Lucerne, Switzerland - Aug 30 to 31, 2009

We didn't originally plan on spending much time in Lucerne. It was only going to be a day trip from Zurich. We had been looking for accommodations in Zurich a couple days before we got there, but weren't able to find anything cheap. We decided that when we arrived we would just spend an hour or two walking near the station to find a cheap place. This plan worked well in Munich, but luck in Zurich. The cheapest we could find was a dreadful looking place that was $110 CHF per night!

We ate lunch near the river and started calling a few places in Lucerne. We found a place for almost half the price so we were gone.

We spent 3 nights in Lucerne and it was one of the best stops we made. It was the smallest city we stopped in, I think it was around 12,000 people. The town is built around a gorgeous lake. We spent one day exploring the old town. The hostel gave us a free city guide map with a route that covered all the attractions so we spent the afternoon following it. We stopped by a few churches.

One of the stops was an amazing Lion Monument carved into the natural rock formation. It stands as a tribute the Swiss Guards who died while defending Marie Antoinette in the French Revolution.


We walked along the famous bridge and watertower. Most of the original burned down in 1994, but has since been reconstructed as close to the original specs as possible. Some of the original artwork that lined the bridge was recovered from the fire.


We continued on to what we thought was an old castle, but turned out to be a hotel designed to look like an old palace, haha. (On the hill in the top right corner):



When we finished the tour we grabbed a quick bite to eat back at the hostel then we were off for a Sunset cruise!! Our rail passes gave us free admission on the boatlines along the lake, so we took advantage and hopped on board a 3 hour cruise.

The cruise was amazing! We got to see the beautiful countryside from a different perspective. We watched the sun fall down behind the mountains and continued along beneath the clear sky. On the way back we saw a couple shooting stars (sorry no pictures, haha).








On the 3rd day in Lucerne we took a day trip back to Zurich. That will be covered in the next post.

LUCERNE ESTA.....

PERRON!!!

Innsbruck, Austria - Aug 27 to 29, 2009

As usual we got in fairly late the first day. The hostel we stayed in had a kitchen so we picked up some pasta and made a warm meal. Around 10pm we went for a walk along the river into the old town. Innsbruck is a very beautiful city full of bike and walking paths.


The next day we did our own city tour based on a free city guide. We checked out a beautiful church (Dom St Jacob) with paintings covering the ceiling. It was one of the nicest we have seen so far on the trip.
The city is pretty small so it was easy to see all the major sights on foot one day.

Here is an Arc de Triumphe. If you look through the middle, you can see the ski jump from the 1964 and 1976 winter olympics in the background. (Well, if you look through it in the other direction, haha)


We found a shop that rented bikes for a decent price so we picked up a couple for the afternoon. We crossed an old wooden bridge and climbed up into the hills near the zoo. Later on Jesse converted his bike into a "Motorcycle" with a piece of paper... He got quite a few weird looks cruising around town, haha.


Along one of the paths behind our hostel we found a public climbing rock so of course we had to stop and give it a try.

On Tuesday we spent the day at Schloss Ambras, the castle perched above the city. We ate lunch in the beautiful courtyard and garden.


Inside the castle there are several museum exhibits. The first is another armory. It isn't as big as the one we visited in Salzburg, but it was still interesting.


We found the best part of the museum to be the "Museum of Curiosities". It was sort of like a 16th century freak show. It was full weird pieces of art that had been collected throughout the life of the castle. There was a clear fascination with midgets and giants. (Sorry for the lame explanation, I'm tired...) We didn't get any good pictures of the exhibit either.... haha good post....

We finished the afternoon by stopping at the big Swarovski jewellery store. The family company was actually founded in a small town just outside Innsbruck. We also spent a lot of time wandering around the old buildings in the downtown area.



One of the parks we passed had this weird skateboard thing for kids to play on. Here's Jesse showing off his sweet moves, haha:

We found Big Mama Jenks with a fish on her head!

Legoland (Gunzburg, Germany) - Aug 26, 2009

Tuesday was possibly one of the most anticipated events of Jesse's life, haha. He couldn't sleep the night before, he said it was like "5 Christmases combined", haha. Luckily it didn't let him down!


The park is broken into a variety of different areas or worlds. We started in MiniLand where they had recreated famous cities and monuments from throughout main Germany and European cities.

Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen:


An I.C.E train that moves around the track. These are the trains we have been taking around Germany:


Look Familiar? We were just here (Frankfurt):


A Gondola getting cut in half in Venice:


After that we made our way through the Lego Factory where we learned how lego is built. We learned about the plastic injection process, the painting process and the automation through the use of mechanical arms. Next we checked out the Pick-a-Brick store where you can buy any lego piece including some vintage characters.

Then we visited Bionic land where we were tossed around by a robot arm. It was pretty cool because we caught to plot the arms course before we got into the ride. We loaded the movements onto a card and when it was our turn we just put the card into the arm. Next we stopped in the Knight's Kingdom where we rode the dragon rollercoaster!!

Another fun area was Pirate Land. It was a small waterpark where you could ride around on pirate boats, spray each other with water, launch water balloons and set off water mines on unsuspecting boaters.

Some of the other areas were Lego City, Adventure Land, Atlantis, Imagination and Lego X-treme.








We have a new "Life Goal" that we need to eventually check off. We are going to visit all 5 legolands throughout the world (Germany, Denmark, UK, USA and Dubai is scheduled to open in 2011). So brothers and sisters be prepared to join us!