Wednesday, June 14th

We stay in Luzern today to relax and take a break from the running around on trains. Everyone gets some much-needed sleep. I don�t even get up and try and take pictures of the sunrise again.

Chuck does a great job cooking breakfast. We have some scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and potatoes. The only problem is cleaning the dishes. We have to use some bar soap to get some soapy water. Earl does most of the cleanup. Jims rips one of his contacts and is left with only one contact left (this will be important) for one of his eyes.

The only plan to start today is to check out the Old Town walls and battlements. On a hill across the river from out apartment is the start of the Old Town wall. There are about 5 towers along with the high wall. The wall and towers are almost completely intact. I�m couldn�t find any information on the walls being restored at any point, but they look well cared for so I would assume they have been worked on after they were no longer used.

We start at the lowest tower, which is at the level of a road on the river. It looks like this tower was probably worked on at some point to allow the road to go through it. There�s a path on the outside of the first tower that leads up the hill along the wall and to the next tower. It�s sunny and hot again today, so just climbing up the small hill causes a good sweat.

At the second tower everyone starts climbing up the stairs to the top except Earl. There are a lot of steps because it�s not very steep and the stairs go around and around against the walls of the tower. At the top of the tower we get a good view of the city for the first time. The problem is you can�t walk out onto the wall from the tower. You have to go back down to the bottom, which means going back down the stairs shortly after you just came up (unless you take a long rest). We take long enough that Earl finally climbed up to the top.

At the bottom of the tower we continue walking up the hill to the next tower. The third tower takes you to a walkway on the walls. The walkway is very narrow and looks like it was put in just for tourists to check out the walls and towers. You don�t actually walk on top of the walls, but on the inner side of the walls. So you can still see the Old Town, but you are a little lower now and many trees block the view. I climb up to the top of the third tower but there are dirty plastic windows blocking any view. At the top, I see an old trough that I assume was used to pour burning pitch, or something of like that out the tower window and onto invaders. The walkway takes you to the 4th tower. You can walk up to the top of the 4th tower, but I don�t bother this time since the last one didn�t have much to see.

The towers are interesting to see. There�s not a lot to them. They look good as a backdrop for the Old Town. You don�t get a chance to walk from tower to tower. Overall, the towers are a little disappointing.

At this point Jim needs to see if he can get some replacement contacts, so he takes off to find an optometrist. As the rest of us are walking through the Old Town we see Betty, who met Mark the other night at Pickwick�s. She is just getting back from Germany where she went to see the Switzerland vs. France match. We say hi, but she barely gets out a wave to us. We ask her if she had a good time at the match? She says yes but in a soft voice. We realize that Betty is hung over. The match was last night, it�s now about 10 in the morning, she is just getting back from the match, and Betty is moving very slowly, so she had a good time.

There are plenty of Internet cafes in Europe, so we find one in order to tell people we are still alive and having a good time. The towers are just above the Old Town so the section of town we are in has small streets but plenty of shops. We do a little window-shopping. I�m recycling clothes still so I buy a shirt for the next day. Mark says he�s going to do laundry.

We decide to rent some bicycles for the rest of the day. Mark and I head over to the train station where the rental shop is located. We stop again at the tourist information desk to see what type of bike trip we should take. We would like to ride along the lake but need to know which direction would be the best. The woman at the tourist office is very helpful.

We find a sign pointing to the rental shop, which is located on the outside of the west side of the train station. When we get to the rental shop the sign tells us we have to go back into the train station to a specific ticket counter. For $18 Francs we rent the bikes for half a day. We get a $5 Franc discount because we have Eurorail passes. Once we have the tickets it�s back up to the rental shop. One of the guys speaks English and is helpful in getting us setup with bikes. Everyone is going to bike around.

From the rental shop we go west of train station towards the town of Kreins (where we caught the bus back for the Mount Pilatus trip) In the streets there is a red path marked as the bicycle route. In some places the path can be between two car lanes if the one car lane is turning. The first 15 minutes or so is flat so it�s not too bad to ride around. We stop at a soccer stadium to see if the stadium is for the local team FC Luzern, but it�s not. Once past the soccer stadium we start to hit some hills. It is really hot out so it takes a little bit out of everyone. Chuck and Earl decide to head back after a really big hill and take it easy.

Mark, Jim and I continue on and find a nice hotel situated on Lake Lucerne with an outdoor restaurant. It�s perfect timing for us since it�s lunchtime and we are very hungry. One waiter speaks a little Spanish and German but not much English so he gets the other waiter to handle us. The other waiter speaks Italian, German, English and French even. We confuse the waiter at one point because we start saying Si for yes because Jim and I were in Italy over the weekend. The Fish n Chips that Jim and I have is good and Mark has a salami sandwich. Lunch is very relaxing. The restaurant is right along the water with a beautiful view of the lake. The hotel seems to be a European vacation destination given the waiters ability to speak so many languages and the different conversations going on around us.

After lunch we try biking some more but only make it up a couple more hills. So we head back to town and figure we can relax some more instead of tiring ourselves out. We take the busier route back. There�s a long stretch where we are between a couple of car lanes on the road. The road is well marked with the red bike lane so it�s pretty safe if you are used to biking. Earl and Chuck have already dropped off their bikes at the rental shop so we decide to drop them off also and just walk back to the hotel.

Martina, the girl I met on Monday at Pickwick�s is supposed to be back there tonight. I clean up and head over there while everyone else has a drink or two at the hotel. I�m over there about 20 minutes when Jim and Earl show up. Martina has text messaged through Jim�s phone that it�s too hot to be drinking so she won�t make it over to Pickwick�s. When Mark and Chuck show up a few minutes later we decide to go back to La Cucaracha for dinner. The restaurant was good but the real issue is we can�t all decide on a place to go so we go back to the place we ate last night.

At the restaurant we meet some other Swiss girls. One of the girls is going on vacation to Mexico and the U.S. so I talk to her about Playa del Carmen. Her U.S. stop is in California or Miami so Earl talks to her about Miami. By the time we are done eating and drinking at La Cucaracha it�s late in the evening. The soccer matches are almost over so we are done for the night. We walk around some and see if any of the bars have a lot of people but it�s fairly deserted.

Tomorrow, Mark and I are off to Interlaken. If you read about Thursday go to Friday.

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