Trains, Planes & More Trains

Our short stay in Amsterdam passed far too quickly. Once again it was time to pack my bags and head off to the next leg of our journey. On our arrival two days earlier we had chosen the expensive option of travelling by Tesla taxi from Schipol Airport to our hotel. That little thrill set us back the princely sum of 55 Euros.This time we opted for the much cheaper alternative of taking the train instead.

Fortunately we were relatively close to Amsterdam Central Station and the walk only took us about 10 minutes. We then paid 5.40 Euros each for our tickets, so it was well worth the minor inconvenience. By far the hardest part of the exercise was hauling our luggage through the enormous airport. That place really is huge, in fact it is like a city in itself. The lady at the information counter told us that it would take about 30 minutes to walk to the check in desk and she was probably conservative in her estimate.

I am not sure if there was some sort of heightened security at the airport, but the screening was certainly the most thorough I have experienced for some time. We both received not only a full body scan, followed by a body frisk search, but then had to unpack our carry on luggage to show what was inside.

After feeling thoroughly violated, we sat down to wait for boarding our KLM flight to Zurich. The flight itself was not particularly comfortable, but at least it was over in one hour and I managed to sleep through most of it.

At Zurich Airport we managed to find the correct luggage carousal and were soon on our way to the train station to catch the train to Lucerne. We had lashed out for 1st class seats and were very pleased that our carriage was almost empty. The train was whisper quiet and departed right on time. I guess a nation that makes the best watches in the world should be pretty good at accurate timetables.

I would like to describe the journey in more detail, but I was soon back asleep again and cannot recall anything other than our arrival at the end of the line at Lucerne. By a fluke of planning our hotel happened to be about 100 metres from the Central Station so we had no need of wasting any more money on a taxi.

After checking in to our rooms, Allan and spent the rest of the afternoon walking the streets of this beautiful lakeside city. It would have been even more scenic if the entire city had not been enveloped in a cloudy haze, making it impossible to see more than a couple of kilometres. The undoubted highlight of the city was the covered timber walking bridge (The Kappellbrucke) across the Reuss. This incredible wooden bridge was begun in 1333 and is festooned with flowers along its entire length. It is the world's oldest surviving truss bridge.

The old city centre of Lucerne is also home to numerous ornate medieval buildings. Its waterfront location and style of architecture reminded me little of Passau on the Danube. It was also obvious that Lucerne is also very popular with the bus tourists as we encountered more tourists than we have seen anywhere else in our travels so far.

It is also worth mentioning that Switzerland is still one of the few central European countries that has not adopted the Euro as its currency. The currency of Switzerland is the Swiss Franc, whose value is almost identical to the US dollar. As we looked at the prices of common items, it did not take long to realise that Switzerland is a VERY expensive place to do just about anything.

Tomorrow we start early to head to the summit of Mt Titlus, at over 3200 metres it is one of the highest mountains in Switzerland.We just hope that the sky will clear enough for us to enjoy the views.Read more