July 4th - July 7th

***hint: if you click on the pictures it makes them reallly big****

It was 5 a.m. and we were at the tram stop. Stepping on board we were surprised at how full it was. Why would so many people be up this early on a Saturday? They haven't gone to bed yet.

Twenty minutes later, we sat on the train and we were on our way to Lucerne, Switzerland.

Eleven hours later, we pulled into the Bahnhof at Lucerne, Switzerland wondering whether or not we had a place to sleep... we were pretty nervous. The campground we had contacted before-hand said they do not accept reservations, it is a first come first serve place. This is also the only place to camp in Lucerne. We raced the storm clouds to Lido Camping, which turned out to be about a 30 minute walk from the train station. To our delight, we beat the rain by just minutes and discovered an empty spot for our tent. However, the rain arrived just minutes after we did, which meant putting up the tent in the rain.

After our tent was set up, the rain stopped, and we went to find a late dinner. With this, came the realization of how expensive everything in Lucerene is. Switzerland does not use the Euro like the other countries we would be visiting on our trip. They use the Swiss Franc. However, even with converting from Euros to Francs, everything was very pricey. For example, 3 Swiss Francs equivalent to 3 US dollars, will buy you a coke.

At the start of Day 2 we went to the grocery to pick up breakfast and lunch and then began our journey towards Mt. Pilatus. We started with a boat ride which lasted around an hour and a half and gave us some wonderful scenery. We then continued up the mountain on "The World's Steepest Cogwheel Train."

The ride up offered us some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

A half hour after starting our train ride, we came to a stop at 7,000 feet. The views from the top were spectacular when we first arrived. Not long after, we found ourselves walking around in a cloud.

View of Lucerne from Mt. Pilatus.

Craig making his lunch.

While on Mt. Pilatus, we got to see a father and son go paragliding. It seems like a really cool hobby.

A few minutes before we left, a group of middle school aged youth and their leaders arrived. This was not the only school aged group on the mountain, but the were different because they were the only ones to run around and yell to one another. This behavior was very surprising to us because we had not seen it since we arrived in Europe. To no surprise, these students and their leaders were Americans. We are starting to see why Americans have such a bad reputation :(. Some advice for those wishing to travel abroad: try to blend in.

Once it became cold and rainy, and became obvious the clouds were not going anywhere, we decided to head back down the mountain via cable car. This 5 minute ride was pretty scary as we dangled high above the ground.

We made a stop at the Tobaggon Run before boarding our second cable car to continue our trip to the base of Mt. Pilatus.

On day 3 we spent our time exploring Lucerne. We saw the Lion Monument, which was sculpted as a monument to the 1792 fallen Swiss Guards.

After the lion monument, we found a castle wall to explore. We walked the length of the wall which offered really great views of Lucerne. Afterwards, we wandered around the Old City and ate some chocolate.