Switzerland

It's been several days now since we've been able to post (sorry everybody!), but that's because Paris happened. So let me backtrack.

We left Vienna on Wednesday night and headed for Zurich. That night we passed through the most incredible lightning storm we had ever seen. Literally, for half an hour, there were constant lightning flashes no more than two to three seconds apart. I saw fork lightning out the window of the train, and our whole cabin would be lit up for several seconds at a time. We were on a very hot, un-air-conditioned train, and the storm broke the heat outside and made for a comfortable sleep after a fascinating storm.

When we awoke we were passing through mountains on both sides of us as we approached Zurich. The city itself is not in a very mountainous region, but on our way we saw some nice medium sized mountains.

We got out at Zurich, locked up our bags, and began our whirlwind tour of Switzerland in one day. First stop was Lucerne, a beautiful little town with several small medieval town squares, some gorgeous mountains in the distance, and a lovely lake called, appropriately, Lake Lucerne. We had breakfast at a little buffet place, walked around the town, and got back on the train.

On the next leg of our day we were headed for Interlaken, and the train ride was unbelievable. We were high in the mountains, surrounded by mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and spent the whole time gawking out the windows (I actually stood up most of the trip) at the sights around us.

From Interlaken we took another train to a little place called Lauterbrunne, famous for its waterfalls. There we did an hour and a half walk enjoying the scenery next to the giant mountain Jungfrau, which was entirely invisible to us because of clouds. Slightly disappointing, but still a beautiful walk.

Our last stop in Switzerland was the capital, Bern, which we explored for a couple hours, eating lunch on a noisy street corner where, once again, crazed World Cup fans did their thing. So funny watching the police try to direct traffic in that commotion.

We got back to Zurich in time for our last night train of the trip, and the most exciting destination of all: Paris.