Lucern, Switzerland (catching up and can't remember what day of the trip I'm on, oops!)

Today we drove to Lucern, a beautiful drive from Paris into Switzerland.  Once there we drove up Mount Pilatus where our chateau was.  You read that correctly, not a hotel, but a beautiful perfectly suited chateau.  We nearly put the place at capacity!  (Only 2 rooms were leftover.)

Here is the views, it was cloudy, but still beautiful!

Dinner at the hotel, and then drinks on the patio for the evening.

I'm condensing these two days mostly because the travel day didn't leave much else.

SO!  The next day we took a gondola up the mountain.  The gondola towers were not as tall as they are at ski resorts like Kellog, but it took us 3 different gondolas to get to the top.  It was pretty overcast on our way up, but today was really about the experience.  The closer we got to the top, the more the Aussies and New Zealanders started to get more excited, there was a small bit of snow and they were all snapping pictures.

When we got to the top was their real surprise.  Not only was there snow at the observation point, but it was snowing.  They were like kids at christmas, many of which had never seen snow before, I found it hilarious, taking photos of them playing in it, snow angels, snowball fights, and literally throwing it up into the air and letting it fall over them.

After a big of fun at the top of the mountain, we took the world's steapest cog railroad to the bottom.  I was really hoping that it would feel like a roller coaster ride, something a bit dangerous, but it was very safe feeling, no need for a seatbelt.  We couldn't see it but apparently Materhorn peak is on Mount Pilatus, or can be seen from it?  Something like that, it was a bit difficult to decipher the German.

After that we went into town for a traditional meal - Veal Sausage and something akin to hashbrowns, I think
it was called rosti.  Along with our meal there was entertainment - yodeling, singing, spoons, and alphorns (I got a chance to try it out!)  We had some time to ourselves to explore the smallish city, then met up at a famous watch shop.  I had hoped I would come home with a Swatch, but the one I liked didn't have a long enough band.  The shop also had Swiss Army Knives!  TONS of them, with two special colors, white and silver, that you apparently could only get in Switzerland.  Very interesting!

The only downside to our stay was that the meals were a little lackluster and the hot water broke.  We all started our day with cold showers or none at all, haha.

Tomorrow we are back into France to go to the French Riviera's Nice!