We spent Christmas 2003 in beautiful Switzerland. We left on Sunday the 21st and returned to England on the 28th. It was a Christmas to remember. We spent the first night in Metz, France and visited a traditional European Christmas market in Strasbourg, France on day two. We arrived at our hotel on Lake Luzern, Switzerland that evening to gently falling snow and an accumulation of about 3 inches. The next day we explored the city of Luzern where we visited another nice Christmas market and took in all the wonderful historical sites of this lovely city, to include the Lion Monument, carved out of natural rock to commemorate the Swiss mercenaries at the Tuileries in 1792. On Christmas eve, we journeyed back to Luzern for a boat ride across the lake to a rack railway which took us to the top of Mount Rigi, giving a spectacular view of the surrounding area for almost 7000 feet above sea level. Before returning to our hotel for a great dinner we stopped in the village of Altdorf, the birthplace of William Tell, to view the monument of their most famous resident. On Christmas day we took a short trip to Engelberg to see the 400 year old monastery and take a horse drawn sleigh ride through the village. After lunch we rode a gondola to the top of Stockhutte Mountain to toboggan and play in the snow. On Boxing day we drove through the picturesque country side and explored some of the small villages in the area. On our return to England we drove through Zurich, stopped at the Rhine Falls and drove through the Black Forrest region of Germany, famous for making coo coo clocks. We spent our last night in Metz, France before returning to home the next day. It was a week filled with fun in the snow and Christmas memories to last a lifetime. Enjoy a few of our pictures.

The view of Lake Luzern from our hotel balcony

Us in front of the Lion Monument in Luzern

A building in Luzern decorated for the season

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