Travel Blog

A rather wet day this morning, as we made our way into the heart of Paris, to see more sights; in particular, Notre Dame and the Lourve.

There are currently approx. 400,000 items at the Lourve, so if you spent 1 minute on each piece, you'd need more than 9 months to see them all. As we only had 1 day, our local guide took us to see many of it's more famous masterpieces such as the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. You aren't allowed to take photos of the paintings, as the flash could damage them, but of course, some people just don't seem to care and were taking photos anyway.

We then had some lunch, did some more shopping, which we shipped home and then had a relaxing walk from the Lourve to the Place de la Concorde, where I snacked on a Hot Dog Fromage (Cheese) and Lisa had a sugar crepe.

For dinner, we stayed at the hotel and had a risotto whilst watching Die Hard 3 in French.

Today, we got back on the bus for a travel day, as we left Switzerland behind and made our way to Paris, France.

With a couple of road stops on the way, we still made good time, arriving in Paris at around 4pm. After a brief freshen up at the hotel, we then headed out to see the Arc De Triomphe and then for a spot of local food (barely cooked rissoles and brie). Next, we went up to the second level of the Effiel Tower, to see some rather spectacular views.

We then took a boat cruise along the Seine river, taking in alot of Paris's major sights by night.

An amazing day in Lucerne today, it kicked off with a boat cruise on Lake Vie Val for about an hour. We then took a 40 minute train ride to the top of Pilates Kulm, where we got to see snow for the first time. Of course, we had to have some snow fights, followed by a brockworst and hot chocolate. :)

We then took a 30 minute cable car ride down the mountain; very peaceful. Next, we went watch shopping, where I got a good deal on a Tissot Touch Titanium. It's an awesome watch, jam packed with features - certainly right up my alley.

For lunch, we had a really nice donar kebab and walked around the beautiful town of Lucerne. Dinner was at a local restaurant, where we had some more local dishes, jugs of beer and for dessert - Chocolate Fondue.

It's now Day 11 of our European tour - today, we went to the small town of Pisa, to see their leaning tower. Unfortunately, there was lots of street sellers pedaling their fake crap; very off putting.

We then made our way to the beautiful town of Lucerne in Switzerland. As we travelled, we had to go through the longest driven tunnel in the world at 16.9km long. To make things interesting, our tour director got us to guess how long it would take for the bus to go through the tunnel. First prize was a large 27 Euro Toblerone chocolate bar, Second Prize was a smaller one and guess who won that - yep, Lisa did.

For dinner, we had a traditional Swiss meal starting with Cheese Fondue, then Veal and Mushroom with Rosti and some very nice dessert. Along with the meal was 2 steins (2 Litres) of Beer, which went down rather nicely. It also make the local entertainment of yoddling, flag tossing and other acts alot more interesting. :)

This morning, we were given free time to wander the streets of Florence. We started the morning off by doing a little shopping in the local markets, then had a leather demonstration at one of the many stores. Florence is well known for their leather and gold/silver products.

Next, we sat down at one of the many cafes and I had pizza, of course and Lisa had a focasia. I then went and got a much needed haircut and we're now in an Internet cafe catching up on a few things and just generally getting our net fix. :)

We then spent the rest of the day doing some shopping, Lisa got some nice shoes and I had a a very nice lemon sorbet gelati. For dinner, we went to a pizza restaurant, where they served up 5 different types of pizza to each table in our tour group. I'm now aware that 14 slices is my limit. ;)