Europe Trip Part 2

Thursday 21 August 2008

Hello Everyone! Sorry, I was moving to Reading and didn't had the time to complete the description for the photos. Anyways, more about moving to Reading later.

Continue with the trip!
Ok.. now it should be day 3 of the trip. We travelled South East towards Lucerne, Switzerland. Yeap, the land of beauty, neutrality, and finance (lol), and also where my mum really wanted to go. Can't remember how long the journey took, about... 5 hours maybe?

Switzerland! Lots of tunnels cutting through hills/mountains. This is just one of them. Occasionally, right after the exits from one of these tunnels, one side/lane of the road will be covered, like the picture, and the other side left open. Dunno why.

Our cozy room in Lucerne. Accommodation is very expensive there.. so, it's not really a hotel, but I still like it very much!

The view from our room! Nice leh! We could already see the mountains

Another view from our room. Nice moon eh?

Cute dog standing at attention. I didn't dare to go too near it because it's quite fierce.

A little stream. Fresh water from the mountains!

The moon

A typical Swiss farmhouse.

Oh, I took some pictures of the included meal, but it wasn't anything special so it wasn't included here. Anyways, the next morning, we all went up to Mount Strassenhorn (hope I got that right). I think it was 6000 feet high. We went up by some ancient train, followed by cable car. Anyways, here are the view from up there:

Observation post. From here, you can see some mountains which have snow all year round. Cool eh. We didn't get the chance to ski there unfortunately =P

I think these cute little critters are called marmot. Arent' they cute! Oh, they run and hide in burrows when they hear someone whistle. I guess that's their warning call. They are quite big, like some fat giant overfed hamsters. Ugh, nonetheless, still very cute

Little hut in the mountains

A small wisp of cloud clinging onto the mountain

I think that's a daisy. I couldn't get a clear shot of it because it was beyond the edge of a somewhat steep side of the hill. Too risky for me, and there wasn't enough time.

River feeding the lake Lucerne. Again, fresh water from melted snow!!! Notice the horizon at the distance...... I'd imagine how the view when you're blasting off to space would look like....

Wouldn't you like to live somewhere here?

Flowers of summer

Yours truly

Me again. Suprisingly, it wasn't cold at all, maybe it's due to the strong sunshine

On the way down the hill.

Some people actually trek all the way up the hill (in these zig zag routes). Can you spot the two persons in this picture?

The driver of the "train". Very friendly guy.

After that, we went on a boat tour around the lake. The proper name is not actually Lucerne, but it's something-I-really-can't-remember-now. It was the border of a few Cantons, and Lucerne is one of them I think. Anyways, this area used to be quite wealthy from tradings done here. Nowadays, the some of the rich and famous live here, or own property around this area.

View from the Lake

Island?

City of Lucerne. That queer building is the church. In the olden days, battles were fought in the name of religion between the Cantons (err I think it's like.. district?) of Switzerland (between Protestants and Catholics). Not sure which side Lucerne was on. Swift river flows through the city. Due to the amount of water flowing from the mountains, even the streams coming out of the lake are vigorous indeed. Oftentimes you could see swans swimming furiously against the current only to move at snail's pace.

I managed to capture the bird eating something

Part of the ancient walls of the city.

View from inside the church (hmm maybe it's a cathedral. I can't remember). Isn't it grand?? I was like WOW! when I went in. Very different from those churches and cathedrals in England. I have always imagined churches in Spain to look like this, for some reasons. I hope I could capture the size of the church in this picture. I think it would look better when enlarged.
The organ in the church. Notice the small human head at the bottom of the picture. That's how big it is!

The Falls of Rauros. lol just kidding. It's the mighty Rhine Falls. I think it's the biggest waterfall in Europe.

This brave boat went so near the fall. It was bringing people up the little rock in the middle of the waterfall, where there's a place to observe the Rhine Falls. I would love to go up there. Unfortunately, again, insufficient time.

Yum yum! We spent the remaining Swiss Franc on these goodies (completely forgetting that I wanted to keep those coins as souveniers). I think we took Almond cookie.. it was fantastic!

Woops, picutres from my dad's camera probably.

Look at those white peaks!

Nice place to sit and relax and have a cup of tea.

Nice little bridge. Ok, onwards to the fifth day of our trip!

p/s i don't know why suddenly I have a blue line underlining my words at this point. Someone help me? lol