European Whirl - Day 11

April 20^th

Florence … Camping Internazionale Firenze Srl

It’s a nice campsite actually, 2 bedrooms in suit cabin with sofa in the living room – but for 5 persons. So I decided to take the sofa instead of jumping to the upper level bed, which turned out to be a lucky things to do since there’s only one heater, which was in the living room.

It’s Easter Sunday, we found 5 egg chocolates in our seat ^.^ We were heading to Switzerland for today, through lake Como, across Swiss Alps, while hearing Kristy introducing us to Swiss with its wonderful self-protected system. Any roads and tunnels that connected Swiss to the rest of the world were ready to be blown off to shut so none will be able to use it to enter the country, storages were being camouflage grass, rail that runs right into the wall of a cliff (I had to squeeze my eyes to be able to see the closed door), and every family has to make sure that they have spare food enough for the whole year … just in case someone want to attack.

Our first encounter with Switzerland was the rest station; cost me a fortune for just a simple bun and soup. While we went back to the coach, Kristy said, “I heard you all complained about the price here. All I can say is, Welcome to Switzerland!”

The first, and only city, for us to be in Swiss was Luzern.First we wet to the Lion Monument, a monument that was built for respecting the Swiss soldiers that were killed by the French while trying to protect King Louis XIV, who told them not to touch his people although they came to kill him. The expression of the Lion really looks so sad, hugging armors with Swiss symbol (I think so). Nearby there’s a mirror for visitors to take pictures without necessary asking anyone’s help. Beside the monument is a small theme park, but we only went there for the Lion and moved on. There’re quite lots of modern buildings around the corner, that made a good contrast for this old guy with his old dogs to be around with his old car ^.^ And it’s quite relaxing to see modern buildings again after being in Italy for 5 days. There’re more classical buildings than modern actually, but the whole atmosphere that were so calm and clean, not packed with tourist, really made me relax.

Then we drove to the city center for those who want to buy the famous Swiss army knife or Swatch or Rolex. Only three shops opened that day due to the Easter, for us. I went there too, for the toilet ^.^ After that Gillian and I enjoy our time strolling along the river, watching people enjoying their time under the sun, to the center station that I saw on the way we entered the city center. Luzern is a very beautiful tidy city. A river with wooden bridges running through the city; ends up into a lake nearby the modern train station, where the Modern Art Museum is, with mountain as the background. I like the way they design the museum. A huge canopy hanging without any column supporting it, words printed on the window glass and they dare to use bright color. And we were very lucky that we got a very nice day with blue sky that made any pictures I took looks so amazing.

We left at 5 pm, to Jungfrau campsite. It was the most beautiful campsite we ever had. Contiki has its own 3 storeys wooden house and kitchen there. Thwy welcomed us by Lindt chocolate as soon as we went down from the bus, and another bunny chocolate in our bed. I chose number 30, which was in the corner with windows looking towards the mountain. There’s a manmade waterfalls nearby that was light up at night by 5 big spotlights.

And for our first dinner in Swiss … American hamburger and French fries!