucerne then.  This is my sweetie and I in front of our hotel.

After our activities for the day, Josh and I went to Bucherer, a watch shop in downtown Lucerne.  I picked out this beautiful Swiss Military watch for my birthday.  Doug and Zack were supposed to be heading back to the hotel.  Instead they stopped into Buchmann's chocolatiers and picked up truffles to share with the group at our dinner that evening.

The Wolf, The Delorean, and the Champs Élysées

When travelling by bus to our farewell dinner with our group, we saw the strangest thing.  There were lots of horns blowing as we traveled down the Champs Élysées,  but this had become 2nd nature to us. 

Suddenly I saw a Mercedes that was weaving in and out of traffic, revving its engine. Next, its doors opened like the Delorean in the movie Back to the Future.  At the next red light, someone jumped out of the car in front of it.  They had a wolf's head on. They threw something into the Mercedes and then went on their way. As we continued down the Champs Élysées,  the Mercedes kept stopping close to the curb at each red light and then weaving its way through all lanes of traffic at a high speed, still with its winged doors up.  How strange!

A blogger quirk

Hello family and friends,

Just wanted to let you know that for some reason my stories are getting posted out of order.  Hopefully you can follow them, and by the context and/or your knowledge of geography, make sense of what order they should be in.  I am trying to figure out how to fix it for future posts.

I hope you have enjoyed it so far. Keep checking back!

Look at the size of those fish!

Zack found some cute ducks swimming around in the lake of the falls. Soon we noticed the huge fish below. I wonder who eats who, the fish or the ducks?!?

Rheinfalls

Our next stop was Rheinfalls, a very wide and powerful waterfall.

Share a Coke and a smile

I love that the Coke mostly comes in glass bottles here.  And everywhere they have some kind of Sprite-type drink for the boys, although it is always a different brand.

Dinner at Stadtkeller

We chose to have the optional dinner excursion with our tour group to a traditional Swiss dinner and show place. 

Dinner began with fondue, which Doug and Josh liked but Zack and I did not. Nezt came a salad then the main course - veal with mushroom gravy and a hash brown type potato.   Zack and I shared 2 meals.  He ate both our veal (which he called chicken) and I ate both our potatoes.  Josh actually ate most of his veal.  I am so proud at how good he has been about trying things this trip. I think he is proud, too.  For dessert they had an ice cream cake slice that looked like the swiss flag.

After dinner there was traditional swiss dancing, singing, flag tossing, yodelling,  and horn blowing.  A fun time was had by all.

The Grand Hotel Europe

After the Lion Monument, half our group went on a lake cruise and the other half of us went to the hotel to check in. We had free time until abiut 730pm, when we would be meeting back up for dinner. 

We took this time to settle in and get some rest.  The hotel has no air conditioning, but with the fans, which our wonderful Trafalgar tour guide Vince had pre-ordered to be put in our rooms, it was not too bad.

The Lion Monument

Our first stop in Lucerne was the famous Lion Monument.  This is to remember the 600 members of the swiss army who were killed during a battle in France.

Our first look at snow capped mountains

After entering Switzerland,  we were on the lookout for mountains. For a while we saw none, but then we saw this one. So beautiful!

Going "cuckoo" in Freiburg

Our first stop of the day was at a cuckoo clock store and factory in the Blaxk Forest town of Freiburg, Germany.  The first picture shows Beejay, who showed ud the several steps to making a cuckoo clock.   He also pointed out that the number of weights hanging from the chains tells you what the clock does. One weight is only for time, the second for cuckoo,  the third for music and the fourth for other motion. 

After the demonstration,  we walked around the store and picked out a clock to bring home. We chose a battery operated one, a much more economical choice.   It still has all the same inner workings and outward appearance of a mechanical clock, it just runs on battery rather than by the weights.  Eventually I would like a weighted one, but for now I love this one. It has a little man on the front that chops wood as the music plays after the cuckoo is done.

Next it was downstairs for lunch. Doug and Josh had burgers and Zack and I had weiner schnitzel.   Doug got some black forest cake and I got an apple pie type dessert.  Yummy all around.