Our stay in Lucerne

24th march 07

Arrived in to luzern at 5.30pm. Went to go to the tourist info service but it was closed. Got a map of city. Found hotel. Checked in. Finally got a couple of english speaking channels and the news again. It was freezing cold here. On the way up on the train saw lots of snow. Went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. Pricy but very nice. Went back up too room and watched some Tv and went to bed at about 11pm. daylight savings starts here tomorrow morn at 3am. Going to go to Titlis mountain tomorrow meant to be great.

Love to you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

25th March 07

Woke up at 7am. Had to get ready and have breakfast so we could catch the 8.41am train to Engelberg which is near titlis mountain. The breakfast ehre is very nice. Phil gets to have his toast again and there is even bacon and eggs.  Got on the train. Lots of people going skiing or snowboarding. Got to engelberg at 9.40am. Bought tickets to go up to titlis. This mounatin is 10000 feet high. We caught a shuttle bus to where we had to get on the cable car. There was alot of people with there skiing stuff. while phil and I didnt so it felt a bit funny but we didnt mind.  At Engelberg we boarded what the call a gondolas which fit 6 people and that only took us half way to a station called Trubsee which was 1800m. Then we went to the stand glacier station by cable car. It was abig one so a lot of people could fit on it and then we went by a rotair cable car which it floor rotatee as we where going up so you could get a view of everything while you where going up and didn thave to worry about trying to look through another window. We couldnt see much going up as it was jammed packed. Finally got to MT. Titlis.  It was an amazing view from way up there. We were above the clouds. We went in to the Ice cave they have there. that was fun. took a few pictures of phil and I as noone else was in there so we set it up on the side railings and took some pics of us together. Because we were so high you could feel it was hard to breathe. had a hot chocolate. Phil rang the girls. Went and had some lunch. It was very nice. Went to the panorama view. It was very very freezing cold out there. It was minus 10. The view from outside was breathtaking. Took a few pics but too cold to stay out too long. Then went and had a look at souvenirs. bit pricy up there. Caught  various transports all the way back down to Engelberg. Walked along a footpath for abit and had a snowball fight. We took a photo of each other throwing it at each other. that was fun. Walked back to train station and caught train back to lucerne. On the way back we saw some snowman that people had bulit. One even had a jacket on it. Got back to lucerne at 4.15pm.  Came back to hotel for abit then went ot see if the laundry was open but it wasnt. Alot of shops shut here on a sun. So if you do come here dont coem on a sunday. Went and had dinner after looking for a bit as alot of the restaurants were closed. Phil had pizza and I had pasta. Very nice. Walked halfway over a bridge and watched the ducks and swans for abit. Hotel has internet so thats good. Went on internet. Watched some Tv and went to bed.

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26th March 07

Woke up about 7.30am. Had our yummy breakfast. Took clothes to laundry. We were going to do it but the lady said she does it. That was good for us as we didnt have to wait around. Walked over the chapel bridge. It is a old bridge here. It has a water tower connected to it that was used for a prison, torture chamber and a few other things. (sorry cant remember waht else). Lots of swans and ducks in the water. Phil is going to buy bread for them later to feed to them. Looked for a plug for the MP4 player went to 3 shops before we found the right one. (we think. The guy tried it in the shop and it seemed to charge it so we will see.) He said we can take it back if it doesnt work which is good. Went to see if laundry was doen but it wasnt. The laundry matt and some other shops close between 12 and 2pm. For lunch. They have a very long lunch. Walked over another old bridge. Walked to the famous lion statue they have here. It is craved in to a rock. It was pretty big. took some pics. mark twain (the writter) said that it was the saddest looking lion statue he had seen in the world. It did look sad. It was to do with a war. The there were the glacier gardens near there so we went in to there. It has different areas in it about what lucerne used to be like 20000 years ago with water glaciers all over. There was a tower you could go up too and see a view of Lucerne. It was a good view. Couldnt really see the mountains with the snow on them as it was a vit foggy up near them. Then we went in to a mirror maze. That was cool You had to feel around to see if you were going to walk in to a mirror or not. We enjoyed that.  Went and had lunch. Phil finally got to have his fish and chips. They were only small pieces of fish but he said they were nice. then we went in to a old chruch. It was nice inside. Walked along the water for abit. Went to the chocolate shop. Lots of chocolates there.  Phil got a small loaf of bread and we feed the swans and ducks. Some of them started to bite each other if they got the bread first.came back to hotel. Watched TV for about 15 mins and then we had to go and get our laundry. Went and got it and came back to hotel for awhile and went out for dinner.  Feed the swnas again. Came back to hotel and watched some tv. Went to bed. not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Might go to Zurich or bern.

Love to you all.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

27th March 07

Woke up at 7.30am. So had a bit of a sleep in. Got ready and had breakfast as we went to Bern today and had to catch the 8.55am train there. We used our eurorail pass which was good so it was free to get there and back. The train ride took about 1 hr. Nice scenery on the way. Still quite a bit of snow around. Went to the tourist info centre to find out what to do in Bern. We asked if they had a hop on/hop off bus tour but the lady said that it isnt a big place. We thought since being the capital it would be. Got the map and walked down the main street. Which had shops and a clock tower. That was nice. I bought a pair of jeans and pants. They were good priced too. There were alot of womens clothing shops but we couldnt find any mans ones. Not sure if they were on a different road. we walked over the river to the bear pit. It had 2 bears in it. We were taking photos and people started to feed them some dried fruit that you could buy from one of the shops so phil went o a shop and got some ginger biscuits. One of them was lying on his back and catch the food like that and if it didnt go in his mouth he just left it. The other one would sit up on his bum and put his hands together as if he was saying please. Everytime you would throw food to him he would catch it and then when he was ready for more he would put his hands together again. If you put your hands together he would do the same. We feed them and then phil went and bought another packet of the biscuits. They ate them too. We stayed there for about a hr. It was good to watch them. Then phil went back to the shop and got 2 more packets. The lady laughed as she knew what he was doing and that was his 3rd time in the shop. Feed the bears again. Walked back over the bridge and started walking around. Its a nice place and clean. But there wasnt much to do. Went and had lunch at a place called papajoes. That was very nice food and different then having pizza or pasta. We had nachos and then I have chilli ribs. which were very nice and phil had a swiss buger. we thought it would be like a hambuger with meat and swiss cheese but it came out and it was just a piece of think cheese in breadcrumbs in a bun. Phil said it was nice. Had a nice chocolate milkshake to. We were very ful after that. It was good to have something different. Went and bought some more treats for the bears and phil wanted to feed them again. On the way back to the bear pit we saw some people playing a large game of chess in the square. We watched it for a bit. then we wnet back to the bear pit. Feed the bears some waffle looking things that had carmel in them  They liked them and then we tried to feed them some biscuit (like the little toast you can get) and it landed in his mouth and he spat it back out again. He mustn have liked the taste. We tried to feed the other one the same thing but he didnt like them either. Phil put all his in the pit for the brids that go in there and I kept my lot to feed the swans. Walked back to train station. Caught 3.36pm train back to lucerne. Got back to hotel about 5.15pm. Watched some tv and rested for a few hours and wrote postcards out. Went out for dinner. Came back and packed all our things as we are off to paris tomorrow morn. Cant believe we only have 2 weeks to go.

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28th March 07

We slept in abit today as we didnt have to leave to catch the train till 9.55am. Slept till abt 8am. Had Breakfast and made sure we had everything. Left hotel at abt 9.30am. Got some English mags and newspaper. Got on Train. In 1st class again. Very Comfy seats. I played solitare and read some mags. Phil read the papers. It was a nice trip to paris: We had to swap trains at Lusanne. Got there at 12.15pm. Had some lunch. Train left there at 1.15pm. Very Busy on the train. If you didnt have a reservation you had to stand up or go to 2nd class.

Cont in paris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx