Today we had another full day in switzerland! the first of may is a holiday for everyone so anja and nicole planned us a day of traveling and mountain gawking.

the first stop was the little town of Luzern. we took a train over and had time before we needed to get onto our next mode of transportation so we had a chance to walk around the town a bit...went over the famous bridge (note picture of famous bridge), looked at some really cute disneyland-esque buildings (favorite was one with golden pretzels all over it) stopped at a coffee place. we all kind of lost track of time and despite the panicked sprint to the dock...managed to make it to the boat juuuuust as it blew the horn saying it was leaving. while i did contemplate launching tiff across the water (that way at least someone would be able to get on the right boat!)...we decided to wait for another boat instead.

we did finally get one, and took a short cruise across the lake to Riggi mountain (house shopping alone the way: i'll take that huge mansion at the top of the hill, thanks). the AMAZING alps finally came into view. after we docked we had a short treck up the mountain a little ways until we got to the gondola that would take us up the rest of the way....affording more amazing views of the alps of course. we got to eat another amazing lunch up at the top at one of the ski resort restaurants that had a great view looking out across the lake and we hit it just in time before it started getting cloudy. after lunch we got to add another type of vehicle to our agenda for the day! we got to take a little cogwheel train all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. then it was back onto a train and back to the house. i am slightly surprised we made it back considering we almost got onto the wrong cogwheel thingy on the mountain several times and then proceeded to jump onto the wrong train at the station (hey, wasnt that stop we just passed ours??) this day really completed our attempt at messing up travel on every type of transportation in europe.

another amazing dinner of course. we ate outside and just as we were setting up chairs and blankets for dessert and coffee, another crazy little storm blew in knocking over things everywhere and making the fire a little out of control. we quickly packed everything up and made a run for the door. it wasnt worth risking the loss of the chocolate cream! (seriously...we need to find this stuff when we get home)

off to italy in the morning!

nina