Switzerland

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Originally uploaded by radix999

After the hustle and bustle of Italy, the differences with Switzerland is even further highlighted. Switzerland, land of chocolates, cheese and Swiss army knives.

We spent most of the day on the bus, taking almost 10 hours to get from Rome to Switzerland. There was a fair bit of traffic as the Italians were all heading home after the end of summer holidays. Beautiful picture postcard perfect scenery along the way, so didn't mind the drive so much. We passed countless tunnels, roads built into the side of the mountains, a 17km long tunnel where the weather could be different from one side of the mountain to the other, hidden lakes in the valley, low hanging clouds in parts of the mountains, absolutely stunning! We stopped at Lake Lugano for a quick photo stop, then on to the town of Stans, just outside Lucern.

Quick drop off for luggage and then we were taken for a horse drawn carriage ride in the little town of Giswil. We had a pleasant ride through the country side, and later afternoon tea of Swiss delicacies prepared for us. It was so peaceful and pretty, fresh country air, nice change after the hectic pace.

Now Switzerland is interesting, if all the mountainous land was ironed out, it would be as big as France. It is well prepared for attacks. All males over 21 must undergo military training, and go for refreshed courses every year. Each one is issued with a gun and ammunition ( so don't go offending the Swiss guys!! Could be dangerous! :P ) Their airfields are camoflouged with grass growing over the, anti-aircraft guns are secreted in the mountains, some tunnels are apparently fully equipped to be bomb shelters. How's that for paranoia for a neutral country!!?? Swiss bank accounts are anonymous, no names, just account numbers, however does required a minimum of A$500,000 to open and account though!

Day two Switzerland.

It was a rather cool summer's day. We took the cable cars from the town of Klein up to the top of Mt PIlatus at 7000 ft. The first stage of cable cars seats 4 persons, going gently up the mountains. Two stops later we hit the halfway point, and switch to a larger cable car, holding up to 30 person. This one heads straight up the steep face of the mountain. Being a misty cloduy day, all I could see was cable lines disappearing into the misty nothingness. For someone who is afraid of heights... It started getting pretty cold by that time. The top of the mountain was 6C, and we were greeted by a white wall of mist. Definitely not a good day to be up here. Visibility was not more than 5m in front of you. Occasionally we could see glimpses of steep cliff faces. Had a walk through the caves supposedly housing the Mt Pilatus dragon, there were also walks along hte mountain sides, but with limited visibility and only half an hour at the top,, we stayed in the main courtyard. Trip down the mountain we could see more, going down in the world's steepest cogwheel train, built in the 1800's and still working till this day. The train chugged along at a maximum of 9km/hr, the steepest incline was 48 degress, but mainly at 33 degrees. This took us into the town of Alphanstad.

Lunch in Lucern, or Luzern as the local call it. We had a cultural show and lunch in Stadkeller, with traditional folk show of yodelling, broomstick banging, alphanhorn, accordion playing, flag throwing, cow bell ringing, and a really unique one was with a saw and woodstick, picking out the tune to Edelweiss. Jesse had a try of the alphanhorn, and managed to get out a tune.

All day it had been raining, fairly cold and gloomy. Happy hour cruise in the evening on Lake Lucern, a bit washed out but we still had fun. It would have been an even better view over the lake, but we still managed to get some photos.

In the evening we had some free time before dinner, so decided to wander around the town of Stans. Headed up the church square and up a little lane, could hear the cowbells ringing, beautiful view over the town and the mountains. green green grass wherever you looked, and fresh cool country air, laced with cow manure of course! :)

- YM