Lucerne - A Fairytale Land

Day one:

Can you guess? I was woken up again at 4pm by the same girl and again I had to wake her up. And again her snooze went and she slept through it. I always thought someone sleeping through an alarm was a joke. She has proved me wrong. She then decided it was the time to pack for her early train / plane without saying sorry.

I could not get back to sleep and was feeling irritated when I got to the train station. Because of the strikes one of the trains I needed was not going, luckily I managed to get to my station only have to change once.

The train ride was picturesque though and I enjoyed listening to my 80s pop watching the countryside roll by. I found it fascinating that the only reason I knew we had passed into Switzerland was that my cell phone coverage changed. I had wondered a few days before where my passport had to be checked and didn’t realise that once your in Western Europe there are no real boarders so no one looks at your passport. So if you are looking for someone to hide out I suggest here.

We arrived at Basel 15 minutes late but I managed to find my track number and went down to find a train already sitting there. See I had heard the Swiss are time efficient down to the minute but didn’t realise how true this was until today. As it turned out my train was not early - as the train I was on was the wrong one. Some ladies I was sitting opposite from explained that I needed to get off on the next station so I could get another train. One lady had got off and even found the correct train for me and showed me where the ticket office was. Luckily the train office wrote a note on the ticket for me and said I could go on the next train in 20 mins.

Two trains came before mine and I saw how to the exact minute the trains came and left. This filled my heart with joy as efficiently is one of the things I love. The train conductor didn’t even seem to mind my ticket was wrong and stamped it for me. When I arrived I was awestruck by how absolutely breathtaking it was when I stepped out of the train station. I had received a visitors card which entitles you to free travel in zone 10 and I took a bus to my hostel.

After getting settled in I took a walk around the late and found a beach spot complete with a food truck selling snacks and wine / beer. I stayed for a while before deciding to have have a picnic as there was a supermarket nearby.

Day two:

I headed into town and decided to walk around the see the old town. Let’s just say it looks like you are stepping into a fairy tale, the mountains and the buildings are breathtaking.

I followed a route that was in my mini guide book and visited this lovely church and lion that is carved into the side of the rock. I then found a few gift shops and ended up having to spend around €10 to buy baby Groot his flag. Expensive but it was either that or a massive flag bigger than him.

After some gelato and reading more of my book I visited this amazing bridge that goes over the water. I then headed back to my hostel deciding to have another picnic and soaking up the amazing views.

Day three:

Today I took a day trip to Interlaken and Grindelwald. We had to meet outside the McDonald’s and there around maybe 12 of us waiting for the tour guide and bus. On time this man marched us to the bus. Only three would have even got on had I not asked him about the others I had been speaking to. A group of three people were running late by four minutes and he chose to berate them on the bus over the loudspeaker as we would now be late by four minutes. Apparently he had done this to other people in Zurich because they had run 10 minutes late.

We got to our first stop in Interlaken where around 12 of us were left to look around for around an hour and a half. We were two bus tours and the biggest group where going to the top of the mountain. I enquired about upgrading but 150 Swiss Francs was a bit steep for my budget.

We were then picked up again by the bus driver who was friendly and made up for the rude man. We drove around 20 minutes then to Grindelwald which is the Switzerland you see on postcards. It was breathtaking and looked like something out of Disney. I walked around the town and was going to go on the cable car but I had a terrible headache that could have been caused by the altitude so decided to skip.

I instead treated myself to cheese fondue. It was amazing! I am going to have to learn how to make this when I get home. Served with thick bread chunks I managed to almost finish it.

After buying another gift (another person off my list) I rested and read by book before my ice cream. I then met up with the bus again and enjoyed the amazing views on the drive back.