Lucerne: days 13-14

On our car ride from Sent to Lucerne, our GPS gave us a truly unique experience.  It told us to pull off our main freeway, so we did.  We ended up at a toll booth, so we were a little confused but paid the lady what she asked for.  (What else are you going to do on a one-way road??)  When we pulled forward, we noticed a bunch of parked cars, and a tunnel.  Nobody was going anywhere. This was clearly not a normal "toll road."  Then we started noticing other things:  a sign showing a car on top of a platform, a schedule, and some employees standing around by the tunnel.  Soon, a train approached and cars started driving off.

Within 10 minutes, we drove aboard and started our first in-car train experience.  It lasted about 20 minutes and spit us out the other side of the mountain.  CRAZY.  Kind of like a new ride at Disney World.

And eventually we made it to Lucerne...

Lucerne was a very cute town.  It was more touristy, and actually felt more like a city.  We weren't in the mountains, but could see them all around us.  Amie and Jeff decided to take a train up to the top of a mountain called Pilatus.  The rest of us cheap-o travelers decided to explore the city instead, since it was cloudy and we questioned if the views would even be worth it.  We walked across a wood bridge that's apparently the oldest in Europe.  It mostly burned down in the 90's, but they restored it.  We went inside the Jesuit Church and found a string quartet practicing for a concert.  We enjoyed the free music!  It might be the first time I've heard someone play the harpsichord.

There are water fountains like this ALL OVER Switzerland with great drinking water. 

Jesuit Church

Jesuit Church inside

Not sure if these swans are in their natural habitat, but they sure make the river prettier. 

For dinner we all met up for fondue!  The classical Swiss cuisine.  Besides being expensive (like all food in Switzerland), it was also delicious!  Only a few minutes after we ordered, the waitress brought out the pot of cheese and basket of bread, and we all jumped at the pot like fat kids.  She came back just a few minutes later and was shocked to see it was gone!  We were just scrapping the remaining burned cheese off the bottom.

We stayed in perhaps the smallest hotel room EVER.  It was an Ibis Budget hotel, and had a double bed on bottom, with a bunk bed on top. The sink and shower were practically on top of the bed, and the toilet door didn't even "close"--it was just on hinges.  Quite cozy!

So we weren't too sad when Jenna went home on Thursday.  (ha!)  I got the whole bottom bunk to myself. :)  

Thursday morning Amie and Jeff wanted to walk through the city (since they weren't with us the day before.)   Matt and I made our own fun on a park bench near the river with a bag of rolls and his huge jar of Nutella.  It's a good way to enjoy any city.  But then the old asian lady next to us thought it would be fun to feed the pigeons, who then started attacking our bench by the dozen.  That didn't stop her from throwing them more food, so we left.  Why are people so dumb?  Why do people do dumb things??

And a few pictures to prove we didn't just sit around and eat all day...