Day 7: Lucerne, Switzerland

Second Day in Lucerne:
Today we are taking a cable car up one of the Swiss Mountains. As our bus pulled up to the bottom of the mountain, the workers notified us that they just closed the mountain. It was unsafe for anyone to go up, due to the rain, snow, and ice combination on the cable. Luckily we had another option, a different mountain. The mountain we are going to now, you go up on a train instead of a cable car. Our group loaded onto a private rail car. As we trudged up the mountainside, the snow became thicker and heavier. As we reached the top of the mountain the winds were blowing and the snow was falling so hard. We were planning on staying at the top of the mountain for an hour; to play in the snow, have a snack, or sit in the hotel cafe for a bit. The weather was a lot worse than Elzo thought it would be, we found that the hotel was closed, so when he stepped off the train, he quickly said in his Dutch accent, "Okay we are going to take the next train back down, so you have 15 minutes." That was fine with us, we live in the snow, it's way over rated!!!

We got back around lunch time. Scott and I went straight to the room and took a nap, while I think everyone else went shopping. A bunch of us from the group met later in the lobby to go to dinner at this Italian restaurant. The food was so good. After dinner, we did a little more shopping. Scott found a Rolex watch for $103,000 franks (which equates to $206,000 US dollars). Every country and city we have gone to, I have tasted the best croissants. One of the streets we were walking down had a huge croissant outside of the bakery, couldn't resist taking my picture.

Tonight is our last night in Switzerland, so Ken one of the guys on our tour, he is our city guide in every town we arrive in. Ken goes out and finds the hot spots, the good restaurants, and the cheap booze, then he tells the group what we are doing that night. So tonight, we are going to the disco!!! Switzerland has been the only country where smoking is allowed anywhere and everywhere. So the disco we went to tonight was filled with smoke. Our group (the dumb Americans), were the only ones out on the dance floor dancing. We didn't care. The DJ played Michael Jackson, and quite a bit of 70's and 80's. We had a lot of fun! We didn't care how late we stayed out tonight because tomorrow we are going to be on the bus a long time. Apparently it is quite a drive from Switzerland to Paris France. That's okay, I get to sleep (catch up on the lack of sleep for the past 15 months). I am excited to go to Paris tomorrow.