August 25

From Erik: After checking out of our hotel, the group headed west towards central Switzerland. On the way, we made a pit stop in Liechtenstein, everyone’s favorite sovereign principality! It was very pretty and surprisingly small. Apparently, their economy is based on selling postage stamps and souvenir passport visas. We thought we could find a better way to spend 4 Euro. It was very interesting to be there. I thought it was about as close as one could get to feudalism in this day and age, with the prince on the mountain and his subjects down below. It gave us an appreciation of what the Greek and Italian city states must have been like. Long live the prince!

The prince's castle, high above the city.

From Becky: Our next stop was Vitznau on Lake Lucerne. Once there, we took a chain-driven train up the Rigi mountain to Rigi Kaltbad, where we ate lunch at the Hotel Alpina. The weather was beautiful, so we had spectacular views of the lake, the Alps, and the countryside. On the way back down, we took the little steam-powered train!

Lake Lucerne from the train.

Alpine Erik. See the steam-powered train chugging up the mountain?

We spent the rest of the day in the bus. It was supposed to have been a scenic drive, but I missed most of it because I was carsick and had my eyes closed. Well, I was bus-sick, I guess. Late afternoon we arrived at Montreux, a resort town on the Swiss side of Lake Geneva. Séverine grew up on the French side of the lake and was truly moved by being home. The four of us took a long walk up and down the lakeside and watched the sunset and then the moon over the lake.

Freddy Mercury in Montreux. Not sure why...

Lake Geneva at sunset.