7/12/11 Lucerne, Switzerland, Germany and the Black Forest

We left our hotel early and headed to Lucerne, Switzerland.  In Lucerne we did some shopping.  I found a Switzerland pin and decided to collect one from each country we visit.  I also bought a key chain and a sucker in the shape of a giraffe for Makenna.  There were lots of decorative buildings in Lucerne.

Sometimes I would not be able to remember our meeting place, so I would take a picture of it :)

After meeting up we went to lunch.  I didn't journal too well here and can't remember if this food was from lunch or dinner, but it was good.  These were homemade noodles with Parmesan cheese and fried onions.  We also had a great chocolate pudding this day.  One of the things I loved in Europe was the Orange Fanta.  It tasted like fizzy orange juice and not like the stuff in the US that is made with sweet syrup.  Fanta in Europe is so much better!

 

We left said goodbye to Switzerland and gutentag to Germany via a long bus ride.  Our first stop was a cuckoo clock shop in the Black Forest.  We had a tour and learned how they are made.  They are all hand carved.  My favorite cuckoo clock had a working water wheel.  In a window was a girl and on the hour a boy climbed up a ladder to her window and a farmer came out with a pitch fork.  It was over 400 Euro!  My friend, Savannah, and I talked about buying clocks but decided they were too expensive. The least expensive one that I liked was 32 Euro and battery operated.  Shipping almost doubled the prices.

This is what the first cuckoo clocks looked like. 

I looked for a souvenir here and found a cuckoo clock pin for my collection!

Next we toured a glass works shop where handmade glass art is made and sold.  It was beautiful!

Dinner and then we checked into the hotel.  Our hotel was across the street from the cuckoo clock shop in the Black Forest. 

We had four people to a room and two of us to a bed.  That wasn't bad because there was a "valley" in between us!

Tomorrow night we meet our host family!  See you then.

Some photos on this blog are courtesty of my friend, Savannah.  Thank you Savannah!