Lake Como, Lake Lucerne and Switzerland

The drive between Florence took us by Lake Como and Lake Lugano in Italy and then through the Alpine country side into Switzerland. It was so amazing. Being in all of that natural beauty was so refreshing and so restorative. My little coolpix camera was so woefully inadequate to capture the full breadth of it. I went up the stansehorn train and cable car up to the top of the mountain. There was snow up there and it was completely engulfed in cloud. Then, like a movie the clouds parted and the view was amazing. There's something about places of natural beauty that speak directly to my soul. I saw people who broke down crying in St Peter's Basilica - they were so overwhelmed and overcome with emotion- for me it's woods, rivers, lakes, and mountains. Switzerland is the church of natural wonders.

Later I took a lake cruise on Lake Lucerne, actually it's in the town of Lucerne. The name of the lake is a German unpronounceable word meaning 4 forests. It was beautiful but cold and here my fatigue has now turned into a raging sore throat. I wandered around Lucerne and liked it very much.

Its evident that the Swiss reputation for precision and accuracy is well earned. The tour guide told us a lot about Swiss history, art and culture - all very interesting but the part I found really ironic is their preparedness for war. The country that is least likely to go to war is probably the most prepared for it. All young men are required to do compulsory military service. They store their ammunitions in their homes so they can muster an army of a couple of hundred thousand in a matter of hours. They have roads which, when needed can be blockaded and turned into airplane runways. They have tank traps in their road tunnels which can be raised effectively trapping a tank inside the tunnel. Interesting stuff. One German woman from South Africa on the tour leaned over when the tour guide was talking about this and said to me, "Germany is even more prepared for war but they don't go talking about it." - A comment I found a bit unnerving.

Anyway, I definitely want to come back to Switzerland and stay a little longer someday.