Planning Updates – August, 2012

 Planning  No Responses »
Aug 092012
 

August 9, 2012

Not much progress to report on the trip planning since the last update.  We have actually been busy selling our home and moving into a temporary location, pending our relocation to South Carolina next November/December.   Now that all of the moving is over, it is time to start back on making the final additions to the overall trip plan.  We still have one more car rental to book for the portion of the trip from Nuremberg to the Frankfurt Airport, and that will complete all of the pre-trip reservations.

It was interesting and hopeful, to see the Euro drop in price as compared to the dollar, it was below $1.20 for a couple of days before starting its climb back upward.  From a purely cost perspective, we had hoped it would continue to decline, although that was only showing overall economic weakness in Europe, and not good for the global economy.  It would have been nice for our trip economy, but it is not that much higher, and a couple of cents one way or the other does not make a difference as compared to the total cost.  I think it is more beneficial to the mind.

We continue to monitor the flights for small changes to the schedule, which has already occurred twice, and for any possibility of obtaining better seats.  However, most of the better seats are premium seats, and are not worth the increase in cost.   We are more looking out for any cancellations that might free up better seats, but that happens less these days with all of the fare change costs.

We will begin to formulate more firm plans for each of the stops, or maybe just review the plans we have already made, but need to refresh in our minds, now foggy from all of our moving efforts.

We have all but decided not to try and go with carry on luggage only, there is too much space needed for camera gear and the camera tripod.  However, we are going to try and set a self imposed weight limitation of 35 pounds, less than the 50 pounds the airline imposes.  In the end, I will be happy if we end up less than 40 pounds since we have the the weight of the empty suitcases to take into consideration, which is probably around 9.5 pounds.

August 31, 2012

Well, August has slipped by and we are now only 13 days out before we depart on our flight to Paris on September 13, 2012.  A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, mainly in our personal lives.  My retirement has been processed, all of the paperwork is completed, and the countdown for that to occur is now set into motion.  I will officially retire on Friday, September 28, the day we are in transit between Schwangau, Germany and Oberammergau, Germany.  Luckily, they are close together, about 45 km., so we should not have any problem finding some time to celebrate my retirement once we arrive in Oberammergau.

With everything going on, it has still been tough to find the time to actually start back with our trip planning, but in the last couple of days, we have been able to start filling in some of the smaller missing pieces.  Next week, I will send off emails to all of the hotels to verify our reservations.  I did this on the last trip just to make sure and have piece of mind.  Nothing would be worse than to arrive somewhere and have a mishap with the reservation.  It will also give us the opportunity to get any hotel specific information on the directions, and parking requirements for those hotels where we will have our rental car.

We have definitely figured out the complex Swiss Rail Pass system, and have concluded that the current 2 for 1 special the Swiss Rail Company, SBB, is running for the Fall is a good deal financially.  Without the 2 for 1 price break, I doubt we would actually purchase the passes, but it will end up saving us some money and allowing much more flexibility than we get with the less cost pre-purchase of online,  non-refundable individual trip super saver fares.  There was some investigation required to confirm that we can actually purchase these 2 for 1 passes in Switzerland.  One travel company on the internet is promoting that they must be purchased prior to arriving in Switzerland, but that is not true.  We will still purchase them in conjunction with our arrival from Paris in the border town of Basel.  With the passes, we will have 4 days of free travel on the trains, and on other local travel methods (Buses and Metro’s in larger cities), and get discounts on many cable cars in Zermatt.  We also get the half-fare cost for the Golden Round Trip to Mount Pilatus, explained in an earlier post.  We will be purchasing what is called the Swiss Flexi Pass, which gives us the the 4 days of free travel, but within a one month’s window.  This allows us to have some flexibility in between travel days, which is not the case with the normal 4 day Swiss Pass, which is for 4 consecutive days.  Since we are in Switzerland for 6 days, we need the card to last until the last day of travel from Zermatt to Strasbourg, France.  We will get free travel for the portion of the trip from Zermatt to Basel (same border town as the initial trip from Paris) and then just pay the supplemental fare for the portion of the trip in France, from the French side of the station in Basel to Strasbourg.  We also began investigating sights to visit in Strasbourg, so that portion of the trip planning is also starting to shape up.

Since we are less than two weeks out, we began to monitor the weather at some of the places we are visiting.  While investigating some of the Swiss pass discounts through the internet, we found a great website for weather in Switzerland.  This site just happened to come up during a search on information about Mount Pilatus.  It was a little shocking to see that it was already cold (0 degrees C) there and snow showers.  Although we had previously looked up historical weather on all of the dates for areas we are visiting, we may have to re-evaluate the level of cold weather clothing we were planning to take based on that little weather surprise.

Here is a link to this site that gives the Switzerland Weather for the larger cities.

As things just seem to go with these trips, one moment the trip seems far off, and then all of a sudden it is right around the corner, and there is still a lot to do to get ready.

 

Two Days and Counting Until Departure

 Planning  2 Responses »
Sep 112012
 

The beginning of our trip is just two days away, and we are feeling both the excitement and the last minute nervous rush at the same time.  We have just about completed our packing effort, and the bags are about 42 pounds each.  Not as light as we wanted, with the self imposed goal being a 40 pound limit, but close enough.  We still may take out an item or two, but with so much else to do before we go, we more than likely will call it good.

Both of us have been busy at work, with Stephanie trying to get things in order with her therapy patients, and me just trying to make it to my last day on the job, as leave time off before my official retirement is just one more day away.  I can honestly say that motivation to do actual work is about as low as it can get, mentally I am just about done with it.   However, in fairness to the person inheriting my projects, I am trying to be helpful, albeit without much enthusiasm, mostly just dedication (LOL).

Tomorrow will bring the last minute packing completion, going through the “packing” and “to do” checklists to make sure we have everything done and packed, and hopefully, a good nights sleep.  Although Stephanie is working a few hours on Thursday morning before we leave, I will be at home on “vacation” already, getting the last items in order.

We have a pretty good plan for most of the cities, and should have some train riding time to put the finishing touches on them as we go from city to city.  If not, we will just have to do the best we can to have fun and enjoy our time at each destination.

Finally On Our Way to Paris – September 13, 2012

 Trip Posts  No Responses »
Sep 132012
 

Greetings from the Charlotte Airport.  We are waiting on our flight to Paris, which has been delayed from 4:40 PM to 6:00 PM due to some aircraft maintenance issue, always comforting before beginning an 8 hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean.  This maintenance issue came up at about 10:30 this morning, so it is interesting to try and figure out what it is.  The official message we received from US Air on our cell phone indicated it was a maintenance issue from an earlier flight, but upon investigation, the originating flight was from Pittsburgh, and it was not delayed, so I doubt the accuracy of the information.

Our flight from Florida to Charlotte was uneventful other than a couple of ground delays taking off and then arriving at the gate after landing.

Beers in Charlotte

We ate a snack at the Tequileria Restaurant in the terminal.  We had a couple of Dos Equis Amber beers and split some chicken nachos.  Hopefully we won’t regret that choice of food halfway into the flight to Paris.  Now we are patiently waiting to board the plane at 5:15 PM.

The good thing about the flight being a little later is that it matches up better to our normal sleep time, so hopefully we will be a little more rested when we arrive in Paris about 8:55 AM tomorrow morning, Paris time.  And then there is always the Seagram’s VO sleep aids we have packed in the carry on luggage, complete with fresh key limes (Thanks for the limes Joey).

Well, it is getting close to time to board, so signing off for now.  Next stop, Paris, France

 

Paris, France – September 14, 2012

 Trip Posts  No Responses »
Sep 142012
 

Our flight into Paris was uneventful once we finally got away late from Charlotte at about 6:15 PM yesterday.  The weather and flights were good, and there was no real turbulence to speak of.  We did learn that with US Air, we need to look at the specific planes that are making the flights when we book the reservation to avoid what we will describe as the “cattle car” experience.

Landing in France

For transatlantic flights, US Air normally either flies newer Airbus 320/330 aircraft  or old dilapidated Boeing 767’s.  Ours was the latter.  The seats seemed smaller than our last transatlantic flight on a newer Airbus, they seemed closer together, had no in-flight entertainment screen in the seat backs in front of us, and the overhead bins were even smaller than the bins we had on the smaller plane going to Charlotte on the first leg of this trip.  In addition, the sound system for music was terrible, you could barely understand any of the words from the songs.  I guess we knew it was a 767, we just did not realize it was that old.  We would have much preferred to  pay the same fare for a more modern and larger plane.  I guess we will pay attention to that next time we have choices on the airfare.

The arrival in Charles De Gaulle airport went smoothly, we went through immigration, and then collected all of our luggage without incident  Next, we proceeded to purchase our train tickets into Paris.  We took the RER B train into Paris, and the transit took about 35 minutes for the 13 intermediate stops before arriving at our stop.  We then took the Yellow #10 metro line (subway) one stop and then walked the 3-4 blocks to the hotel.  It was nice that we had been to this hotel and area of Paris before.  Even though it was close to 3 years ago, everything was still very familiar.

Since it was only about 11:15 AM when we arrived at the hotel, and the check in time was 2:30 PM – 3:00 PM, our room was not yet available.  We left our luggage in the locked storage and headed over to the Louvre.  The line was not too bad, and within about 40 minutes, we had our tickets purchased and were heading inside.  The Louvre is divided into different wings or sections.

Inside the Louvre

The Mona Lisa

We first visited the Denon wing containing all of the art work, specifically the Mona Lisa painting.  The Mona Lisa was not as large as one would think.

There was so much art in this wing, it was overwhelming.  One could spend days looking at all of the paintings (not us though!!).  They are really pretty, but after a while, they tend to start looking the same.

We grabbed a bite to eat at a cafe inside the Louvre, and then we headed over to the Richelieu wing to go and visit some recreated apartments of Napoleon Bonaparte.  That was actually more interesting to us than the paintings.  There were also many pieces of period furniture and other items that had been part of his empire.

The Louvre

After spending about 4 hours at the Louvre, we decided to head back to  the hotel and check in.  We received an inside room on the 5th floor, and although it has a window, it looks out into an alleyway between the front and back of the U-shaped hotel. At least is will be quiet.  Last time we stayed at this hotel in 2009 for one night, we had a front room facing the street.  Oh well, it is still a nice room, a little on the small side, but about average for Europe.

Arc de Triomphe

We stopped by a small grocery store to get a large 2 liter Diet Coke for Stephanie, and we also bought two bottles of wine, priced at less than 5 euro each, by choice.  We don’t know that much about French red wine, so this will also be part of our education, wine sampling.

Circular Stairway – Arc de Triomphe

Our plan was to go back to the room and freshen up since we had been in the same clothes for about 24 hours, and then afterward, head back out for some night time photos and sightseeing.  After a good hot shower and a change of clothes, we felt refreshed and then headed back out into the Paris nighttime to see more sights, albeit difficult since we were a little tired.

The plan was to head over to the Arc de Triomphe so that we could take some pictures of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, and also of the Champs Elysees at dusk. But first, we headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral, and just made it into the cathedral before it closed at 6:30 PM.  There was a Mass going on, so most of the Cathedral was cordoned off for the Mass.  We took just a few pictures and headed back outside to walk to the metro station and head to the Arc de Triomphe. We will plan on going back to the Cathedral later in the trip, we just wanted to verify the Mass times for Saturday/Sunday.

Stephanie On Top of The Arc de Triomphe

After arriving at the Arc de Triomphe, we went under it looking for a restroom, but none was to be found.  We were planning on purchasing a ticket to ride to the top for the pictures session, and found out that the restrooms were at a level near the top of the Arc.  Also, we had to walk up stairs to the top, there was no lift in operation.  I guess that is one way to regulate uninvited persons from using their facilities, make them walk to the top of the Arc.  We did just that, and it made us a little dizzy going up the long spiral stairs.  Finally reaching the level for the bathroom, we soon found out that the men’s room was closed for repairs, so it was sharing the two stalls in the women’s restroom, and there was already a line.

Eiffel Tower Seen From The Arc de Triomphe

Finally, we made it to the observation deck, and the sight was tremendous.  There was a cloud cover in the distance, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated, and the traffic on the Champs Elysees was mesmerizing, one side being brake lights in a long row, the other being headlights.

Champs-Elysees

After finishing taking pictures, we headed to walk down the Champs-Elysees  to see all of the stores.  We only walked a few blocks, and since we were getting tired and hungry, we then took the metro back to the area near our hotel and stopped for a bite to eat.  It was a decent meal, and the wine was good.  The time was about 11:25 PM, and we were exhausted.  We never did get much sleep on the plane flight over, but our plan when flying to Europe is to always stay out as late as we can on the first night to acclimate to the time change.  We think we succeeded

Eiffel Tower With Beacon

We are heading to Versailles in the morning, trying to beat the crowds.  That is another story that will have to wait for tomorrow, the the fact that there is a weekend in Paris where once a year, it is  free entrance to every museum in Paris.  Guess which weekend that is this year, yes, it is this weekend.  Talk about planning.  From what we hear, the crowds are supposed to be BAD.

 

Paris, France – September 15, 2012

 Trip Posts  No Responses »
Sep 152012
 

I do not think we were awake when our heads hit the pillow last night, we both slept soundly after being on the go for so long yesterday.  The room was very quiet, only occasionally interrupted by the faint sound of the subway underneath the building.  It is just a subtle rumbling noise, almost anything else drowns it out.  However, if you try hard, and all is quiet, it is audible.

We woke up at about 6:00 AM local time, at least I did.  Stephanie was still sound asleep so I worked on the blog.  Her sleep was finally disturbed by the sound of the alarm at 7:00 AM.  We had planned an early morning start to go to Versailles, but this morning, we just had a hard time getting everything together, including ourselves.  The fatigue and time change just gets to you for the first couple of days.  Once we were finally ready, we realized it was already 9:00 AM, and we were just leaving the room to hunt (literally) for some breakfast, and the ever hard to find, American coffee.  We stopped off at a pastry store we had seen yesterday, and ordered a croissant for Stephanie, and a chocolate filled pastry (similar to a flat croissant) for me.  They had an “American coffee” to go”, but it was just a small Styrofoam cup, filled about two thirds with really strong, brewed by the cup, coffee from an espresso machine.  It was strong, but good and hot.  We sat outside of the Notre Dame Cathedral on a bench and ate our breakfast, the metro stop we needed was right around the corner for the train to Versailles.  We can attest to the fact that the Asian tour groups win the award for the earliest start, we saw two tours heading to the Cathedral while we were eating our breakfast, and no other tours were stirring anywhere in the area.

We had a little trouble purchasing our tickets for the train to Versailles, all of the unattended metro/train ticket machines in Paris only take coins, no bills, and most of the time, no credit cards.  We only had Euro bills, so we headed back up to the street level to seek a kind vendor for change.  The first place Stephanie tried refused to give us change, just after giving change to a non-American tourist (those Frenchies… they love Americans) .  We finally purchased a postcard for 0.20 Euro with a 5.00 Euro bill to get change from one of the vendors.  It was ironic because by the time we found a vendor to purchase a small, inexpensive item from, solely for the purpose of acquiring some change, we were almost to the next Metro.  Once we went down the stairs for this station, we realized it was fully attended, and we no longer needed the change. Oh well, always a lesson to learn while traveling.

We purchased our two return tickets to Versailles on the RER Yellow Train, then headed to the platform to try and figure out exactly which train we needed.  The Yellow RER train has several splits in the route, which is not typical, so there are 3-4 different trains that go on the various route splits, and you need the correct one to go to your destination.  We needed the one called the “Vick”.  After about 10 minutes, it arrived at the station, and once aboard, off we went.  There was no issue with determining where to get off, the Versailles stop we needed on this train was the end of the line.

We arrived in Versailles and started over to the Chateau.  We thought it was “free” museum day, but apparently, the Versailles attractions were not on the totally free list.  Everyone was buying tickets, and we (Stephanie) even asked.  The lady at the airport had apparently led us astray on the “free attractions for Paris list.”  Now it was too late, and we had already spent money on entrance fees to both the Louvre, and to the Arc de Triomphe, both which would have been free with the Paris Card.  We  figured we were about to break even on the cost of the Paris Card versus entrance fees so far.  If the other museums we want to visit tomorrow are not free, we will then be  penalized a little financially.

Gates at Versailles

Due to our late start, we actually were first hand witnesses to attest that the tour books are correct, do not try and visit the Versailles Chateau in the morning if you do not get there early, with early being when it opens.  It was generally a crowded mess, full of large tour groups who had arrived in buses, crammed into the many small rooms of the Chateau.  Groups of Asians over here, Mideast groups over there, throw in a British group here and there, and you get an international  crowded disaster.  In the end, we found that since we had visited two palaces in Vienna two years ago, the Versailles Chateau and grounds were not nearly as impressive as those had been.

Chapel at Versailles

The exhibits in the Versailles Chateau paled in comparison to its Austrian counterpart in Vienna.  There were some interesting sights inside of the Chateau, but in general, the crowds really impaired our ability to see the various rooms.  Shame on us for getting off to a slow, late start.

One interesting thing happened to us while going through security for our entrance into the Chateau.  The security x-ray screening operator actually informed us that tripods are not allowed into the exhibit, and we needed to check the tripod at the free baggage claim area.  Since it was crowded, and they were busy at both the x-ray machine and the baggage check, we decided that they would not know if we just skipped by and headed inside.  We were right, we slipped away without being noticed.  We have never visited a sight where tripods were considered a security threat…..until now.

We knew we would not use the tripod inside the Chateau, it was way too crowded.  But, we had thought that once we headed out into the Gardens, which is a separate entrance  ticket from the Chateau, and where visitors could enter there directly, without visiting the Chateau and not going through the security screening, that using the tripod would be OK.

Our Illegal Tripod Picture – Versailles Gardens

Wrong, we were busted using the tripod to take pictures outside in the vast gardens, and a security person came up and told us it was not permitted.  Go figure…we are still trying to determine the big threat.  However, it was confirmed later as we saw another couple get busted by security for the same tripod violation.

We walked through the vast gardens down to the lower area where there is a large man-made lake for small row boats to paddle around in, which of course, were available for rental.  This part of the grounds is actually a park outside of the attraction, and is free to enter, and also does not need to comply with the tripod security directive.

Our Legal Tripod Picture – Versailles Gardens

Therefore, being ever vigilant to the rules, we set it up and got a couple of shots of both of us together, looking back up at the Chateau.

We stopped at a restaurant for some lunch, and our communication with the waiter was less than perfect.  We thought we ordered two sandwiches, some fries, and two large glasses of wine.  We got the two sandwiches as ordered, but got two small glasses of wine, and no fries.  Oh well, we figured he was looking out for our health (no fries) and our wallets ( no fries and no large glasses of wine).

After lunch, we headed back into the gardens for some more pictures since the sun was now directly overhead, and was prefect for photos.  We had about an hour before the afternoon fountain show started.  The fountains are only run twice a day, and only on weekends, which was our main intention for heading over here today, to see the fountains in operation.

The Fountains at Versailles

Right on time, all the the fountains on the entire grounds started at 3:30 PM.  There are many fountains within the gardens, some small, some large.  The afternoon fountain session is 1 1/2 hours in length (only 1 hour at 11:00 in the morning), so you have time to walk from one to another to see them in action.

Although no one single fountain is spectacular, the sheer number of them in the gardens is.  We had wondered if they were always running in the day when Versailles was actually home to the royalty, or,  if they were run just for special occasions.  Sounds like an internet question.

Another Fountain at Versailles

At about 4:45 PM, we headed back to the train station for our 35 minute ride back into Paris.  There was some issues with the trains, so we actually had to get off of one, and on to another, but we were on our way home by about 5:00 PM.

Stephanie at the Versailles Château

Actually, we were headed to Notre Dame to attend the Saturday Vigil Mass at 6:30 PM.

We got over to the Cathedral, and the crowd there was massive.  There were still many tour groups going in, so we got in the winding line.  There was actually a line specifically for going to Mass, but since we were a little early, we decided just to go in with the the normal tourist crowd.  However, once inside, the Mass line and the tourist line became the same line, so we just decided to get a good seat for Mass, near to the front.

Stephanie at Notre Dame After Mass

The Mass was nice, but being in French sort of diminished the overall impact.  Once Mass concluded, we walked around the Cathedral, and noticed a food tasting going on at the river level, which is a walkway platform down near the river, accessible from steps at the street level, roughly 25 feet higher.  The food tasting seemed to be like a “Taste of Paris”, where local restaurants bring food and wine for tastings at a small fee.  We walked through the festival but did not participate in the tasting.  We then headed back up the stairs to the street level.  It was nearing 8:00 PM, and we were tired, so we decided that this would be a sandwich and wine night.  We headed to our favorite grocery store for some under 5.00 euro wine and snacks, and then to a sandwich shop for dinner to go.

It had been a long day, and we were still a little tired from the time change.  In addition, it gave me some time to write up this wonderful update.  The sandwiches were good, the snacks better, and the wine was wonderful.

 

Paris, France – September 16, 2012

 Trip Posts  No Responses »
Sep 162012
 

It was another beautiful day in Paris today, starting out in the upper 50’s but warming into the mid 70’s by noon.  We had some trouble again today getting off to an early start, sleeping in until about 8:00 AM before we even started to get ready.  Part of it was attributable to still getting used to the time change, another part due to just being tired, and the last part due to the really good Bordeaux wine we had last night.

We really did not have a specific plan for today, there was nothing we were trying to see on any particular schedule, so I am sure that was also part of our being a little lazy getting going.  Once we finally got motivated, we were on our way about 10:00 AM.  We did decide to go into the Latin Quarter, which is mostly the area in and around our hotel.

The Pantheon – Paris

We first headed out to visit the Panthéon, which is a really large building, originally built as a church honoring Saint Genevieve, but then converted into a secular mausoleum  that is used for “honoring the  distinguished French citizens”.  This really translates into a very large crypt for honored French citizens.  Examples of the distinguished tenants include Voltaire, Braille, and Rousseau, as well as Madame Curie.  The building was not that spectacular, or pretty, and the underneath area was full of burial crypts.

After that visit to start the day on such an upbeat note, we headed over to the Luxembourg Gardens.  On the way, we once again found ourselves hunting for some coffee.  We found a small cafe that had fresh muffins and large coffees.  It was by far the best cup of coffee we had found in Paris so far, they actually made a full “to go” cup in their espresso machine.  I had a chocolate chip muffin, and Stephanie had a raspberry muffin.  Both were excellent.  We actually carried them over to the nearby Luxembourg Gardens and sat at a bench in the park to eat our breakfast.  It was an interesting area, obviously well used as a “green” area inside of the city.  There were joggers everywhere, and many people just out for a Sunday morning stroll.

Luxembourg Gardens

Chuck & Stephanie – Luxembourg Gardens

After finishing our muffins, we walked farther into the park, finding the main gardens and reflection pool near the Luxembourg Palace.  This is the water area that is often seen in movies featuring Paris, where all of the children have model sailboats sailing in the reflection pond.  Most of these are rental boats that have no controls, just set up to sail in a straight line from one point to another.

The sailors have bamboo sticks to push the sailboats out again in another direction once they reach the side walls of the pond.  Some of the larger sailboats were remote controlled, and we even saw one child with an electric power boat.  The gardens were full of beautiful flowers.  Everyone was just out enjoying the warm weather.

Saint Sulpice Church – From the Da Vinci Code

After finding a “pay” toilet, our first in Paris, we headed over to the Saint-Sulpice Church, famous for its use in the movie and book,  The Da Vinci Code.  It was a rather average church inside, needing some renovation and cleaning (must not have made much on the movie usage).  We did see a line waiting for a trip up into the organ room on the upper level, so we waited in line for our turn to visit the large pipe organ.  This is limited to Sundays, and only during the 12:05 PM  Mass.

Organist – Saint Sulpice Church

It was very interesting to see the vast Organ with all of the push-pull knobs used to make it function.  The organ dated from the early 1800’s. On the way up to the organ, we actually saw  three sets of large manually operated foot pumps needed to supply the organ with air in the days before electricity.  Now it is supplied with air from an electric source.

We actually saw the organ being played during the Mass that was in progress when we arrived at the church.  Footnote: Once we were home tonight, Stephanie looked up the organist online, and found out he was well decorated for his field, and had been at that church as the main organist since 1985.

Chuck & Stephanie – The Eiffel Tower

After leaving the church, we headed on the metro over to the Parc du Champ de Mars park near the Eiffel Tower for some daytime pictures of the tower.  There was a women’s bicycling event going on, and there were hundreds of women cyclists out in the park area, obviously resting and eating their lunches after completion of their race.  We found an area in the grass nearer to the Eiffel Tower and sat for a while enjoying the day and taking a few pictures.

The Eiffel Tower

There were just a LOT of people nearby, and there were many buses buses for all of the race participants lined up along the road between us and the Eiffel Tower.

We sat in the park for a while before heading out to try and find a grocery store.  Our plan for lunch was to have a picnic with all of our new Parisian friends in the park.  However, we found that the grocery stores are not normally open on Sunday, at least not the larger chains.  There were a couple of really small stores open, with limited selections, so all we were able to find was a bottle of wine.  We continued to look, thinking that possibly we would find another as we walked around, but we did not.

We ended up near the River Seine near the bridge/tunnel area where princess Diana was killed several years back.  While walking there, we were in need of finding a facility, known here as Le Toilette.  We found a public toilet that was free to use, and was very interesting, and busy  It was a really glorified Port-O-Let, but it was fully automated.  Each time it was used, it would close after the guest left, and go into a wash cycle to clean the actual toilet, including a dry cycle, sort of like a car wash for toilets.   During that wash cycle time, no one could enter.  Since I was about the 6th person in line, I had plenty of idle time to figure out that it took about 2 minutes for the clean cycle, after the person left, and  roughly 3-4 minutes of total time per person.  So, although it was free in monetary cost, we waited about 20 minutes before I was able to use it, the only cost being our time.

Afterward, we headed along the River Seine back to the Eiffel Tower and beyond, still looking for the elusive grocery store.  We did find two more small markets, but neither had the items we needed for a picnic.  It was time for Plan B, eating at a Cafe.  We found one full of locals, and sat at an outside table.  It was called the Carmine Cafe.  One gentleman next to us was having a pizza, and it looked really good.  We ordered a Ham (jambon), cheese (fromage) and mushroom (champignon) pizza, and a half liter of Bordeaux wine.  The pizza was really good, and we were really hungry since it was now about 2:30 PM.

We headed back to the Champs-Elysees to walk around since we had spent so little time there when we visited the Arc de Triomphe two nights ago.  Of course, being Sunday, everyone else also had the same idea, there were people everywhere.  We strolled along the avenue, and saw the Louis-Vuitton store, which Stephanie wanted to go inside to see.  Problem was, there was a line of about 50 people waiting to enter the store.  We believe they were only allowing a few shoppers in the store at a time for security against theft.  We also saw the same thing for the Abercrombie & Fitch store.  Needless to say, we did not wait in line for either.

Enjoying Our Wine at The Louvre, (Eiffel Tower between us)

While walking  we actually got approached by a gypsy looking fellow asking for us to “take his picture”.  We declined, knowing this was one of the best known pickpocket scams, and sure enough, as soon as he left, he was heading up the street looking for another “mark”.  It was obvious he had no intention of getting a picture, or else,  he would have stayed and asked someone else.

By this time, we were tired of the crowds, so we headed back to the Louvre to sit in the park area to watch the sunset over the Eiffel Tower, and to drink our bottle of wine that we had purchased earlier.  We also wanted to take some pictures of the Louvre at night, so we had two reasons for being in that area.  It was a fantastic sunset, there were enough high, wispy clouds to turn deeper shades of pink as the sun set.

We then took  our pictures of the Louvre at night, trying to find an area where people were not doing silly poses with the glass pyramid, which generally consisted of posing so that it appears like they are holding it down with one  finger, or jumping up in the air, we surmise, to try and appear to be jumping over it.

Sunset Over the Eiffel Tower

People are funny with their poses, and even funnier with not having a clue that other people are trying to take pictures, and they just walk right in front of you and stand there, even with our large tripod set up.  I thought for one moment Stephanie might go over to them and push them out of the way!

The Louvre at Night

We prevailed, and honor and dignity was maintained through an exercise of patience, and we  finally got our pictures.

We were heading back to our section of town, but needed to make a “rest stop” along the way.  Not seeing any public facilities, we stopped in a local cafe for a glass of wine, a small  (but good) price to pay for the use of their le toilette.  We then saw several interesting food places, selling mostly “to go” items.  We stopped at one store that was making flat pita type bread on a rounded hot skillet, and it was obviously good food based on all of the people stopping there to order.  Stephanie got “the special” and I got ham, with cheese and tomatoes, as well as pickles.   They were sort of like a Libyan hot wrap and were very good.

French Engineering Institute – “Go Engineers”

Since it was now around 10:00 PM, we walked back to the Hotel.  It had been another long day, and of course, we were tired.

 

Paris, France – September 17, 2012

 Trip Posts  No Responses »
Sep 172012
 

Today we awoke to mostly cloudy skies in Paris. We had thought it was forecast to be a 75 degree day, and sunny, but mother nature had another plan in mind.

Sacre-Coeur Basilica – Montmatre

Today, our plan was to head over to Montmartre to visit the Sacré-Cœur, (Sacred Heart) Basilica. The town of Montmartre is also know for the Moulin Rouge Cabaret show, as well as other very seedy establishments. The Sacré-Cœur is located at the top of a hill, so getting there was no easy task, from the long Metro ride, and then the climb up the steep roads and sidewalks to get there.

Whenever photography is not allowed inside of a church, as was the case here, I am disappointed. The church was really pretty inside, with a lot of gold gilded items that would have made nice pictures, and allowed us to share that beauty. As my soapbox speech always goes, it is puzzling to me how pictures are allowed in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the foundation of all Catholic churches, but not allowed in far less significant Catholic churches in other areas. Oh well….we do know that many times the photo ban usually involves money or copyrights, but we were not sure this was the case here.

We did take some pictures of the outside of the church, but with the overcast skies, and the dull gray stone of the church itself, the pictures are rather bland, they probably would  look as good in black and white as they do in color.

Sacre-Coeur Basilica

We walked back down the many stairs to the town of Montmartre, and visited a couple of larger grocery stores where we bought some bread and ham and cheese for lunch sandwiches, as well as some under 3.00 Euro wines. It was far better than our luck with grocery stores had been yesterday.

We followed our guide book to the actual Moulin Rouge building, which passed by some other very interesting (and seedy) establishments. The building itself was not anything special, probably just more infamous than anything else.

Moulin Rouge

We then headed up a road to visit one of the former houses of Vincent van Gogh, again, more of a curiosity than anything else. It was a little difficult to find, we were having issues trying to get used to using the guidebook electronically on the Kindle versus the hard cover book we had gotten used to on previous trips.

After a small amount of extra wandering, which always seems to happen in hilly areas, always going uphill, (in the snow…not really) we finally found the house, which was not identified in any particular manner to help us to know for sure we were in the correct place.  Heading back to the Metro station, we hopped on the metro to take us back into the City Center to go to the Notre Dame Cathedral for our “official” visit.

Saint Severin Church

Upon exiting the metro station, we found that the sun had come out, and it had warmed up nicely. Guess the weathermen were correct, just a little off on timing.  We first stopped off at the St. Severin Church, which we passed on our way to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was a rather small church, but had some very pretty stained glass windows. After a quick tour of the interior, we headed over to the Cathedral.

We had not yet eaten our picnic lunch, consisting of the ham, cheese and bread that we had purchased in the morning from the grocery store in Montmartre, so we found a shady spot on a bench in the park area alongside the Notre Dame Cathedral, and sat down for our picnic lunch, of course,  including some of the wine we had purchased. It seemed that this is a popular area for lunch, there were several other people also eating there. Once finished with lunch, we packed up and headed for the entry line to Notre Dame.

The entry line was not too long and we were inside the Cathedral in about 5 minutes. We were surprised to see how much of the Cathedral chapels around the outer perimeter of the church were actually closed off, or just bare, or even being used for storage. There were many areas that were under some type of renovation. Overall, the Cathedral seemed to be in much worse condition inside than on our last visit in 2009. Maybe a sign of the overall economy. It just seemed darker and less impressive this time.

Votive Candle – Notre Dame Cathedral

Stephanie was also disappointed in the size and selection of gifts. We believe the gift store was also much larger last time we visited, and Stephanie had hoped to purchase a holy water font for our house. However, none were to be found, most of the items the store carried were jewelry related, and the selection was minimal.

Saint Chapelle Church

We then headed over to the Saint Chapelle Church, which was built inside of the complex that is now the courthouse. This is a small church that was built in just 4 years, but contains some very large and spectacular stained glass windows. Several windows were out as part of a 5 year long restoration, and it was interesting to watch a video they were presenting on the painstaking process being followed to completely remove all of the lead bead,  restore each piece of stained glass, and then re-solder them back together. It even appeared that they reused the lead from the panel they were taking apart to add back to portions that were already restored, I guess to completely preserve the original work.

Although the inside of the church contained a large section of scaffolding and fabric covering for the missing window panels on one side, it was still an impressive sight, especially after watching the intricate work required to do the restoration.

Stained Glass – Saint Chapelle Church

We really had no plan for out time after visiting St. Chapelle, but decided to head over to the scenic Seine River excursion boats. When we arrived at the company we had wanted to use for the tour, mainly because they had open top double deck boats where we could ride on top for better visibility and picture taking, we were disappointed to see that they were using a small boat that did not have an upper deck. We thought we would be disappointed, so we made the decision to skip the boat tour. There was a park nearby, which was actually next to the boat dock for the particular excursion company. The park and boat operation is at the north end of the island that is formed by the split in the Seine River. This island is large, and it contains the Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as the St. Chapelle area. While waiting in the park, we enjoyed the remainder of our wine from lunch, and just relaxed.

View From The River Seine Tour Boat

While we were waiting, we saw the next excursion boat arrive, and saw that it was one of the larger boats with the upper deck, so we decided to go ahead and take the one hour tour on that boat. It was a pleasant trip, and included some narration of the sights in both French and English. The only detraction was the fact the the entire river is lined with walls, presumably for flood control, that are about 30 feet tall.  Because of the walls, you are somewhat limited on what you can actually see, mostly either high buildings, or buildings right on the river bank.

Stephanie & The Eiffel Tower From The Seine River

It was still nice and sunny, so the nice weather added to the enjoyment. We headed down the river to the Eiffel Tower, then turned around, and headed back, passing by our initial launch point to go to the far end of the island near the University in Paris. Turning around once again, we headed back to the dock.

Sun Setting Over Paris

We then walked around in the part of the city that was north of the Notre Dame Cathedral, since we had not spent any time over in that section of Paris. Since it was about 7:40 PM, and knowing we needed to spend some time packing our suitcases for our journey to Switzerland tomorrow morning, we opted to just stop off at a Gyro sandwich shop in the same area where we had eaten last night. It was a small local place but the food was great, the Gyro was almost too large to eat.  Otherwise, we would have had to spend the typical two hour duration to eat in a restaurant, and we just did not have the time or energy for that.

Heading back to the room at the Hotel, it was already after 8:00 PM, and we started the dreaded repacking effort. Seems like things just never seem to go back in the suitcases as well as the first time, plus having to segregate the dirty clothes from the clean clothes adds to the difficulty. We are hoping to do some laundry in Lucerne, thinking that it might be cool enough for the heat to be on in the room, which makes a drastic difference in the air drying time. Stephanie had already washed some underwear and socks in Paris, but they took over a day to dry in the room without AC or heat.

With the suitcases packed, and some of the blog updated, we turned in at about 11:00 PM, setting the alarm for 6:30 AM in the morning. We will be heading over to the Gare de Lyon train station via the city bus, so we wanted to leave enough time to check out and make the 10 minute journey to arrive at the station in time for our 8:23 AM train departure.

 

Paris France to Lucerne, Switzerland – September 18, 2012

 Trip Posts  No Responses »
Sep 182012
 

We were awakened by a telephone call at about 6:15 AM this morning, which confused us because we had not asked for a wake up call. Stephanie answered the phone in French, with a Oui, and got a response in French, upon which she answered Merci. We had no idea what was said in French on the other end of the line. We thought it was just a misplaced wake up call. When the phone rang again in about 5 minutes, we knew that was not the case. This time Stephanie answered in English, and through some rough translations, found out the front desk was calling and thought we had called for a taxi.  Stephanie told them we had not. We guessed it was not a wake up call the first time either. Someone was not getting their taxi, and we were woken up a little earlier than expected. Then, we did actually get an automated wake up call about 5 more minutes after that, again, one that we had not set.  After all of that sleep disruption, we figured it was time to get up. We felt sorry for the person(s) who was supposed to get those calls, they were probably still soundly asleep, missing their taxi and possibly their flight or train.

We checked out of the hotel, the toughest part of that being carrying all of our luggage down the 5 flights of stairs.  The tiny elevator had broken on Sunday, and was still not repaired. We were checked out and on our way to the bus stop at about 7:25 AM, right on schedule. Having to carry the luggage down the stairs at the hotel was another good experience that may make us give more thought to smaller and lighter suitcases on the next trip!

We were hoping that the city bus would not be crowded since it was early in the morning and not too many people were out and about yet. We walked the one block to the bus stop, and in about 5 minutes the bus arrived. It was not crowded, so we had plenty of space for our luggage. We validated our bus tickets and rode the 7-8 minutes to the Gare de Lyon Train Station, the closest stop being about one block from the station. It had been easier than we thought, taking the bus had been much simpler and quicker than the alternative three connection metro route, and we did not have to carry our bags up and down any stairs, typically found in the metro connection tunnels.

We found our train platform, and sat down nearby after purchasing some coffee for me and Diet Coke for Stephanie. We ate our breakfast consisting of some of the bread and meat left over from yesterday that we stored in our in room refrigerator and brought with us. Our train arrived and we boarded our double deck train car for the three hour ride to the border town of Basel, Switzerland, where we were to board another connecting train to Lucerne. The train was very nice, and the seats were comfortable. Our only small issue was that we were facing backwards from the direction of travel.  The train only makes 4 stops, and it was a smooth high speed train. The monitor inside our car indicted that we were going a top speed of 320 kilometers per hour, or about 198 MPH.  We passed through a lot of farmland as we progressed across France. The weather was initially overcast, similar to yesterday, but at about 10:00 AM, the sun came out.

There was not a lot to see along the way, made even more difficult by having seats that faced in the opposite direction to the way the train was heading  Stephanie did her usual  train travel activity, taking a nap, and I worked on the blog and photos until we were almost to Basel in Switzerland, which was our departure point for the French Train.  Next was our connecting Swiss train to Lucerne.  Before we could board that train, we needed to purchase our 2 for 1 Swiss Flexi Pass that will cover all of our transportation costs for any 4 out of 30 days in Switzerland.  The pass also gives you free admission to museums, and free local transportation on the buses in the larger cities, such as Lucerne.

We departed our train in Basel and exited to the main part of the train station.  We did not see any signs to direct us to the ticket offices to purchase the Swiss Flexi Pass, so we headed to the left.  It was the wrong choice.  We then headed back to the right and as we got to the other end of the station, we finally saw the ticket offices on the lower levels. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and finally got to a ticket agent.  All went well, the Flexi Pass was available as advertised for the special pricing.  We had one moment of panic when their credit card machine would not read our MasterCard card, which is the Capital One Card that does not charge us any additional “international transaction fees”,  typically 3 to 3.5%.  On the fourth try, the card finally worked.

We had about 7 minutes remaining to head back into the station and get to our Platform for the 12:04 train to Lucerne.  It was the soonest connection we could make, based on our arrival time,  but there were three trains per hour if we missed that one.  We hopped on the train and about a minute later the doors closed.

We had a one hour train ride to Lucerne, but once again, due to limited seat selections, we had to face backwards to the direction of the train travel, so we did not see that much.  In addition, we went through a lot of tunnels, and dark tunnels are not a big contributor to a scenic train ride.

View of the Reuss River and Kapellbrücke Bridge From Our Room

We arrived on time in Lucerne, and the train station was not far from the hotel.  We walked about 5 blocks, most of it across the bridge over the River Reuss.

Our Hotel – The Hotel Des Alpes

We arrived at the Hotel Des Apes and checked in.  Luckily, our room was ready, and we went up to the room on the river side of the hotel, on the 4th floor.  It had a beautiful view of the Reuss River and the famous Kapellbrücke Bridge, or Chapel Bridge in English.  Our room is the top left room with the square window openings in the picture on the right.

Chuck & Stephanie – Lake Lucerne

Since we knew it was supposed to turn cloudy later in the afternoon, we headed out to do a little exploring.  We walked along Lake Lucerne and took some photos.

The Hofkirche Church

We then headed to the Hofkirche Church.  It was pretty inside, with several different types of pews, some more ornate than others.  We wondered if there were different pews based on class or standing in the church.  There were also several gold gilded altars, including both the main altar and several smaller chapel altars on the sides of the main altar.  It was definitely worth the walk to see.

Gilded Chapel Altar – Hofkirche Church

On the outside church grounds, in the immediate walled area around the church, there were many burial vaults, and also an area where it appeared that the cremated remains of church members were laid to rest.  These areas completely surrounded the perimeter of the church property.

From the Hofkirche Church, we headed to another “tourist” sight, the Lion of Lucerne Monument, which is a memorial to the Swiss Guards massacred during the French Revolution in 1792. It is a lion carved into the side of a large vertical rock ledge.

The Lucerne Lion Memorial

It is not that spectacular, but it something that “every visitor to Lucerne must see” according to the guide books.  It was not crowded when we arrived, so we got some good photos.

Glacier Museum

We then noticed a National Museum located near the monument so we headed up to see what it was.  It was called the Glacier Garden, and it was an outdoor walking area showing all of the effects of a glacier that had moved through the Lucerne area thousands of years ago.  It was interesting to see how the various degrees of erosion take place in the stone as a glacier moves though, and to see the fossilized remains in the sandstone that formed when this area was all part of the ocean floor.  The best part of this museum was that it was included in the free benefits we received with the Swiss Flexi Pass.

Next, we walked through some of the main shopping areas of Lucerne, and visited several grocery stores looking for a few items.  There were also many other stores of all types in this area, and so we did a lot of window shopping as we walked back in the general direction of our hotel.

Relaxing On Our Balcony

We checked out a few eating establishments near the hotel, looking for possibilities for a place to eat for dinner.  We quickly found that in general, everything costs more in Switzerland than it does in a lot of other places n Europe.  We also saw that same theme indicated in the wine prices in the grocery store. However, since the Swiss Franc is closer in value to the US Dollar than is the Euro, we had to stop and think about the actual cost differential.  We always have to remember that everything bought in Euros is subjected to about a 28% exchange rate penalty with the exchange being roughly $1.28 to the Euro right now, where the Swiss Franc is close to an exchange rate of $1.11.

For dinner, we picked an Italian Restaurant close to the hotel that was located along the river.  Unfortunately, the bad weather that had been forecast had arrived, and it had just started to drizzle as we were finishing our shopping, so we headed back to the room for some warmer clothes and rain gear before going back to the restaurant for dinner.  We also wanted to relax on our  balcony, and have a glass of wine before dinner.

Stormy Weather in Lucerne

Despite the inclement weather, we did end up eating outside under a canopy, but it was a little cool if the wind blew.  On a funny note, we had to ask the waitress about ordering a carafe of wine, which we saw another couple get, but could not find on the menu. All we saw were the deciliter and 750 ml bottle prices on the menu.  We then found out that wine is especially expensive here at restaurants, and all volumes less than a whole bottle are sold by the deciliter, which is 1/10th of a liter.  A bottle of just average wine at a restaurant here seems to cost  about 55.00 to 65.00 Swiss Francs (CHF), or $61.00 to $72.00 (ouch).  A glass that is a deciliter in volume is about 7.50 CHF ($8.25).  To put it into perspective, a 750 ml bottle is 7.5 deciliters, or 7.5 glasses in Switzerland (they are really small glasses of wine).  In a normal USA comparison, there are about 4 glasses of wine to the 750 ml bottle at most restaurants, and the price is about $7.00 per glass for a decent wine. Here, if you want a carafe of wine, you just order the number of deciliters you want, there is no volume price reduction.  We were not sure why you would order it that way unless you just want to save time waiting on the waiter to bring another thimble full, or deciliter as they call it here.

We ordered a olive, ham, cheese and artichoke pizza, and a first course size serving of cannelloni pasta, stuffed with spinach and cheese. With the two tiny glasses of wine, the total bill was 64.00 CHF, or about $70.00, and this was not a fancy restaurant, equivalent to something like an Olive Garden, mostly just families eating there.  The food was really good.  The pizza was a little different, it had a tomato sauce, but all of the toppings were in separate areas of the pizza.  The artichokes were on one third, the whole black olives on another, and the ham on the other, with cheese on the whole pizza.  The cannelloni was really good, and came served in a hot skillet, so it stayed warm in the cool outside air.

Wedding at Cana Painted on a Building

After dinner, we headed over to a German Restaurant just a couple of buildings away.  We had almost gone there for dinner, but opted for the Italian place, knowing we would have a lot of German cuisine later in the trip There were a lot of people outside under their covered deck.  We ordered a couple of German beers, and a large pretzel for our “dessert”.  Beer is cheaper than wine here, but still a little pricey when compared to Germany, even when compared to Oktoberfest pricing.  We paid 9.00 CHF for a 0.50 liter beer, where,  as a comparison, in Germany, beers were 8.00 euro at Oktoberfest two years ago for a whole liter.

We wandered around taking some flash pictures of the various building with art and paintings on the outside.  One is a depiction of the Wedding Feast at Cana.  Others are just decorative.  It was now about 10:00 PM, so we headed

Painted Buildings – Lucerne

back to the room, calling it a day.  Unfortunately, it had started to rain harder, and the forecast for tonight and all day tomorrow is rain, and about 50 degrees F.

 

Lucerne, Switzerland – September 19, 2012

 Trip Posts  5 Responses »
Sep 192012
 

The weathermen were correct, it was rainy and cold all night and was also raining steadily as we woke up this morning.  It was cooler in the room since we had left the window/door to the balcony open all night because the room had been so warm from yesterday’s high of about 76 degrees F. when we went to sleep.

We set the alarm for 7:30 AM, knowing that we had no real plan for today due to the rainy weather.  We had originally set the trip duration in Lucerne to three nights hoping that we would be able to do the Golden Round Trip to Mt. Pilates on a sunny day.  Tomorrow’s forecast is for sunny, but cooler weather, so that will be our Mt. Pilates excursion day.

We ate breakfast downstairs in the hotel, which is included with our room rate.  Breakfast consisted of the traditional servings for this area, bread, sliced meats, cheeses, cereals, and coffee. It was good, especially the coffee, since it was brewed to order and placed in an insulated pitcher.  There was also some fresh baked croissants, and homemade yogurt.

Lake Transportation Boats – Lake Lucerne

After breakfast, we bundled up and headed out into the cold, rainy weather.  It was just a steady drizzle, and we wore our rain gear and also took our umbrellas.  We walked over to the area by the train station, which is also the area where the boats depart to the various stops on Lake Lucerne, including the trip to Pilatus.  We just wanted to familiarize ourselves with the locations of the various boat departure points for tomorrow’s trip.

We then walked along the lake to visit the house of Richard Wagner, the composer.  The guide book Stephanie read indicated it was only about a 10 minute walk from the train station, but it was just wrong.  The walk was at least 30 minutes in duration before we found the house.  We ended up wandering through an art school along the way, thinking the house was closer.  Unfortunately, the location of the museum was just off of the actual map, it just gave an arrow for the direction to proceed at the end of the map’s coverage.

Richard Wagner House & Museum

We finally saw some signs indicating we were on the correct trail, and eventually, we found the house.  Stephanie had visited here 23 years ago when she traveled through Lucerne as part of a select high school concert band group.  We took some pictures of the house and Lake Lucerne, and then started the long walk back into town, but on a different route.  The city buses ran on the road we were walking on, so we got smart, remembering bus transportation in Lucerne was included in our Swiss Pass, and decided to ride a bus back to the train station, giving us some rest from the walking, and from the rain.

Jesuit Church – Lucerne

After exiting the bus at the train station, we headed over to the Jesuit Church, near one end of the Kapellbrücke Bridge.  It was very beautiful inside, it was full of a rose colored marble, and the basic colors of the walls were an off white, with rose trim.  There were several side chapels on both sides of the main church, and those were mostly dedicated to various saints.

Jesuit Church – Lucerne

After visiting the church, we just wandered around in some of the stores, trying to stay out of the rain as much as possible.

We stopped for a bite to eat for lunch, “to go” style, consisting of a sandwich made on pretzel bread.  It was pretty tasty.  After going to a few more stores, we decided to head back to the room to warm up, get dry, and relax.  An entire day of rain is hard to accept on a limited duration schedule, but it also gave us some time to rest,  relax and catch up on the blog and photos.

Wedding at Cana – Daytime Photo

As the day wore on, the weather cleared slightly, and at least the rain stopped.  We got brief periods of small patches of sun, and then the clouds would roll back in.  We imagine that some of the higher peaks might have gotten a little snow.  Certainly, the river looked higher, and was flowing with more velocity than yesterday.

We went to eat at an English Pub tonight near the hotel.  It seemed that the crowds out and about for dinner were much less tonight than on Tuesday night, either due to the cooler weather (more outside bars were closed) or to something else, we just were not sure.

Kapellbrücke Bridge at Night

The food at the pub was good as well as the beer, although, as we know by now, both were expensive.  It was actually  fairly crowded inside, most of the people were watching English soccer on the TV.  We finished dinner and headed back to our room to get ready for the early morning start on the Golden Round Trip to Mount Pilatus.

Lucerne, Switzerland – September 20, 2012

 Trip Posts  No Responses »
Sep 202012
 

Foggy Morning on Lake Lucerne

Today we planned on doing the Golden Round Trip to Mount Pilatus.  We were planning to try and make the 8:40 AM  boat ride on Lake Lucerne to Alpnachstad, Switzerland, and then take the cog railroad to the top of Mount Pilatus.  When we awoke this morning, it was very, very foggy, with visibility being less than a quarter mile.  Not a good start for taking a scenic boat ride on Lake Lucerne.

We proceeded to go to breakfast thinking that there was a possibility the fog would lift before the scheduled departure time, all along thinking the back-up plan was to take the next boat at 9:40 AM.  The only reason that we did not just go ahead and make the decision to postpone to the later departure was the worry that the crowds might increase the later we went.

Once we finished breakfast, we realized that we would need to rush to get to the ticket line, purchase tickets and board the 8:40 AM boat to Alpnachstad.  It was at least a 10 minute walk to the boat station, which is right across from the train station, and on the other side of the bridge from the hotel.  Since the fog had not lifted at all, and we were running a little late getting everything together, we just decided it was fate to go on the later 9:40 AM boat.

Mount Pilatus Shrouded in Fog

We walked to the dock  and purchased our tickets.  The Swiss Flexi Pass enabled us to purchase the tickets at half price, although we wondered if we could have even gotten them cheaper using the pass for the boat ride, and the bus ride at the beginning and end, and just purchasing the tickets for the cog railroad, and gondola ride portions separately.  These passes are nice, but they are difficult to figure out with all of the rules on the pass types, and on what is free, and what is partially covered.

Nonetheless, we went ahead and just purchased the half-fare tickets, and waited on our boat to arrive.  It was a little cold and windy, and although we were dressed for it, the thought of sitting outside on a boat ride in the cold, foggy weather was not very appealing.

Lake Lucerne Boat Ride to Alpnachstad

The boat arrived on time and we boarded.  We decided to sit in the stern, which was outside and open, offering more flexibility for picture taking.  To help block some of the wind, we picked some seats close to the rear entry way to the stern portion of the inside seating area.  We were about 5 minutes from departing when we saw a group of what appeared to be 6-7th grade kids coming on board. They all proceeded to run to the stern area where we were, and try and fight for the remaining seats, screaming and yelling the entire time.  We gave up our seats to go inside, both to be warmer and get away form the chaos in the stern,   We barley stood up when a group of about 6 students rushed to our bench (room enough for 4 max) before we could even get out of the way.  We thought it was going to be a long lake ride.  The boat proceeded to the first stop, about 10 minutes away, and as quickly as the chaos had started, it was over, the students all got off of the boat at that first stop.

Mount Pilatus Seen From Lake Lucerne

We proceeded to go back outside, and since the wind was from the stern, the relative motion of the boat just about neutralized the wind.  Luckily, at about the same time, the sun started to break through the clouds.  The weather really turned nice as we headed across the lake, and the fog started to lift.  We made a couple more stops before we got to Alpnachstad, our departure point.

The cog rail cars were just across the street from the ferry boat dock, and we were able to make the next set of cars that were going up the mountain.

Cog Railway Car – Top of Mount Pilatus

It was a really nice ride.  We sat in a car with a couple of guys from the US, one of them was living in Switzerland with his wife and four kids, and was located over here working with his company, which was a accounting firm.  They both worked for the same company, and had met when they both worked at a one of the other company locations in the US.  The friend was over in Switzerland on a “business conference”.  The one living in Switzerland had been on this tour in April, and was able to give us some advice on what to do once we got to the top of the mountain.

View of Lake Lucerne From Mount Pilatus

After about a 25 minute ride, we reached the summit.  The weather was beautiful at the top of the mountain, it was initially a little cloudy, but then it cleared up completely.  There were about four different trails to climb to various peaks on top of the mountain, and we were able to get some great pictures.

Chuck & Stephanie on Mount Pilatus

The altitude was about 7,000 feet, and we could certainly feel it as we climbed up some of the steep trails and steps.

We spent about 2.5 hours at the summit on the various trails, and then we partially descended down the mountain in a large cable car.  From there, we got onto four person gondolas for the remainder of the trip down.  We shared ours with a couple who were originally from Boston, but now lived in Florida on the west coast.

Cable Car to Descend Mount Pilatus

They were fun to talk to, they had done a lot of traveling in Europe, and we shared some stories as we descended.  They were headed to Cinque Terre in Italy, after they spent a few more days in Switzerland.  It was pretty funny,  because since we were all talking, we did not notice that were were at an intermediate stop, so we all proceeded to get off of our gondola.  Realizing there was nowhere to exit once we were out of the gondola car, we finally figured out that we were not supposed to get off yet.  We all quickly got back on before the doors closed, all of us laughing about the mistake.

Enjoying the Sunny Day Back at the Hotel

We arrived the bottom, and then had to walk a few blocks to the bus stop to ride back to the Lucerne Train Station, ending the journey.

We went back to our room and dropped off some of our gear before heading out to pick up a couple of souvenirs.   We went to a couple of more shops before going back to the room for happy hour on our balcony, trying to soak up some of the last sunny hours in Lucerne before we leave tomorrow morning.

We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was on the bottom floor, and right along the river.  The food was some of the best yet, and we really enjoyed our meal there.  It was then back up to the room to finish packing for tomorrow morning’s departure.

We plan on taking the 8:00 AM train out of Lucerne, changing once in Bern, Switzerland, and another time in Visp, Switzerland before arriving in Zermatt, Switzerland.  This will be our first “two change” train ride on any of our travels to date, so it will keep us on our toes to try and make the short connections, typically about 7-9 minutes from the time one train arrives until the next one departs, and usually requiring a quick change in Platforms in the station.

 

Page 2 of 4 1 2 3 4