From "The Top of Europe"

Day 15 and 16:  The Swiss Alps

Ah Switzerland... the land of chocolate, clocks and knives.  An extremely beautiful but expensive place to live.  I was right in my prediction about the scenery - its the best on this trip!  Neither words or photos can do it justice. Its so green and rocky with many beautiful little lakes and streams.

We drove through a few small towns along the way, most notably the capital of Lichenstein ("Sir Orlik" from A Knight's Tale anyone? ;) and Lucerne in Switzerland where we admired their clocks and knives as well as their chocolate.  We finally stopped in a little town called Lauterbrunnern near the Janfrau mountain for the night.

In the morning, we took a train 3265 ft up the mountain to "The Top of Europe" where I spent the day walking through their ice palace (made up of a series of tunnels carved into the side of a glacier) and partaking in a variety of winter activities (such as snow boarding, skiing, throwing snowballs, tubbing and sledding).  I had some difficulty catching my breath at times due to the high altitude but it was still very fun.  The best part of it all was seeing the reaction of several Australian girls who were experiencing snow for the first time.  Hilarious...  The only downer of the day was that I forgot to apply sun screen before leaving so my face got pretty burnt.

Its hard to believe that my tour is nearly over - only 4 days left.  Tomorrow we're heading into the Rhine Valley and then onto Amsterdam.