Lucerne in Switzerland

For a larger selection of photos go to: https://goo.gl/photos/7sLVqK4vFrr8otQy7

Josh says:
Switzerland is the best so far but it was still cold. We arrived in Switzerland by train and went strait to our hotel which was in the old part of Lucerne where cars aren't aloud in at certain times. The hotel was good but only had 2 rooms bedroom and bathroom. Then we went out to get some gloves as we were going up to the top of Mount Pilatus (a snowy mountain). After we found gloves dad and I went to get some tea the girls would have left over sandwiches. After tea we headed out to see a historical bridge over the lake which was crystal clear. The bridge was cool as you could see a expensive hotel and the Mount Pilatus.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel then went to explore the old town we saw, the remaining wall of the city, another church, a couple of look outs, a statue of a dying lion which is a thing to remember the Swiss guards that died in the French Revolution and a park that everyone played boccie.

While we were walking I relived that the cars had the flag of the state that they were from. It started me on a car flag search. I got 13 on the first day :). Then went home and relaxed. For tea we went a restaurant on top of a shopping centre. The next day we got up early to go and have breakfast and get on a bus which took us to the base of Mount Pilatus. Then we court a 4 person cable car to the playground stop then court another to the 2nd stop. at the second stop there was snow outside and we went and touched it and had a couple of photos in it. After we court  a huge cable car to the top of Mount Pilatus there was snow everywhere but it didn't fill that cold. Then we played in the snow and I built a little snowman and then a big one. Then I started to throw snow off the top  of the hill and then we went in to the mountain which had viewing holes. It also had iceicicles. After that we had a snow fight on the top of the building and then went down to the second stop. When we were down there we walked in the snow for a wile. After that we went down to the playground and warmed up and then went to the bottom. We went home and relaxed then went to tea at the same place. The girls went home but me and dad went to look at some car parks. :) That day we found 9 new flags. The next day we had breakfast and went to the train station. We got on the rong train but luckly got off just as it left. That day I found 1 new flag but sadly I had 2 I never found. R.I.P. never found flags :(

Code	Flag	Canton	Found?
AG		Aargau	Day 1
AI		Appenzell Innerrhoden	Day 1
BE		Bern	Day 1
BL		Basel-Landschaft	Day 1
BS		Basel-Stadt	Day 2
FR		Fribourg	Day 2
GE		Geneva	RIP :(
GL		Glarus	Day 2
GR		Graubünden	Day 2
JU		Jura	RIP :(
LU		Lucerne	Day 1
NE		Neuchâtel	Day 3
NW		Nidwalden	Day 1
OW		Obwalden	Day 1
SG		St. Gallen	Day 1
SH		Schaffhausen	Day 2
SO		Solothurn	Day 1
SZ		Schwyz	Day 1
TG		Thurgau	Day 2
TI		Ticino and Campione d'Italia (Italy)	Day 2
UR		Uri	Day 2
VD		Vaud	Day 1
VS		Valais	Day 2
ZG		Zug	Day 1
ZH		Zürich	Day 1

Alicia says:
Breaking news Alicia Bawden has touched... SNOW. I also made 2 snowmen.

Where??? In the Alps of course. But down in the old city of Lucerne there are so many old and historical homes, shops, restaurant and hotels. There is only one brig which is the longest and oldest brig. That's all for me.

Dad says:
We arrived at the Paris train station, just in time again with only 10 mins to spare. The train ride into Switzerland was very comfortable and picturesque, we even got served a cold lunch. Three chickens and I tried the salmon. Alicia ate quite a lot of the salmon - even though she still does'nt like fish (except tuna and now salmon).

Switzerland definitely had the "wow" factor. Beautiful snow scenery, clean clear rivers, but bloody freezing (we got a Meatloaf). That first afternoon we even bought some gloves it was that cold, Alicia managed to get 2 pairs where the second got inherited by mum.

We were staying in Lucerne and this was next to a large lake and in the middle of many mountains. The lake is pretty large and it was not until the next day when we went up to the top of Mt. Pilatus that we could see it all. We were in the 'old' town and vehicle access is heavily restricted and not permitted during certain times. The historic town itself was nice, with no beggars or selfie stick sellers (too expensive maybe). It was however overshadowed by the beauty of the Swiss Alps. The first full day we explored the walls and city of Lucerne. Though cold it was clear and gave some fantastic views.

View from our hotel room. NB the pond was cleaned the next day for a marathon going through the area

Lucerne by night

Is this a relative of Crowie?

Princess in waiting

Car hunting was an interesting side project to Lucerne. As Josh mentioned he wanted to find all the flags of the different Swiss territories. So this ended up with Josh crossing and going up random roads to chase cars/bikes, me getting a sore neck swirling to view passing vehicles and of course the dodgy appearance of 2 people walking from top to bottom of the casino and some random hotel car park scoping out vehicles. Josh had a great time doing it.

Since Switzerland is renowned for being expensive we sought out some cheap dinners as we had no kitchen to cook. We researched and found a restaurant on top of a department store that was a decent price and was a self serve. You basically selected whatever foods you wanted and then went to the checkout to pay for each item. The best part was that the kids could get a plate of hot food (they had a half a schnitzel topped with pasta in Napoleon sauce), plus a drink and a desert for only 6 Francs. We ended up having dinner there the next night as well, this time on the roof top.

Some other food/drink thoughts, With drinks in Europe they are all metric basic - eg a 0.2 is 200ml etc, no large, medium or small. Cans of soft drink are 0.33 and bottles 0.5. Bottles are pretty cheap too < 3 EUR. With burgers etc, if you get it in a "Meal" then it comes with fries and a drink for usually only 1.5 or 2 EUR more. Roughly speaking a burger meal is about 6 to 8 EUR, even in the tourist areas. Josh has not been able to find sushi at all. Pizza is everywhere in all countries and second to that is kebabs (yiros). German sausages and the Weiner schnitzels are really nice, so much so that Alicia had schnitzels three nights in a row.

Our second full day was our snow adventure and we were all pretty cuffed to be honest. We were'nt expecting it, but at this time Europe is in the middle of a cold snap, where there is snow in London and Paris. We went up on two different types of gondolas, that would have taken about 30 minutes in total. The first was to the ski fields and the second to the summit, each had snow. We touched it, played in it a bit, threw it and made terrible mutant looking snow "things", but it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

On the way up on the first cable car

End of first cable car

On the second trip up - slightly cloudy for a little while

It did clear up

Back down to the end of the first leg, exploring a bit more.

Half way up the first leg, there is a chance to get off and there is a playground nearby

Two things are slightly different in Switzerland than most other European counties (much like the UK). They do not use the Euro, they still have the Swiss Francs (which is a slightly better conversion rate), and they have a different power connection than any other country.

Oh and another mishap (near miss) with the trains leaving Switzerland this time. We got on the wrong train to Innsbruck. We were early (for once) got on a train on the correct platform, but what turned out to be the wrong destination. Lucky we worked it out just as the train was about to leave. If you can picture me standing in the door way stopping the door as it tried to close and the others were getting the luggage and themselves off the train. Panic -  I think not.

Hidden figures

Bunny: 0
Crowie: 1