Of Wow in Switzerland

Wow, that's all I could really say about Switzerland...just wow. The amazing part was, I did not expect it to be as breath taking as it was. I was just speechless when I set foot out of the train station and before me was Lake Lucerne and the freakin' Alps! Imagine waking up to this every morning:


Lucerne. Time spent: 2 days.

Thinking about Switzerland, I always imagined things like chocolate, rolling hillsides, and yodeling. There wasn't much yodeling but there were a lot of green hills, farm animals, and beautiful, beautiful scenery. Lucerne was that perfect size between metropolitan city and small town. There were just enough cars and shops to give it life but not too big that it was stifling. We spent the better part of the day just walking by the lakeside and looking out at the waters. I found myself taking pictures of the same thing over and over again since every time I thought I had a good view of the lake and the mountains, I got an even better one a couple of yards up.



Of course, the downside with Lucerne was the hefty pricetag. Since the Swiss Franc was equal in value to the dollar, everything looked more expensive (I had gotten used to a small number on the price tag, even if sometimes that number equaled something exponentially bigger in dollars) and in actuality, it was more expensive. $18 for a souvenir little boy t-shirt...oy vey. Suffice to say, all I have from Lucerne are memories and a LOT of Lindt chocolate, which was the cheapest thing and which came in fun flavors such as creme brulee, chocolate mousse, and cherry and chili. For the latter, I'm not entirely sure how it tastes, that's what the people back home are for when I give it to them as a Swiss souvenir.

Yet, the best part about Lucerne, the one that made up for the hefty pricetag, were the Alps. At a cost of 50 euros (after a discount since we had a Eurail pass), a ski lift took us all the way up 7000 feet to the top of Mount Pilatus where according to local legend, a dragon is supposed to be buried there. Of course, I didn't go for the dragon but rather, I went for this view:



I remember going to Yosemite National Park in California when I was 8 and there was a sign that said that because of smog, that visibility from the top of those mountains had decreased. Which is why, standing on top of the world, and being able to see far and wide, even out to Germany, I just felt so lucky to be able to see something like that. It seemed to me that this was nature at its purist, no trace of smog, no hint of civilization, just clouds, water, fields, and snow for miles around. Though there was a small trace, a cross and church on a summit, probably because it was the closest thing to heaven. But in that part of the world, that high up, that little structure eemed like something that was not built humans but rather, by God (or whoever God is called). You couldn't help feeling so small and minuscule, like in so many sublime paintings of the wilderness and the grandeur of everything just threatened to overlap you.



Afterward, we went into the restaurant and warmed ourselves up from the icy cold with a bowl of potato soup and a cappuccino. So ended a day at the top of the world.


Beware of the swans, they bite.

Lucerne, the photo album