Wilhelm Tell

I woke up and showered. They have holders for the shower head! One of my few gripes about the hostels in Greece was that you had to hold the shower head in one hand to get yourself wet. It was incredbily annoying. In Switzerland, that is not a problem, thank God. I packed up and left my big backpack until I came back for it before I left. I decided to walk down to the waterfront one last time. It was drizzling a little while I walked but not too much. The mountains were obscured by clouds (view from near train station piture 1). I am glad it wasn't like that when I arrived yesterday. I bought an almond cake thing and some orange juice for breakfast and ended up not finsishing it so I had for lunch on the train as well. I ate my breakfast in a bus shelter on the lakefront beause all the benches were wet. Haha, that must have been a sight to see. I hopped on the scenic train up to Fluelen which is on the end of Lake Lucerne (picture 2). There are four scenic train rides in Switzerland and this is one of them. The train ride is called the William Tell Express because this was the area in Switzerland he supposedly came from. William Tell is a folk hero for the Swiss like Daniel Boone is for Americans. The train ride was quite scenic and actually passed through a tunnel that was 10 miles long. Geez. You couldn't totally make out all the mountains because of clouds but I saw enough to get a pretty good idea (picture 3). There were lots of valleys and I could watch the architecture change from Italian to German influenced. The train ride took about 1.5 hours.

I arrived in Fluelen and decided to call a hostel in Lucerne. I called the hostel and got a reservation but accidently left the Rick Steves Switzerland on the garbage can. I walked around trying to figure out where to buy tickets for the ferry and when the ferry left. This was easier said than done because everything was in German. I finally realized I didn't have the book and found that it was gone. Huge, big, large, bummer. I was pretty depressed about that. It was from the Kensington Library which makes me feel bad because they are never getting it back now. Oh well. I bought a ferry ticket to get across the lake. It was kind of expensive but I figured that I would probably never be able to do it again. The boat had restaurant like seating inside and benches outside. I sat outside the whole time (picture 4). That was pretty cold especially since I was so used to eighty degrees and sun in Greece (it was windy, fifty, and cloudy). I survived and looked at the scenery. The boat trip was 3 hours long so I looked at the scenery and read more of The Lost World. Super good book. The clouds were hanging low in some places and not in others (picture 5). I got to Luzern (the way they spell it here) and started to walk to my hostel. On the way, a young guy asked if I needed help. That was nice of him. He said that he went to school near the hostel and backpacks would always walk by it looking lost.

My hostel is ok. One of the guys in my room is from Canada and another is from Beijing but speaks English fluently. I was hungry so I used my Let's Go (thanks Amy) and ate at a, what else, kebab restaurant. I swear, I can't escape them. I got a Hawaiian kebab. It had ham, chicken, pineapple, and lettuce and tomato with some amazing sauce. Eating it was messy but delicious. I walked around Luzern a little bit after that. I walked along the river that cuts the town in two. I walked up one side and down the other. There were not that many people walking around. I saw the famous wooden bridge (picture 6). Very cool. I also saw the awesome fescoed walls of the houses (they painted the outside of teh buildings). The architecture just makes me want to smile (picture 7). Gingerbread houses or whatever. I went back to the hostel and went online. I bought a ticket for Sunday night to Amsterdam so it looks like I am going there. Haha. No turning back now I guess. I finished reading The Lost World. I am going to Jim's tomorrow.

Bye!