We leave on a Swiss steamer. There are plenty of kids on field trips for the day on the boat. We try and go up front but we have a 2nd class ticket so we have to go to the back with all of the kids. There are probably 3 different groups of kids with their summer camp. There were two boats that left at the same time from the dock.

The steamers all fly a huge Swiss flag off the back of the boat. I�m trying to get a picture when Earl starts having fun with the kids on the boat. The kids don�t know much English, so I�m not sure how well it goes, but I think Earl is egging on the boys to see if they �like� any of the girls.

Two guys get in the back of the car and I think they are driving the funicular. They get out after about 100 feet up and Chuck has to tell me that the real driver is up front (Chucks facing forward). They are workers, and took the ride to get to a spot where they can walk to their shop instead of walking up the hill.

You twist through the forest and up the mountain to 7000ft. We see hikers climbing up at various spots along the way. The tourist office clerk said it takes about 4-5 hours to hike up to the top of the mountain. It�s a nice leisurely ride up to the top on the funicular.

When we get to the top there�s a slight chill with the wind but the weather is still nice. Everyone slips on a sweatshirt to stay warm. I didn�t think about anyone having any height phobias, but when we get to the top Earl and Mark don�t want to take a picture close to the edge. Mark leans into the picture. I now inform Earl that we are taking a Gondola ride down, which he isn�t thrilled with, but he doesn�t have any choice now. I should have summarized the whole trip to everyone before we started.

Jim, Mark, Chuck and I climb up to the top of the mountain. It�s only another 100 feet up from where we got out of the funicular. We get a beautiful view of the valley but it�s hazy so the other mountains or towns in the distance aren�t that clear. There�s a small biplane flying below us around the mountain. While we are checking out the view from the top, Chuck comes up with the line of the trip. �Hey guys, are we higher then the Sears Tower?� We can�t help but start laughing. Especially since the plane was just flying by a few seconds earlier.

A small Church sits on a plateau below the mountaintop probably at around 6,500ft. We can�t imagine how dedicated someone must be to attend a service at the Church. We can see Earl laying down taking a rest on one of the chairs down below. We see that he�s found himself a blanket to stay warm.

We head back down to the observation area. The chalet has a buffet so we head in there for lunch. I get some soup and pork on a stick. The buffet is really everything you can stick on a plate, not a real buffet. It costs about $18 Francs with some wine. As we eat, we see some old guys making it to the top. They couldn�t have started much earlier then dawn so the amount of time to get to the top seems right.

After lunch, there are 3 horn players playing the alpenhorn, so we take pictures and listen a little bit. For the trip back down we get on a gondola. Earl sits on the floor so he doesn�t have to look outside. We are pretty high above the ground at this point. We see the isolated church again. There�s also a large cross not to far from the church on a hill.

The gondola ride is shorter then I thought it would be, but that�s because we�ve only gone down part of the mountain. There�s a rope park and a rollerbaden which Jim and I want to take. The guys are nice and let us go off to ride the rollerbaden and wait for us. The rollerbaden is a metal track that allows sleds with wheels to slide down.

We walk up the hill to the top of the rollerbaden. There are a lot of kids milling around and nobody is riding. We see the sign that the staff is on their lunch break so we have to wait about 15 minutes. All of the sudden some guy comes crashing up the rollerbaden return shoot. The kids jump ahead of us to go on first. We need to get back so we only let about 5 or 6 go ahead of us. It�s 5 FR for adults. You get a little sled with a lever in the middle that controls your speed as you go down. The lever puts more friction on the metal shoot. It says to slow down around the turns but you learn that you can get by with ignoring that on most turns. At the bottom we find out how the staff got back up to the top. You are hooked onto an overhead wire that takes you back up to the top in your sled. It takes a lot longer to get back up, almost 10 minutes.

Back at the layover stop we get on smaller cable cars. These cars are like the kind you see at amusement parks that hold 4 people. We are closer to the ground now, more like ski lifts. We take the cards down some ways and proceed to get off at the next station. We quickly learn that we aren�t supposed to get off if we want to get to the bottom. The station is another layover stop that allows people to get off to get to a camping area. Luckily, we can still get back in our cars before they are out of the station.

At the bottom we have to walk about � mile to the bus stop that takes us back to Luzern. We are in the city of Kreins now. It�s a lot warmer at the bottom of the mountain but we can�t complain because the weather is so nice. We meet a couple of girls from the U.S. who have just graduated college and are traveling through Europe. They are in Luzern only for a day. We tell them to stop by at Pickwick�s later on tonight and we can buy them a drink.

The bus takes about 15 minutes to get us back to the train station in Luzern. The U.S. match is on tonight and it�s already around 3 o�clock so we head back to the apartment. We stop at the grocery store to buy some food, snacks, and drinks. I recommend going to a grocery store oversees just to see the different type of stuff available. Chuck says he�s going to cook breakfast one morning so he buys some eggs, bread and bacon and potatoes. Jim gets some type of Lychee (that�s the correct spelling Dawn) juice that I�ve never heard of before. Jim is always good about trying different type of things he sees at the grocery store. We cause a ruckus at the grocery store because we are buying so much stuff. Everyone else looks like they are just getting dinner for the evening or breakfast for the morning.

Back at the apartment we realize there are is no ice or ice cube trays. That�s the one problem with Europe they don�t use a lot of ice. Earl goes back to the grocery store to get some ice; he also buys some unique plastic ice cube �pockets� to make ice. The Lychee juice with Vodka turns out to be a pretty good drink.

Mark and I head over to Pickwick�s to get a good spot to watch the U.S. vs. Czech Republic match. There are not a lot of people there yet so we get a spot right in front of one of the outside TVs. COMPLETE DISASTER, the U.S. looks like a total bust and loses 3-0 to the Czechs. (By the way, I get the fish n chips, which is good, since Pickwick�s is an English Pub)

Mark meets a couple of who speak English. Betty, who has been to the U.S. before and her friend Phillip both speak English. I meet a girl Martina, who lives in the town of Kriens, where we caught the bus that morning. Her English is a little rusty but it�s easy to talk to her. Her friend Erica is from Italy, so she�s interested in watching the Italy vs. Ghana match that is on at this point. Martina makes fun of Mark and me for talking slowly to them like they can�t understand us. Martina grew up in Kriens so she�s lived nearby her whole life. She thinks the residents of Luzern are snotty. I get the impression that Luzern is a wealthier town. Martina also thinks the Swiss are closed-minded and not open to new ideas. From talking to Mark, he said Betty and Phillip said similar things. Martina had been to Australia, and Betty had been to the U.S., so they are both open to getting outside their country, so I guess they would be more inclined then other Swiss. Betty is going to the Swiss match tomorrow in Germany so we wish her luck and tell her we will be rooting for the Swiss.

Except for the U.S loss, today was a lot of fun. The trip up the mountain was very relaxing, the weather was perfect and the whole trip was great. Off to Bern, the capitol of Switzerland tomorrow.