I Heart Switzerland

The ride from the base to Switzerland was pretty long, so I intended to upload a series of films onto my Zune before departing. Alas, there was a major snafu with this plan; apparently Zune owners cannot purchase videos from the Zune Marketplace if they are located outside of the U.S. What a ripoff!

ANYWAY...

The trip to Switzerland was fantastic. The USO bus left base at 4am, and we stopped for breakfast at 7:30, right after passing through customs. The food was relatively expensive ($22), but that might have been because I piled so much on my plate: two pastries, a small tube of jam, one cup of hazelnut, vanilla, peach and strawberry yogurt, two slices of ham, one egg, and one large glass of pineapple juice. Afterwards, it was back on the bus, and we arrived in Lucerne about an hour later. There was a two hour guided tour led by an older Swiss woman; she gave us some interesting insights on the area, including the history behind the famous dying Lion of Luzern (a very sad and interesting story!). After the tour, we were released for four hours (Heidi and I had lunch at an outdoor cafe, then went shopping for watches), before meeting up again to enjoy a nice boat ride on the lake.

THE FOOD


Rösti with egg, ham, and tomatoes

THE WATCH


My Genuine Swiss Watch (this version only available in Switzerland)



SPOILS OF TOURISM


Chocolate, Cash (CHF 28,30 = approx. $27), and Dessert Spoon

Overall, the trip was fantastic, and everything was incredibly beautiful; Dan and I will definitely be making a trip together in the future.
We are also very excited about our upcoming mini-adventure... we'll be leaving Tuesday afternoon and returning the next night. Since I am in charge of planning the entire expedition, Dan has no idea as to where we'll be traveling (well, he shouldn't, but I bet he does).