It was another weekend trip for the books - I hiked up a mountain (ish), drank a plethora of champagne while driving a boat, and slept in a jail for 48 hours with one of my best friends. Why yes, we were locked up abroad in the picturesque town of Lake Lucerne. Life could be worse, right?
Switzerland is a country that is very dear to my heart, after all my mom and I travel to Zermatt every year to ski -- Read: 50 Shades of Blue: Zermatt -- Although I have never had the chance to experience Switzerland during the summer. I guess that is one excuse to book a weekend trip. The trip started with a bus ride from work to the Dusseldorf airport where we decided to buy a few bottles of champagne to celebrate a weekend away from home - anything to celebrate with champagne, right? There is a direct flight on Germanwings which leaves at 18:55 (DUS - Zurich) and the views from above are spectacular as always.
From Zurich, we took a train to Lucerne. With the help of basic social skills (no smartphones, maps or GPS) we wandered aimlessly around Lucerne asking taxi drivers, and drunken citizens alike where the 'Jail Hotel' was - are these two American girls seriously trying to get arrested or something? Regardless, Jill and I decided to stay in an old Jail cell for the weekend because why not? It was pretty creepy at first (no lights in the hallways, arrived late at night, in the middle of what we thought was no where), but our white-walled cell grew on us as the weekend commenced. It ended up being located in the center of the old town which worked out perfectly.
THE JAIL HOTEL
white walls, small windows, dark hallways
SATURDAY, AM.
We wandered over to the tourist office in our hiking boots (thank you trivago on tour ) and asked the kind lady behind the counter "Where can we go hiking?" - 20 min later we ended up at the bottom of Mount Pilatus, hiking through the swiss farmland; surrounded by cows, corn fields and chalets.
After what seemed like hours and thousands of vertical feet (2 hours, maybe 600 feet) we arrived at the mid-station where we stuffed our faced with fresh bread, cheese, chocolate and beer. Oh, How deprived we were...
1,000 shameless calories later, we hiked our asses 12 meters to the gondola because we were cold and tired... the view was worth it.
Saturday, PM
The day was still young, so we explored around town, went back to jail, showered and got ready for the night. We found ice at a local restaurant (shout out to restaurant mama julia?) to chill our champagne, and made our way over to the lake to enjoy the sunset and live music near the city center.
Saturday night
We drank champagne next to swans, drank beer with germans, and then ate ice cream, gyros and pizza. #GirlsWeekend
Sunday Funday
But first we brunch.
I'll keep this short, but let me just say 1. The Swiss are very trusting with their motor vehicles because they let us rent a boat on Lake Lucerne for a few hours... no license or anything. 2. Friends help friends drink champagne.
Our flight back to Dusseldorf was at 20:55 - we were back to work Monday morning like it was all a dream. Moral of the story - Switzerland is perfect.
Until next time.
Speak soon,
Perri
