Landing in Geneva to meet Mom and Dad is a very special treat. Being with family was just what the doctor ordered because Geneva is not my favorite.  Not to worry we only stayed two nights and are certain the rest of Switzerland would be amazing.  Geneva is a busy, over-priced city with stylish people and tourists buying everything in sight.  The streets are filled with business people hustling around in suits and sipping coffee at cafes, which are on every corner ~ that’s the French influence.  On that note I think they have missed the memo on the hazards of smoking.  As you stroll the streets you either smell smoke or heavily flowered perfume.  A 2-hour city tour, 2-hour boat cruise and a stop at the Patek Philippe watch museum can fill a day.  The museum is really something to see, the detailed, intricate, hand-made engraving and art is probably the most impressive display I have seen in what a human can do with their hands.

Audio Tour??

The town of Bern saves the day, a 1.45 hour scenic train ride from Geneva and we find what we expected out of Switzerland.  The countryside consists of many tiny houses with white stucco, red trim and shingled roofs.  Just like the little gingerbread houses we used to see in the mall around Christmas time. Bern is a quaint Middle Ages looking town bustling with people, cable cars and boutique shops.

An audio walking tour wears us out, we can only take so many hills but it was worth it.  This is the town where Einstein writes the theory of relativity in a charming townhouse on a main street where cable cars wiz by (relativity basically means mass and energy are equal, I still don’t know why this matters but it must be important to someone).  We had another surreal moment, sitting on the steps that lead to his townhouse pondering…well pondering nothing.   In just two months he published 4 ground breaking theories, hmmmm now in my 40’s and still drawing a blank but having fun doing it.

Einstein would be proud, NOT!

The train takes us another hour to Lucerne (aka Luzern), at the foot of the alps. The landscape is absolutely amazing.  At the center of town is a massive lake with boats, water sports and swimming that everyone in town partakes in. The lake is fresh runoff from the Alps, like all lakes in Switzerland, so it is clean and people drink directly from it.  Once again the streets are filled with shopping with a focus on watches.  I get that the best watches in the world are made in Switzerland but I don’t understand how you have hundreds of watch stores in each city selling $10,000-$500,000 timepieces.  It is just not an everyday item people are buying, the best analogy I can come up with would be to have hundreds of car dealerships in every town in the U.S. Switzerland in general, and Lucerne is no exception, is crazy expensive.  $50,60,70 dollar entrees and $7 dollar bottles of water.  I realize I can grab water from any of the stone water fountains that are scattered about since the Lake is so clean, unlike our Chesapeake sludge, but when on the go I could really use a bottle. My new measurement for the cost of living is a bottle of water. I think a global study would prove this theory out.

the hills are alive

There is serious hiking and playing on all the mountains next to Lucerne.  We spent the day doing what the Swiss call the majestic round trip.   Take a gondola to the top, we stopped half way to attempt a rope and zip line course.  We figured it would be good practice for our adventure next week (check out via feratta in the Dolomites ~ Italy). Once at the top, relax and enjoy the views. When it is time to head down the mountain you can take the steepest cog wheel in the world ~ a 48 degree tilt is scary especially when the rail was laid in 1871 ~ then boat back to Lucerne.  A very memorable day! The views are spectacular with sharp steep mountain ridges of stone covered with grass plains as far as far as the eye can see.  Can a scene really be breathtaking? Well this was close and at almost 8,000 feet Pops was a little light headed.

Switzerland is covered with lakes like this

Linda and I will not take for granted the opportunity to spend a great week with Mom and Dad. Sharing exciting and new experiences, laughs and great conversation is what life is all about.

I can see getting back to Lucerne, next time I would stay longer and enjoy the rest of the mountains, such as Mt Rigi and Mt Titlis which are supposed to be even more majestic than Mt Pilatus.

A few observations:

-The chocolate really is special, I went 7 for 7 days with either chocolate or chocolate gelato for dessert.

-What does make sense is pulling onto the curb instead of double parking.  It does a world of good to keep traffic flowing; a pedestrian just has to watch out for traffic on the sidewalk.

-Butter, butter, butter. Apparently it is possible to have chocolate croissants for breakfast every day, and eat Wienerschnitzel made with a stick of butter for dinner several nights each week and not be overweight…not sure how it’s done, but I didn’t see many hefty Swiss people. Linda and I would be splitting at the seams if we stayed much longer!

Next stop, we will be hiking the Dolomite Mountains in Italy with my little sister and her husband.