European Tour: Day Six

June 21:

Breakfast this morning was a buffet breakfast in the hotel dining room. After breakfast, we loaded up on the bus and headed to Axams for a morning horse carriage ride. We thought the ride was to be through the mountains but instead it was through Axams which was a very picturesque town. Our horses were Danielle and Rambo. Our host/driver was Fritz who gave us a narrative as we went along. He also, quite frequently, burst out in song or yodeling. It was quite amusing!








We stopped and toured Gotzen Church. It was beautiful!

We really got the feel of a small, Austrian village. I am sure the landscape around the town is gorgeous, but, of course, it was cloudy and rainy! Again!!




We ended up at a ranch just outside of town. We saw several stallions, one of which had sired 82 babies so far this year! We rested inside a small restaurant area enjoying some hot cocoa and Fritz, who once again sang to us. On the last song, he got two "volunteers" to come up front. He dressed the ladies up and had them play instruments. It was very funny, as one of them was a preacher's wife!!



We then took a carriage ride back to the buses.

We boarded the bus and headed to Lichtenstein. The scenery was very pretty but I am sure it would have been spectacular had the clouds lifted...

Our next stop was Vaduz, the capital of the tiny country of Lichtenstein. It is the smallest German speaking country and is only 61.7 square miles with a population of 35,000. We stopped in Vaduz to shop and eat lunch. Most countries over in Europe do not stamp passports anymore - it costs too much money due to all the tourists that come here. We stopped at the Lichtenstein tourist center and paid 1 euro to get our passport stamped.

Vaduz is located along theRhine.

The most prominent landmark of Vaduz is Vaduz Castle, the home of the reigning prince of Liechtenstein and theLiechtenstein princely family. The castle is visible from almost any location in Vaduz, being perched atop a steep hill in the middle of the city.

After leaving Liechtenstein, we entered Switzerland. Switzerland is at the top of my "bucket list" of places I want to visit. I was very bummed with all those low lying clouds still hanging around!!!




After reaching Luzern, where we will stay 2 nights, we stopped for a group photo at Lion's Monument. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France. The American writer Mark Twin (1835–1910) praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."


We then had about 45 minutes to shop in the area before loading back up on the bus and heading to our hotel. We checked in and then waited in our rooms for our luggage to be brought up. After that we still had about 35 minutes before dinner, so Brenda and I walked near the hotel and tooks some pictures.




Dinner was buffet style in a very plain hotel dining room with other groups. Mike, our main tour guide, was NOT happy! We were supposed to be having 3 course meals in nice dining rooms! He called London and Geneva to complain.

After dinner, a group of us walked around Luzern, mainly to go to a store, Casagrande. A few got ice cream after that. Near our hotel was a pastry shop... I got an apfel strudel and a meringue for a bedtime snack. The views where we walked were very beautiful! The clouds had lifted a bit. We could actually see Mt. Pilatus.



After our walk, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. It was strange that it was light so late... My apfel strudel and meringue were excellent!