Lucerne

This morning (6th July) our first stop was the city centre of Lucerne. It is quite a fairy tale type place with old houses and bridges (the oldest wooden bridge in Europe to be exact) and cobble stoned streets set on a lake between the mountains.

(the Lion monument)

Guess what we did first... do I even have to mantion it?... of course you know already... we shopped! :D - and, the Swiss being known for their precision clock/watch making, we of course bought new watches (although my budget didn't quite stretch to a Rolex... only just... but never the less I finally have a new watch).

Its automatic? (as in no battery but 'charges' with movement, which I've wanted since dad taught me about his all those years ago...), waterproof and scratchproof (woot!), virtually damage proof, but I'm sure I'll find a way. Oh! and the coolest part which I only discovered when I got beck 'home' was that it has a glass pannel at the back so you can see the mechanism :P (I know, I'm a geek)... but you don't really care about my watch so I'll move on...


Next it was off to Mt Titlis (don't laugh. yes its pronounced that way. We're all mature here. Oh who am I kidding ;P).


Mt Titlis is the tallest mountain in Switzerland and you know what that means right??


SNOW!!!! It means SNOW!!!!!! Ahh... * laugh's, giggles and acts like a hyped up three year old* heheheeee...


And so we of course had a snowball fight (it was raining a little but we didn't care).


Of course, this being a summer holiday, none of us gad suitable clothes packed for a trip to the snow, myself especially, and so my converse (the only pair of closed in shoes I packed) were sacrificed for the day.


We were wet and icy, but not yet cold as we (Eddie, Minnie, Plooy, her dad, myself, and a few others) made our way to the ice flyer (basically a ski chair lift)

and had a go on the snow tube...


it was here that the cold and wet really set in, although it wasn't really a big enough issue to make any of us stop. I, being the talented person that I am, managed to step into a thick bit of snow that reached up to my knees, it was also still raining so there was absolutely no part of me that wasn't wet through... and my shoes were squelching, so I took them off (once I got inside of course). But you know what... who cares! We were in the snow!!!



Back at the mountian base it was hot chips for lunch (because something warm was neccesary and I couldn't figure out what the rest of the stuff was) and time to strip off all the cold, icy clothes and shoes that were possible within the realms of decency. Of course it was when we got back that we discovered a place where we could have rented snow boots and clothes... ahh well... too late now... not that I think I would have paid for them anyway... its a much better story this way.


I was straight back to the town centre after that, where the air temperature went from -2*C to >28*C... and we shopped... again...

I bought my 3rd pair of shoes for the trip as squelching around any city centre is not an appealing idea to my mind. This of course did nothing to change my tour reputation as "the shoe girl." (in fact I heard a rumor about myself that made me laugh... apparently I never wear anything but heels... never mind the fact that I have been in 'almost flats' for all but one day so far). Emma and I are also known as "the girls" and the "fashion ones" because apparently we dress up to go out... but I dont thing that we do... but I've gotten off track...

We also made an attempt to buy dry pants (the wet crotch look is so not in right now ;P) but had already dried out before accomplishing our task.

Back at the hotel it was time to get ready for dinner. We head to our room and find the beds made... ' oh thats right' *light goes on* 'when you stay at a hotel for more than one night they clean your room in the day'... oops! SHIT! I don't know why but we forgot this little fact... we had left our room in a mess. Eddy and I had been just so elated not to have to pack our bags that night that we had left everything everywhere... a bomb had gone off... and the debris consisted not only of but lingerie... red and purple lacy lingerie (you already know I have a problem with this so don't go acting all surprised and offended)...

Anyway, its only and issue because we have a feeling that the porter we had earlier is also the hotel cleaner... and he seemed to be giving us strange and interested looks for the rest of our stay (and no we didn't do anything about it because he looked about 14 okay)

Finally we ended the day with an optional excursion described as "dinner and Swiss folklore", where we ate cheese fondu and watched a performance.


Only they were not content to just let us watch... oh no... audience participation was compulsory (at least at our table it seemed).

We were given HUGE jugs of strong beer each which assisted Eddy in relaxing into her job blowing some old dudes long hard horn (no really, she was dragged onto stage and made to play a Swiss mountain horn)



which of course polly and I laughed at hysterically... until it was our turn. I was chosen for a traditional dance

(well at least its my forte, I can't really complain) and Polly was made to yodel...


followed by sculling yet another beer.


But, The night wasn't over yet...


There was flag throwing, waltzing, chicken dances, conga lines, can cans, guys dressed as cows

and the finale on the way home, a rendition of "she bang she bang" by our resident entertainer (look I suppose you really just had to be there...)


Anywho, we ended the playing poker with the boys, betting anything on the table: matchsticks, flowers, ash trays, room keys, etc. Eddy and I managed to clean them all out (which was a good thing as Eddy was the one who decided to bet our room key...)

All in all a fantabulastic day
lots of love and hugz
D.