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Our Last Full Day

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Yesterday (July 6th) we got up and took 2 pictures.  Yep, that’s it.  We drove a good part of the day from Hergiswil, Switzerland, to Marco Polo Airport area.  This picture was of a stream running down a mountain in the Alps - of course I could only get the bottom 1/10 of it, or 1/20.  It was raining a bit. We drove through an 18 km long tunnel.  On this highway pass over the Alps, you go THROUGH them, not over them.  That’s how they’ve made it possible to have trucks and buses go over.  Incredible.  The road we used going the other way used switchbacks.  There’s no way a truck or bus could get through.  But the highway is also plugged with vehicles.  Fortunately there weren’t a ton of trucks because it’s Saturday.  What they do is use traffic lights to stop traffic on the highway so there are no “plugs” in the tunnel itself.  Once we got through the traffic lights, it was pretty easy going the rest of the way. Other than 2-3 stops for a bite to eat and, well, you know…we made it to ou
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Lucerne

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Lucerne, or as they spell it here - Luzern.  It was a good day to rest up and not do too much.  But we decided to go into Lucerne for a bit and we did a boat cruise on Lake Lucerne for an hour.  Quite a nice, relaxing time.  And of course, the views of the mountains are wonderful.  Lucerne is just at the northern edge of the Alps, not really IN the Alps. A few shots of Lucerne from the water (by the way, that photo yesterday I said was Lucerne was not):   Well, the play was written originally in German, so I guess WilHELM Tell is right. A few shots from the boat:   After the boat trip, we found a spot for lunch.  These guys were watching us. A few swans that know where to go to be fed. Anyway, our last day in Switzerland.  Tomorrow we head back into Italy and to Marco Polo Airport near Venice for our trek home on Sunday.  It’ll be a fair drive, but hey, nothing else to do.
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Loop back to Switzerland

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 It’s been a busy couple of days - driving a lot.  Yesterday we gathered our things and left Munich around 9:45 am.  I had to drive the car out of a garage under the street without hitting any pedestrians on the way.  We got under way and the weather was not very good at all - just lots of rain, but off and on.  A few downpours and lots of sprinkles. As we approached Mannheim, we turned down a road south and the line of trucks had to be 10 km long - I’m not exaggerating! And we crossed the Rhine River, again. We got to our place in Haßloch, Germany, on the west side of the Rhine and crashed for a bit.  But this is near the place where Gerard’s ancestors came from, so we had to go there and we ended up having dinner there too. On the way to Schifferstadt, we went on this street:  Hmm - do you think the Kraemers are from here?  Gasse on the end of the word means “alley”. And here we enter Schifferstadt.  I think Gerard almost wet his pants. A few shots in the town.  The church his ancest
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Munich

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 Or as they say/spell it here - München. It was nice to just relax and get up at our leisure this morning.  Our goals for the day were to see the main plaza and the place where Oktoberfest is held.  In one day, we can’t do much more than that. We had some coffee in our room, so that was fine.  When we set off on our travels, we found a nice little restaurant and had some very tasty croissants.  Then we made our way to Marienplatz.  The buildings on the way there are just beautiful.  Here are a couple, and one of a quartet in the street - playing Pachelbel’s Canon as we walked by - reminds me of a funny Youtube video called the Pachelbel Rant.   This town is gearing up for a football (soccer) game tonight.  Romania vs Netherlands.  I did a short video of the crowd - a real pep rally - but it won’t load into this blog. Anyway, apart from that, the square is absolutely beautiful.  Since 1158 it has been the cultural centre of Munich.  The church at one end The old town hall The Mariensäul
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On to Munich

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 This morning we got up after a good night’s sleep, packed up and headed off to Munich, via Liechtenstein and Austria.  Where else but in Europe can you be in 4 countries in one day…all before noon! The speed limit in Switzerland is 120 kmh.  At the beginning of Austria, it was 130 kmh!  But after awhile, it was 120 the rest of the way - mostly.  With the little car we have, 110 is a struggle. Not sure how fast this thing can go: Unfortunately, it was a little rainy this morning and the Alps were covered with clouds, so couldn’t get any decent pictures of them as we left them behind.  Maybe when we return through Lucerne it will be better 🙏. For a while it looked like we were just driving through Ontario.  Until we would see a sign here and there that was in German. We found our hotel in downtown Munich around 3:30 this afternoon, got checked in, parked, and into our room for a nice break.  One thing we notice here in Europe (or at least the countries we’ve been in) is that the use of
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