Luzern

Nicole and I outside of the Musegg Wall I believe it was called in Luzern, which we stumbled upon when trying to find our hostel

Sorry for the short post last time. The hostel gave me two internet tokens worth less than 20 minutes total and the directions to everything was in German so I had difficulty figuring out how to use AOL to talk to my potential landlord in Perugia and then update my blog. I didnt even notice the zs in all of my words until now. The z and the y are switched on Swiss keyboards for some reason so I am just not used to it.

Interlaken was really fun and I wish I had had more time to talk about it. In Luzern yesterday Nicole and I went to a modern art museum which was kind of out there but which we ended up spending an hour and a half at and I ended up really enjoying. We walked into one room with paintings that seriously just looked like white canvases, which was something we had been joking about before we went to the museum as the stereotypical modern art that anyone could do. As it turned out the room with the white canvases turned out to be my favorite because if you looked at the painting you could actually see some amazing scenery and Nicole and I were both impressed that the artist could do that. It sounds crazy, but maybe you just have to see it to understand it.

I have been eating a lot of Swiss chocolate and have been sure to buy at least one bar a day. My favorite was Ragusa dark chocolate with macadamia nuts in it because the inside tasted fudgy and delicious. Nicole and I also went to an authentic Fondue restauarant and had cheese fondue, which I was surprised to find out had white wine in the ingredients, but was very good and was nice for a surprisingly cold day.

Both days in Luzern have been pretty cold, today and zesterday I wore long sleeves and capris and brought a raincoat with me everywhere and was chilly if anything. Nicole and I went on a boat ride across lake Luzern to Mount Rigi I believe and took the worlds steepest cog wheel train to the top. It was disappointingly cloudy but was still cool to appreciate just how high we were up since we were literally in a cloud. We took a gondola ride a little bit down the mountain, which was below the cloud line and could see a lot from there.

 

At the top of Mount Pilatus (not Rigi as I mentioned earlier)

I searched very hard in every tacky Swiss souvenir shop and in regular stores (so to speak) to buy something here but did not succeed in finding anything that either wasnt junk or didnt feel inappropriate to buy in the summer time. I saw a sweater that if I have time I may go back to get, but it feels silly to buy a sweater in the summer that isnt even on sale. Hopefully Italy will have better souvenirs and will be a little warmer than Switzerland. I have really enjoyed Switzerland though and am sad to leave. It is picturesque to be by a lake filled with Swans with mountains in the backdrop. Today there was even a Swiss plane show over the lake and 8 or so planes did loops and dives in synch.

 

The swans here are not shy.