Switzerland

Hey, friends!  I'm back today with another post about my recent trip to Europe.  In case you missed it, I explained the reason for my trip and my first few days spent in Italy here.

Picking up where I left off in my first travel post, our group arrived at our hotel in the Swiss Alps on the second evening of our trip.  That picture up there is of our hotel.  Have you seen something so charming in your life?!  Below you'll find the view from my balcony as well as the little street where our hotel was located.  This was by far my favorite hotel of the trip!

The morning after our arrival, we took a walking tour of Lucerne, Switzerland and had some free time to eat lunch and shop.  I found Lucerne to be a lovely, not-very-touristy town full of Alpine charm.  It was quiet expensive, though.  I spent almost $50 at the chocolate shop below!  But you have to splurge on Swiss chocolate, right?!

During the afternoon, we got to have the coolest experience.  We road to the top of Mount Pilatus.  And I mean the very top!  We took little four-person gondolas about half of the way up and then stopped for a photo op.  This is the group of students, parents and teachers that I traveled with.  They are a fun group of people!

From mid-mountain we took a 50-person gondola (yes, you read that right) to the very top of the mountain!  I have to admit that my fear of heights had me sweating a bit on this ride.  But the view from the top was so worth a few nerves.

And finally, I leave you with a picture of ice cream.  The best ice cream I've ever eaten, in fact.  It was made by the owner of our little Alpine inn.  It was vanilla with fresh strawberries and I was in heaven!

I hope you're enjoying my travel posts even though the differ from what I usually write about.  My third and final post about this trip will be next week on Thursday when I share pictures from France!