2014 in Switzerland (Lucerne and Titlis)
On August 22, 2014, the Europe bus tour made its way from Munich, Germany to the castle known as Neuschwanstein. From there, the bus went back to Austria for a brief moment, before entering Switzerland ("Confederatio Helvetia", hence "CH" in its abbreviations and domain names!), resulting in the visit of my 12th country (and my 6th European country):
Visit
We made our way to the city of Lucerne to see:
- Kapellbrücke (chapel bridge)
- a covered footbridge on the River Reuss
- Löwendenkmal (the Lion Monument)
- a lion-shaped sculpture carved out of rock
The next day, the bus tour took us to the heart of the Alps to a place called Titlis! It was August but at 3,000 m above sea level, it felt like February!
Later that day, we would head south from Titlis and into Ticino (Italian Switzerland). The weather got progressively warmer until we even ran into a palm tree at the border with Italy!
Reflection
I liked Switzerland: a land of contrasts in culture and nature. Still, it manages to put itself together well, with no places that looked run down or under maintained.
After all, the country has a reputation for being a gold standard in everything they do, from banking to chocolate to clocks to knives to yodeling!