May 11 to May 14, Lucerne to Interlocken to Montreux via Jungfrau

From Lucerne I went to Interlocken, dropped my luggage with the agent who booked my trip, then continued on to the Jungfrau, called the "Top of Europe".  It is just over 10,000 feet high, but because you are rising from near sea level, it is quite spectatcular.  The unfortunate part is the last 50 minutes is all under ground and you arrive at the Jungfrau inside a cavern and walk into - you guessed it - a Gift Shop!  Of course there was also a snack bar and once you got past those you could take pictures of the snow.  I have to confess it was a bit underwhelming - I think our trip up the mountain in Palm Springs was actually more thrilling - but I digress.

What was spectacular was the trip to and from the Jungfrau.  We went from Interlocken to Lauterbrunnen (change trains), then to Kleine Scheidegg (change train) to the Jungfraujoch.  My agent booked me back a different way, so I got to see another side of the mountains, which were just as spectacular.  We went from Jungfraujoch to Klein Sheidegg (change train) to Grindelwald (change train) to Interlocken.  You can see what I mean about the train changes.  I read part of it is because different areas in Switzerland had different guage of train tracks.  Also from Kleine Sheidegg on it is more of a cog railroad rather than an engine driven train, and once we experienced the slope of our climb, it was understandable.

Interlocken was nice but not as pretty as Lucerne, I thought.  I walked to my hotel  where I stayed in my room since I apparently picked up whatever was going around the cruise ship (yes, I washed my hands a lot and used hand sanitizer).  

From Interlocken I came to Montreux Switzerland which is also quite beautiful and on the shore of Lake Geneva.  I posted pictures from the balconey of my apartment on my facebook page.  I am writing tonight, the last night of my trip.  Tomorrow morning, I start my trek home, taking the train to Geneva Airport, flying to Heathrow and ultimately to Denver.

I will be adding one more post talking about my experience of booking my trip, my opinions on the different tours I took and traveling alone in Europe.  I've had several people ask me to wrtie them about that, so it seemed easiest just to add it to my blog.

The pictures below were taken along the Golden Pass which took me from Lucerne to Interlocken and the Jungfrau.  The scenery was amazing.

May 10-11 Basel to Lucerne Switzerland

I was without internet until I got to Montreuux, so I am a bit behind.

Our cruise finished.  Much to my surprise I was one of six people selected to sit at the Captain's table at our "Farewell Gala".  Management picked us, not sure what I did, but I was very excited to be invited.

It was kinda cool because after cocktail hour, we sat with the Captain, Ferdy (all of 30 years old!) the Hotel Manager Martina, and Cruise Manager, Peter.  We sat for a little while, then they escorted us into the dining room infront of everyone to the Captain's table.  My favorite waiter, Silviu (from Romania - he was training me for a job as a waiter but was convinced I was hopeless, it was a lot of fun) was Peter and my waiter.  The waiter's brought each course out and when the restaurant manager nodded, all plates were set down at the same time.  This went on through all five courses with an explanation of each dish and a special wine for each course.  It was really kind of fun.  Silviu whispered to me "thought you were going to get rid of me, huh?"  

It was a fun evening and the perfect ending to a perfect cruise.

Much to our surprise, the boat had a bus available, so they added the train station as one of the free transfers, so I didn't have to get a cab after all.  And so I was introduced to the Swiss train system.  

First class on a train in Spain, France and England meant train attendants and food and special attention.  First class on a train in Switzerland means maybe a little extra room between seats.  That was it.  Also, Swiss trains arrive and leave exactly on time, with 7 to 12 minutes between trains.  When I first saw this, I panicked because during the next few days I had many train changes.  Well, I learned how to change trains and I was on my next train with 5 to 7 minutes to spare.  I learned the art of changing trains and learned to haul my suitcases by myself on and off the trains (OK, twice two nice young men took pity on me and helped, but generally I did it on my own).

I made it to Lucerne from Basel and discovered many of my fellow travelors were going there too.  I stayed at the Des Balances Hotel which I think is my favorite hotel thus far even over the Marriott in Amsterdam.  Des Balances had the most amazing bath tub and lots of hot water.  After 13 days of an adequate but small shower on the ship, the tub was awesome.  Funny how those simple things can become so important.

Lucerne is a lovely little town.  I had wanted to take the cruise around the lake and much to my surprise, my Golden Rail Pass let me on the boat for free.  It was a lovely cruise and the mountains surrounding the lake were beautiful.  I ate lunch and dinner along the river and took lots of pictures of swans and had a nice walk around town, where I ran into three different couples from the cruise.

Below are pictures from Lucerne:

1 Sign that told us we were in Basel, Switzerland

2 and 3 were views from my hotel room

4 was the river side of my hotel

5 and 6 and the last picture - one of my favorite things to take pictures of - the swans.  When a pair greets each other, they do this thing with their necks that creates a heart shape, it is really quite beautiful.  Picture 6 took me about 10 pictures to capture the swan, he was bathing, he would roll onto his back, then flap slightly off the water, then smooth his feathers.  It was really quite beautiful.  The last picture was one just swimming close to me.

7 is the street side of my hotel - beautiful fresco

8 is that wonderful bathtub

9-14 are pictures from the Lucerne Lake cruise

15 is the city gate, which is also a trolley/bus center

May 7, 2012 Manheim Germany

We sailed this morning into Manheim Germany, which is more of an industrial town than the previous cities we have visited.  But rather than visiting Manheim, we boarded coaches to go to Speyer, Germany, a small town aobut 30 minutes from Manheim. 

Most people went off with the guides to tour the village.  I chose instead to go to the Technical Museum, which was full of cars and trains and planes and even a few space ships.  It was a delightful visit, I thought of visiting Pete's field in Colorado Springs with my favorite nephew, Ray.  Apparently it rained (imagine that!) while I was in the museum because when the few of us who went to the museum made it back to the bus, we heard from everyone the town was nice but wet.  Back to the boat and a leisurely afternoon.  Thought about going up top because the sun came out, but almost as fast as it appeared, it disappeared and you guessed it, it rained really hard.  Right now the sun is trying again to come out, but now sure how successful it will be.

Picture one is of the Cathedral in Speyer.  The joke now when we go to towns is ABC - another big (or Peter, our tour guide says bloody) cathedral, since every town has at least one.

The rest of the pictures are from the museum:

a locomotive engine - actually the piston.  They had it moving and it was quite amazing

Another mechanical music player that lights up and the characters appear to sing when it plays

A jet from the Navy's Blue Angels

Another self playing mechanical music machine.  The picture doesn't do it justice, it was huge and suspended above the museum floor.

A model of the lunar lander

The front of a Russian shuttle craft.  This one was built to practice gliding re-entries in the 80's, but because of money that is all the further the program went.

Inside the European space station (a 1:1 model)

Inside the International Space Station (a 1:10 model)

A WWII German mini sub

An early BMW

Beautiful carousel that was in the center of the museum building

The last two are of planes that are part of the museum.  There is also a 747, but it was being cleaned.  You may note, you can climb up into the planes, then ride a slide down.  Ray would love that!