Lucerne, Switzerland

6/2

The train to Luzerne was beautiful! After taking a little snooze I woke up to towering Swiss Alps and a realization that we were going to be in natural beauty for the next three days.

We like what we've seen of Switzerland. Lucerne is a family-friendly town with nice people, farmers, outdoor enthusiasts, bridges, swans, and gorgeous scenery. We were hungry when we arrived, so we got baguette sandwiches in the train station (this is probably one of the cheapest meals that we'll find in this costly city). We then took a bus to Bellpark Hostel where we were greeted with the surprise of our own bathroom, this is a nice luxury in the world of hostels. We are probably the oldest ones here, but everyone is very nice and eager to help us find our way around. We had a few hours the first night, so we walked the area and found a little food truck nearby (Buvette Bellpark) to have drinks. We love seeing family and friends just out in the park enjoying the evening.

View from our room at the hostel (the big mountain in the back is Mt. Pilatus)

6/3
Luzerne is experiencing heat wave, so while we thought it would be chilly here, it's currently 90 in the day and upper 60's at night. I woke up around 6:00 this morning with the sound of cars and scooters outside of our big open windows. I went to the lobby to work on some grad school and had the experience of navigating a European keyboard (I thought those were universal). It's funny Googling keypad shortcuts when the computer is set to another language. Tom and I went for a short jog through the neighborhood and after cleaning up, hit the city. Today we saw old town, the famous chapel bridge, the lion monument, and an old castle.

The famous Kapellbrücke (AKA: Chapel Bridge) built in 1333!

View of Lucerne from the Castle

The Lion Monument

The carving was made in 1820 to commemorate the Swiss guards who were massacred in 1720 during the French Revolution (Thanks Google).

In old town we had warm panini's and dessert hamburgers for lunch.  Dessert hamburgers is what I like to call them at least:

Britt's Dessert Hamburger (AKA: Chocolate Macaroon)

Tom's Dessert Hamburger (AKA: Berliner Donut)

I ordered a BBQ panini which is really comical considering that I can get much better BBQ in Texas and rarely crave it, but I think I'm nearing a point in the trip when I miss comfort foods.

We had a 3:00 reservation for Adventure Rooms. Basically, we had 1 hour to escape a room full of logical puzzles. Our game master explained the rules and then started our adventure by hand cuffing us both to a fence in a dark room and throwing a key. Throughout the hour we had to unlock many locks, undo codes, and find keys. There were four rooms to get through before the end. Our game master told us that only about 30% of teams make it out of all four rooms and that hardly any two couple teams make it out. We're not sure if he said that to make us feel good, but we'll take it! Tom and I made it out of all rooms with seconds left on the clock. Adventure Rooms started in Switzerland and are becoming trendy around the world. Great team building and luckily a great experience for Team Horn.

Team Horn :)

After our brain exercises in the adventure room and a long walk in the heat to a bus stop, we found a beach and took a freezing dive into the lake. With the alps surrounding us, it felt like the water was straight from the snow caps. We couldn't stay in the water long, but it felt great. We'd run up to the grass to warm up with the others enjoying the water and then dive back in.

Due to the costly prices and amount of meals we've eaten out, the Horns had a normal little grocery run. I loved getting a cart and roaming the aisles, it felt like a normal trip to the store (minus the weird money and crazy food labels). We got oranges, PB & J, cashews, and are ready to pack a lunch for tomorrow's trip to the mountain. We're ending the night at the same food truck and excited to take the funicluar to the top of Mt. Pilatus tomorrow.

Several funny things from Lucerne: 

• We feel like we're playing Mad Gab when pronouncing words on buildings.
• The word "abfarht" means departure in English and is placed on signs all around the train station. Slightly immature of us, but it's funny that "farht" is such a commonly used syllable here. 
• Bikes seem more popular than cars.

6/4

The Father's Creation

"The mountains melt like wax before The Lord, Before The Lord of all the earth. The Heavens proclaim His righteousness and all the people see His glory" -Psalm 97:5

The cable car took us up the mountains for about 30 minutes. After each big mountain we got out our camera to capture the view only realizing that we were going higher! It is safe to say that today, the Horns were at the highest elevation that they've ever been to. We were surrounded by the best views. I can't even describe the beauty of the mountains, valleys filled with lakes, paragliders overhead, wild flowers, steep cliffs, and alps with white snow caps surrounding all of it.

Once we reached the top, we saw a map that showed the highest point of Mt Pilatus.

"Tomlishorn"

That's right, the highest point was titled, "Tomlishorn." With that said, of course we hiked it! It was only about a 50 minute hike. Tom was the go-getter today and up for anything while Britt enjoyed following behind. The hike was worth it and the view did not disappoint. In fact, we stayed at the top for about an hour and ate our sandwiches before coming down.

We met four nice Switzerland girls who were in their first year of university who offered to take a few pictures for us.

We almost made it down, but then...

JK LOL - But what a great shot!

Once we finally came down, we decided to head to the "Toboggan Run." The experience is about like it sounds, we got a sled flew down a metal slide for about a mile. It was Awesome! I don't know how I made it through the day without making a "Cool Runnings" joke. I must have been too taken back by the views and focusing on how to steer my sled. There was a speed limit crossing that clocked Tom at 36KM. I don't know what that is in MPG, but when you're in a little sled, it's fast :). This experience was so legit, when you reach the bottom, a cable drags your sled back up the mountain. We literally passed milk cows with bells around their necks, farm homes, and pasture. It's neat thinking that some of the people here are simply hard working locals who manage farms and their homes in the alps.

Being Pulled Back Up the Mountain after the Sled

With sun burnt shoulders and tired legs, we sat in some reclining chairs in the shade and before we knew it, we were both asleep. We snoozed right in the middle of the alps for about forty minutes. It was refreshing and gave us just the energy we needed to get back to the cable car and start our descent.

Happy Birthday America!! We're thinking of our family and friends today who are celebrating American style tonight :).

Of to Greece early in the AM.