Blossoming Seoul: A New Stamp in the Passport

It seems that the mantra for today's touring journey was "To the bus!" as we covered a lot of ground. I can't say that I minded the down time to look out the window and be lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking motion, however, I think the days of travel, late nights, and up close and personal scenic tour (according to the bus rotation, it was my turn to be at the front of the bus today and it was quite twisty and turny) left me feeling a bit under the weather so the only thing I could do for many of the miles to avoid losing my breakfast was close my eyes and go to a happy place.

Anyhow, since this is my second writing of this post--the first was hi-jacked by the hotel's login system--and it is now four or five days after the fact, let's get down to the good stuff (or what I can remember at this point!). We departed St. Moritz quite early this morning and battled the Asian tour group crowds for breakfast. The poor breakfast room lady was so overwhelmed that she actually threw down her clipboard and had a royal Swiss meltdown! Crisis averted, we all ate and were on the bus by 7:30. Our first stop was not too far away at the top of the Julier Pass, one of two passes we would cross today and one of many we crossed this week! We jumped off the bus to take photos, have a toilet break, and run back "to the bus". Baby it was cold out there! Why stop so soon? Because our driver can only drive a certain number of hours in a row, so we worked a break in early. As we descended the pass the roads became quite daunting and I am so glad we had a professional behind the wheel! I'm also glad I nodded off so I didn't have to see how close to the edge of the roadway we were, how near the cliff was, or how close the massive truck heading in the opposite direction came to us. Two hours more of this and we were crossing a country line out of Switzerland and into...Liechtenstein!

Go ahead, say it--Liechtenstein, it's fun, right? We stopped in the capital city of Vaduz for a short while, i.e. 45 minutes, to wander around. What, you might ask, is Liechtenstein known for? Excellent question. Mainly banking and business. Apparently many businesses hold their proprietorships here because of the lovely tax laws. Sounds a bit like tax evasion, but I'm not in business. Liechtenstein is also known for postage stamps and they have some lovely ones. We found giant sized stickers of postage stamps all over the streets and I decided to pose with a few of them. Janice suggested planking like the bloke in the statue, but I thought Liechtenstein felt a bit to classy for that sort of thing! Speaking of classy, above the city you can see the Liechtenstein family castle and it's quite a house! Before leaving Liechtenstein I managed to get my passport stamped and it only cost me 3 CHF. Ten European countries down, loads more to go!

Cool, giant postage stamps everywhere just waiting to be posed with!

Interesting horse sculptures in Vaduz.

The Liechtenstein family castle...it looks bigger in person!

Soon it was, "To the bus!" and off we went to the charming city of Interlaken. Generally you hear this city being spoken about as the quintessential Swiss town. We really had just one reason for visiting and that was to have lunch and make a photo stop of the famous Jungfrau. She is covered in snow from head to toe even though the mountains surrounding her aren't. Several of us went up to the top of the Monopole hotel to get a bird's eye view of the city and to take pictures of the Jungfrau. Maybe next time I'll take the special cogwheel railway to the top! Before long it was, "To the bus!"

There she is, the Jungfrau, covered in a veil of snow!

Interlaken had such beautiful old architecture.

Everywhere you looked was picturesque.

We backtracked a bit just around the lake to the small town of Brientz. The are of Switzerland we were in, called the Bernese Oberland, is famous for its handicrafts and Brientz is known worldwide for woodcarving. We saw a demonstration and learned a bit about the techniques and tools, then had a chance to see some of the pieces that have been carved at the studio. I cozied up to a life sized bear, which our host assured us came from the friendly Black Forest breed, for a quick photo. I would have loved to bring home a hand carved nativity set, but it would have cost me nearly $1,000 for just Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. It's easy to forget that quality craftsmanship is an art and worth being paid for. Okay, "Back to the bus", but this was the last time!

After a day on the road we were finally heading to our last stop of the day, Luzern. In fact, this is our final stop on the tour. We'll stay here for two nights before leaving out of Zurich on Sunday morning. Before we made it to the hotel we had a short orientation by coach. We saw the beautiful lake and a bit of the old downtown, but to get to the good stuff, you have to walk! Today we visited the Lion Monument and it was incredible. The pictures you see in guidebooks lead you to believe that it's a life sized sculpture, but when you walk up to the monument and see that it is carved out of a small cliff face over looking a little park you feel the impact. The sculpture is probably 10x larger than a life sized lion and the story is quite heartwarming. Although the Swiss are neutral, their military historically was hired out to protect foreign governing bodies. During the French Revolution the Swiss guard were protecting Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Unfortunately a large number of the soldiers were killed in this service and this monument stands to honor them. The sculptor created an amazing work, however, when it came time to be paid he was told that not enough money was raised for his commission. So as not to dishonor the Swiss guard, he left the statue but if you look carefully you can see an outline of a pig around the relief of the lion indicating that he thought those who promised to pay him for his work were dishonest swine!

Such a striking sculptural piece, especially when you look up close.

For a little size perspective, compare to the size of the tree.

Once we checked into the hotel we had a bit of downtime before we were off to a cultural dinner and show. On the menu: cheese fondue, schnitzel, potatoes, dessert, and beer or local wine. It didn't take long to get the beer flowing and it came in giant one liter steins. I almost ordered a beer just for the photo--I'm certain someone would have gladly taken it off my hands. The entertainment consisted of lots of traditional folk music, dancing, Alp horn playing, flag throwing, and someone even played the spoons and glass bottles filled with water. The band surely knew how to play to a crowd as they did a few medlies of familiar songs and songs that are particular to certain countries. I captured a great photo of Michael and another Australian man belting out Waltzing Mathilda! There were some lovely opportunities for audience participation and thankfully I did NOT get chosen. James was picked to try playing the Alp horn--poor man couldn't make a sound! Then Linda and Charles helped demonstrate a folk dance with lots of others from other groups. And then it came time for the yodeling...heaven help us! Loads of people were chosen. Some were good, some were bad, and some sucked with style. Nata and Charles were picked from our group and they both did pretty well. Bless their hearts for being so willing. The fun was just starting with the yodeling. After everyone had their chance, then each person had to down a pint of beer! Nata had hers gone in 5 seconds! I thought Charles might back down from the challenge, especially since his mom and dad were sitting ten feet away, but he picked up that beer and gulped it down! I hope it stayed down later:). More fun ensued and we ended the night with on a high note. Jerry, who walks with a cane, was even up busting a move at the end of the evening. His wife just laughed and said, "So much for his bad knees!" More Luzern fun to come!