Day 25: Milan to Lucerne

Day 25:  Milan to Lucerne            Tuesday, January 4^th

Leaving Milan at 7:15, we were in darkness for the first hour or so but before too long, we were at the Italian-Swiss border and travelling through the beautiful vista of the Alps.  Tunnels through the mountains abounded, the longest of them being the Gotthard tunnel which is 17km long.   Victor explained that until it was completed in 1982, the Alps completely divided Switzerland, not only geographically but also culturally into the Swiss who aligned themselves with Italy and those who aligned with Germany. 

The drive was absolutely stunning, with frozen waterfalls suspended all the way down the slopes and snow laden roofs on the typical Swiss chalets.   I captured some of it as we drove along and am pleased that the shots have turned out reasonably.   It is frustrating of course, to be in a bus that has no respect for the needs of photographers!  Most of the beauty I will have to try to imprint on my memory.

We stopped at a pretty little town on the shores of Lake Lucerne.  From there, most of the group went on another optional excursion that we declined.  We are not at all popular with Victor that we are not doing all the optional excursions.  It seems that they are really optional in name only – he actually came up and questioned us quite intently as to why we were not going.   He said he was intrigued as he has never had people not go before – what a load of hooey!!  There were ten of the group not going and we had a good time lunching together, each of us joking that we felt like the naughty kids in the class.   It is interesting that some of our fellow travellers are now starting to notice that we are not as tired as they are and I think they realise that our strategy isn’t such a bad one.

We were driven to Lucerne in the bus, arriving just a few minutes before the day-trippers arrived by boat.   I had just enough time to get some nice shots of the lake before the evening mist started to descend. 

Victor took us to see the lion monument which is a very moving sculpture into rock in memory of the twenty Swiss guards who died being trampled by the mob who stormed the Palace of Versaillles in the French Revolution.  The guards were defending Louis XV1 but in an ironic twist,  he was not at the palace at all.   I must read up more on this very moving story.

Having booked into the hotel, we had a short nap before heading out to the shops.  We checked out Bucherer, the multi-storey shop which sells nothing but watches and clocks (and now overpriced souvenirs), however with most of the watches being several thousand euros, we left them where they were!

We have now had a very nice dinner and will soon go to the coffee lounge to get on the internet and post this.

A quick word about our Trafalgar tour.  It is proving to be:

o   very good value – all hotels are excellent standard with good breakfasts and dinners included

o   a good quick whistle-stop tour of this part of Europe

o   a good mix of ages of fellow travellers.  There are no “blue rinse” oldies as I had expected.  We would be amongst the oldest, with a good mix right down to a family who have their 12 year old son with them.

o   Full on – wake up call at 5:45,  cases in passage by 6:30, on the bus at 7:15

o   A good spirit and rapport between all involved.  We are finding Victor to be quite a pain, but he is very knowledgeable and has 20 years experience of the job, so is a very efficient operator.  We just wish he would shut up sometimes!!!