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.
Friday, June 28, 2013
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.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
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.
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