Travel Blog

Today was the last day of our European Focus tour. After having a light breakfast, we headed off to Calais, to get the ferry across the channel, landing at Dover. It was a long travel day and whilst the majority of people on our tour are heading home, we can't think of home just yet, as we're off to Japan tomorrow on a 1pm flight. Though, I'm hanging out for a meat pie. :)

We're now in the Fulham Internet cafe, updating this blog, along with uploading some more photos. We survived Europe, spent probably too much money, but still enjoyed it alot. I could definitely come back and spent a week at Lucerne in Switzerland, that place is just amazingly beautiful. I don't know if it was just the contrast having come from Italy, but the place is just clean and peaceful. It's only down side is that goods, other than watches and chocolate, are expensive.

Tonight, we're going to have a pub meal and repack our bags. We're hoping to go to the local post office tomorrow and sent some stuff home, as our suitcases are bulging. We're also looking forward to watching some TV in English for a change. The only channel that we've been able to see in Europe in English, was CNN and when they show the same news headlines every 10 minutes, it gets really boring very quick.

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. :)