| We arrived in Basel, Switzerland the next day (after another stop in Zurich to swap luggage with our new friend, Marianne Alkemade from MSD Switzerland) and visited our good friends the Vander Zwans for 2 days. He works with Hoffman-La Roche and is stationed in their world HQ for a 3 year assignment. |
| The Vander Zwan's live in the town of Basel in the Northwest corner or Switzerland,
near the borders of France and Germany. While there we did some local touring, great eating, bought some Swiss goods and Cuban cigars. We also went over to the Alsace region of France and saw the town of Colmar, which was very picturesque. It has a section known as Little Venice, with beautiful canals and old buildings, all with lovely flowers in each window. |
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Michael and Nancy Vander Zwan |
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Then on to Luzern on July 17 by the SBB, the wonderful Swiss rail system. Luzern is a beautiful city on a large lake at the very Northern edge of the Alps. While there we climbed and ate at the top of Mount Pilatus, which we reached by two sets of cable cars. The view from the top was spectacular and we had a great lunch. The beer seemed to taste better above 7000 feet. We came down the other side on the World's steepest cog railway, which had a maximum gradient of 48 degrees! Pretty steep. |
the town of Colmar in Alsace |
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at the top of Mount Pilatus, near Luzern |
the famous bridge in Luzern (reconstructed from recent fire) |
| The next day we took the SBB to Geneva for a brief stay at one of the worlds great small inns, Les Armures. Lisa got to have the Swiss cheese dish, raclette, where I originally tasted 6 years before. We took the TGV, the French high speed train the next day into France. |
