Luzern and the train to Innsbruck, Austria

Bachmann House of Chocolate

Danny standing next to a pile of Luxemburgerli, Switzerland's version of the French Macaron. I just had to try one for comparison and there isn't one....hands down Laduree has them beat.

Danny made me take a picture of this Maserati to show Noah. Danny made me take the picture fast in case the owner would come out and yell at us for taking a picture of his very expensive car.

Aha! We found the Girolle and a mural depicting the Monks with their own cheese and Girolle

Tete de Moine cheese (Monk's Head Cheese). So called because when the label is removed from the top, it looks like the top of a Monk's head

Rows and Rows of cheese. This little cheese shop was REALLY smelly

One of the towers of the battlements

The old battlement wall with new construction behind it

I don't think I would want to eat "Wild ?", especially in a foreign country. For all I know, this word might not even be "wild". The languages are all a game.

Lake Front Luzern with a flower lined covered bridge in front

You can buy a "Maybe Baby" pregnancy test in the same vending machine as M&M's....Amazing!

I would rather eat dessert in train stations here than any of the airports I have been in

My dessert....a chocolate mousse cake

Danny's desert...chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup

This would beat a Yahoo any day...70% cocoa chocolate melted in milk and served cold. I didn't try one, but wish I had

Waiting for the train

We saw several castles up on hills while we were in the train

The Penz, our hotel

Danny calls these folded duvets "sheet bags". Most of the hotels we have stayed in, don't have a sheet,but have a duvet in a cover instead.

The Golden Adler...our dinner restaurant

Me in the restaurant

Roast Beef and pan roasted potatoes with bacon and a fried egg on top....did not eat the fried egg and the rest was wonderful!

Danny's meal....Fried cheese, fried dough, ravioli, and spinach dumpling with sauerkraut

I could have made an entire meal off of this cabbage and bacon salad. The cabbage was lightly sauteed and dressed with a vinaigrette dressing

Homemade Apple Strudel with ice cream and chantilly (whipped cream)...delicious

We have been blessed with beautiful weather on this entire trip. The temperatures have been in the 60's during the day and the 40's at night. This morning we stayed in Luzern because we had a mission. Danny is not a shopper, he is a finder. I took full advantage of this today as we went on the search for a Girolle. This is the contraption that Kathy use to shave the Tete de Moine cheese (Monk's Head Cheese). The Migros is the equivalent here to a Target in the US or a Monoprix in France. Unfortunately there was a big empty spot on the shelf for the Girolle and they didn't expect any more until the afternoon. I remembered that I had read that they might be in better cheese shops and knew there was a cheese shop around the corner. Not only did they have them, there was a whole display for them. The Girolle was created to work with only one kind of cheese, Tete de Moine. Now I have to find the cheese on the internet because if it's not cheddar, it's not in Lake Providence. There is an odd odor in ALL of the restaurants in the parts of Switzerland we have visited. It is a cross between a stinky foot and a smelly dog. We found out why when we went into the cheese shop. It's the cheese!!! Especially if the restaurant serves fondue. Once you sit in the restaurant awhile, you don't smell it anymore, thank goodness. We also went to look at the old city battlements. All of the towers are different and they were doing restoration on one of the ones we saw. After shopping and a little wandering, we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks so we could use the restroom before getting on the train. In France and here in Switzerland, at Starbucks you have to make a purchase and get a code for the restroom. At home they are usually free and a great place for a clean restroom when you are traveling. We try not to use the restrooms in the train station because they are usually co-ed AND you have to pay for it. Co-ed as in men and women in the restroom at the same time. Very weird. We had stored our bags at the train station this morning after we checked out of our hotel. Those lockers are so handy! Our train travel today was in two stages. The first leg was to Zurich and then from Zurich to Innsbruck. We ate lunch in the Zurich station and it was surprisingly wonderful. We bought a pork sausage and the vendor cut a baguette in half, stuck it on a wood pole to make a hole in it and pushed the sausage in the hole. We liked it so much, we are looking forward to eating another one when we go to Zurich on Wednesday. Our train was VERY nice on the second leg and we enjoyed the views from the big windows. We arrived in Innsbruck around 6 p.m. Our hotel is The Penz located about a 15-20 minute walk from the train station. We ate dinner at The Golden Adler, a recommendation by our hotel. They asked if we wanted Tyrolian food and Danny said Yes! I was just trying to figure out what Tyrolian food was and whether or not it was something I would eat! Our meal was wonderful!!! Tomorrow we will tour the old part of the city around our hotel and spend some time in the mountains. Until then....

The GoldenPass Train to Luzerne, Switzerland

I knew we were on the right train when I saw that the Chocolate Train would be our engine!

Beautiful scenery from panoramic windows

A church for every town

Notice the airstrip in the background

vineyards with netting to keep the birds away

We always wondered where people stored their luggage in train stations...Now we know!

Beautiful view in Interlaken

Waiting for the train so we can cross the street to ride the funicular

Riding up the funicular in Interlaken

Our view of the Swiss Alps during our lunch

Good thing the menu had english or we wouldn't have had a clue what to order

My rosti (hash browns) had bacon, a fried egg and cheese. I might as well have been eating breakfast! This is a very traditional Swiss meal

Danny's meatloaf over rosti (hash browns)

Danny standing in front of the tallest mountains of the Swiss Alps

Riding the funicular back down the mountain, thankful that we were squished into it, wishing it was going faster, and hoping we wouldn't miss our train

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the lakes here are the most beautiful shade of milky aquamarine blue.

Between Interlaken and Luzern, the train climbed up through a pass in the mountains.

Danny and I both thought the spire on this church was beautiful. The actual church is behind this building

The train station in Luzern

Our room at the Ameron Flora Hotel, Luzern, Switzerland

Swans are everywhere here

View from the bridge over the lake toward downtown Luzern

Our dinner spot. We thought the painted building was really cool

The cheese fondue that we shared. I also ate a salad that was really good

Danny's sausage with onion gravy and rosti

We left Montreux early this morning to catch the GoldenPass Panoramic Train. This train is part of the Swiss-Austria Rail Pass that we have for the next four days. The pass enables us to get on any train at any time which will let us be more flexible. I took the advice of a traveler on the internet and went ahead and booked our seats on the GoldenPass train. This would limit us to a specific time to travel today, but would also assure us that we would have seats on the train we wanted to travel on. I was delighted to arrive at the train station and discover that the Engine for our train today was The Chocolate Train Engine. The actual Chocolate Train doesn't travel on Sundays so I guess they used the Engine on off days too. The Chocolate Train is a train that leaves Montreux and goes to Gruyere, where the cheese of the same name comes from, and then to Broc, where the Nestle factory is.When you tour the Cailler-Nestle factory, you end the tour in the tasting room and can sample every kind of chocolate they make. Unfortunately for me, we had to skip that on this trip. The GoldenPass would take us first to Zweisimmen, then to Interlaken and finally to Luzern. We saw beautiful countryside today through the panoramic windows on the train. We had a layover of about 2 hours in Interlaken and we found lockers to put our bags into storage so we could walk around outside of the train station. We rode the funicular up to the top of Harder Kulm mountain and ate lunch at the restaurant up there with a view of the tallest mountains in the Swiss Alps. We forgot how long it takes to eat in a restaurant in Europe and then how long it takes to get your bill which is very very long. Dining is never fast in Europe. Danny had to say something to the waitress as we began to see that we might miss our train if they didn't serve us soon. We ate a traditional Swiss meal that included Rosti, which is actually just hashbrowns. The line at the funicular was very long to go down, but somehow they managed to squeeze us all in. We ran (actually Danny ran this time) to get our bags out of storage and then find the train. We sat down in our seats 5 minutes before the train left the station. We were so thankful we had reserved seats because the train was full. Whew! We arrived in Luzern around 5 p.m. and checked into the Ameron Flora Hotel. We left our bags and went for a walk around the city which is close to the hotel. We ate a traditional supper tonight of cheese fondue, sausage and rosti. It was delicious! Fondue is usually not served before October, but there are a couple of restaurants that were serving it now. We have really been surprised by the number of people walking around in wool coats, big jackets, and gloves. It is currently 55 degrees and the high today was 67 degrees. I am walking around in a short sleeve shirt and receiving stares. It was the same in Paris. Tomorrow we will spend the morning here in Luzern and then board a train when we're ready and go to Innsbruck, Austria. Until then....