Mt Rigi mountain experience! Yodelay hee hee!

Each new place continually beats the last place for beauty and views! This morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the chalet and headed off with most of the crew to Lucerne. We had to take the train down the mountain to connect with the ferry. The train was 30 minutes of scenic mountain top views, which was then trumped by the ferry ride - 50 minutes of glorious weather and views too magical to even describe!

Once in the city itself, we were guided around on an interesting walking tour and learnt about the decimation of Louis XVI's Swiss guards during the French Revolution. The dedication statue to this event was quite moving and very solemn. It is great that so many of the things we have seen have all linked in their historical facts.

Tan: Lunch was a bit of an experience today. I may have been overwhelmed by the prices for the first time. I wasn't sure initially what had happened, but I thought that she charged us 17 Swiss for each beer! It wasn't that at all. The beers were a mere 9.50 Swiss, it was the additional fries with our meal that were 16 in total! My mistake, but OMG that was out of control!!

In the arvo we headed out with Benton and Louise for a cheeky punt at the casino. We didn't win back our money from Monaco! Hahahaha! Only a small loss today, but we have really honed our Roulette skills now and are primed for the casino on the cruise! Yay! We only really gamble on holidays.

We had to head back to the ferry at about 3pm for another glorious relaxation on our way back to the mountain. Rather than heading straight back to the chalet, we decided to take the train to the summit with a few others. Another awesome vantage point for photos....it is never ending!

Back at the chalet after a casual stroll back with a few others, we had a couple of drinks on the balcony and reminisced about a fantastic day all round. This was followed by a sumptuous Swiss barbecue buffet!

After dinner tonight we had a few drinks then the poker session started. The first round of eight players finished up fairly quickly.

Tan: I was second in the second game, though after a few drinks I was seeing hallucinations of a full house that wasn't actually there! My eyes were blurry from a big day and for those of you who are aware of my sleeping habits, it was well past my bedtime!

Crossing borders!

Today was an early start and one which took us back out of France, into Monaco again, back into France, then over the Italian border and then finally into Switzerland.

We were in Italy for two of the compulsory rest stops and loved the fact that we could really have a crack at ordering in Italiano. We asked the cassiera (female cashier) in Italian how to say take away and she ended up writing it down for us! How friendly!

We travelled passed Lake Como which was just another amazingly beautiful spot on this side of the world. We know that George Clooney and several other stars have summer houses in this area, but alas our hopes for a quick glimpse out the bus window were thwarted by high protective fences on the side of the steep cliff drive. No matter...it's better to be safe than star struck!

After surprisingly nice risotto and spaghetti marinara for lunch, it was drive into Switzerland time. We stopped another time for the driver's regulations in Switzerland and wow it was gorgeous! Standing in summer clothes with snow on the alps behind us. Pretty cool, as in the view but not temperature wise!

We arrived at Mt Rigi (a small mountain that overlooks Lake Lucerne) and embarked on a very hairy cable car ride to the top! Again there were spectacular views and also a few nervous sighs expelled.

Our hotel was more like a little old ski chalet, but this was so perfect for the area. When you sat on the balcony, you could hear the bells of the cows ringing nearby.

It was pretty much straight into our room and then back out to have some drinks with the others out on the decking. Dinner wasn't too far after that and we started with a traditional cheese fondue, chicken with mushrooms, mash and gravy combo, then some fruit salad to top it off.

Tan: I was a bit unlucky. The waiter put the plate down so hard on the table in front of me, that the gravy splashed on my jacket, my jeans (which had just been washed) and also my hair! It was quite crispy on the ends and smelt like gravy. Feral!

We really underestimated the Swiss Franc situation. The drinks were big here but they were 6 or 7 each. Oh well it will be off to find another bancomat (ATM) tomorrow! Another brilliant day with scenery to die for.

Lifestyles of the rich and the famous!

It was a bit of a late start this morning after a huge need to do some washing at a local laundromat. Thankfully it wasn't too far away and both the washer and dryer were huge.

We were under a bit of time pressure earlier today because we had to ensure we were back early enough to get ready for the Monaco casino trip. So shopping and seeing the beach were on the agenda!

Walking out towards the shops, we knew that we had to change money for the next day's journey to Switzerland. One problem, we got to the exchange and we hadn't brought our Aussie dollars with us! Damn...back to the hotel. Unfortunately when we returned, we learned that it was going to be a double dip on the fee, as they wanted to exchange the Aussie into Euro then into francs! No go!!!! Too expensive and a waste of time going back and forth to the hotel! Oh well, another learning experience. We also realised that the Travelex were expensive for the one transaction and so we opted not to go with their crappy rate anyway!

Tan: Back on route and shopping was at the forefront of my mind! Rich bought nothing today, but I managed a dress, a top and of course some new heels! Yay!

We ended up making it to one of the local beach areas of Nice. The Riviera itself spans many kilometres long and is quite beautiful, except for the pebbly shore line. It didn't seem to worry the large amount of people down there sunbathing. However, the water must have been quite cold, because hardly anyone was in! We noticed quite a few 'mi scusi' types down there too, which gave us a laugh (a reference to the movie Eurotrip).

Heading back towards the hotel in the middle of the day, we located a sushi restaurant and take away called Sushi Planet. We had seen this last night coming back from the pub. It was nice to have something so fresh and super healthy. We also found a much cheaper exchange place! Screw you Travelex! Blatantly ripping off tourists is not cool!

Most people made an effort tonight to dress up for the Monaco trip. This was even noted at the perfume factory by the guide there. Apparently the tour buses often visit there in the mornings and people are often hung over! Yes, that would be a different look.

Anyway it was a good experience going to the perfume factory. My god it takes a lot of flower petals to make the essential oils required for perfume. Their fragrances were divine and so we purchased a cheeky pack of 5 concentrated bottles of 60ml each. That should last a while. If it doesn't, then it's back to the south of France we go, we go!

Next stop, Monaco. Given that the Grand Prix only occurred there a couple of days ago, there was quite a bit of packing up still to be done. We felt sorry for our friend on the tour who is a mad keen race car nut! Getting so close and missing the race must have been rather painful.

Anyway, it was off to happy hour cocktails with quite a few of the crew. We thought that this might have been a safer option, rather than gambling the whole time and we were loving the happy hour cocktail prices and stayed on for a few. This helped to ease the pain of the money spent today on shopping, the perfumery and a bit of a loss at the casino! Oh well, a once in a lifetime experience is something that must be done, so this was easily justifiable and fun!

Rich: I was not involved in the shopping mention above! In relation to the perfumes, I only have a 20% share in the overall buy. Come to think of it, I spent the least of the duo at the casino. No Tan it is not easy to win back the cash! Hahahaha!

Travelling to Côte D'Azur - Nice!

Tan: Poor Richard was still so sick in the morning, to a point where he couldn't go to breakfast with me. I went down and even brought 'little sicky' back some fruit, but he couldn't even look at it! Luckily I've got some muscles, because I carried both full big backpacks (at the same time of course like a hero) down to the bus. I got a really strange look from an Indian man as Richard walked out of the lift with a small day pack and I walked out like a common pack mule! Hahahaha! Another story to tell.

Rich: It's good when you have hired help! I was sick ... like a boss!

So we headed down to the bus for an early 7:30am start. The American couple now have some good-will to earn back, as they were 30 minutes late!!! They did get a bit of a 'word'
from Luke the tour director and also a general mention about lateness on the mic! Good work Cool Hand Luke!

It was a big drive to Nice today, but given the European Union rules for drivers, we had to stop every couple of hours. This was actually a really great way to break it up and then it wasn't so bad.

We arrived in Nice about about 4:30 and had enough time to get up to our room for a rest and organise ourselves for dinner. The whole group had a dinner tonight at a local French restaurant in Old Town. This was really really nice, but we all had the set menu - salad nesoir, beef borginogn and profiteroles.

After dinner most people headed out for a drink at a place called 'Wayne's Bar'. This was a great pub and was apparently an expat bar, which was cool! There was a brilliant solo guitarist who of course belted out Land Down Under for us. He played some awesome music and really pumped up the crowd.

Tan: Richard was 80% back at this point and managed to get a couple of small beers down. I was speaking to a couple of the guys on our tour group and I discovered that one of the boys lives in Benalla and is the son of Johnny Martinello!! Funny! He actually plays for the All Blacks and is coached by Wappa!!!!! So after we got back to the hotel, it was a must to post the picture of us on Facebook on Wap's wall!

We decided to walk back with a couple of the others, just to get a bit of extra sleep. We knew we had to get up early as was definitely washing time in the morning, or reuse our undies! Eeewwww! No thanks!