SwissMinns

A weekend in London! We flew from Basel to London Gatwick and took a train to center of London.  We stayed at the Strand Place Hotel right in the center of London, a block off the Thames river, near Covent Gardens. Buckingham Palace Even before checking into our hotel, we stopped at Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. This Buckingham Palace, seen from the Mall. Victoria Memorial Hyde Park On Saturday, we walked all around Hyde Park.   Marble Arch View of Kensington Palace Albert Memorial Princess Diana Fountain Kensington Palace The London Eye: This is an engineering marvel...SCIENCE!  The glass passenger pods 'roll' to stay upright as you go all the way around the wheel.  Awesome view and good SCIENCE. Westminster Palace, Houses of  Parliament We took a tour of Westminster Palace, which was very interesting, detailed audio tour.  We got to go through both Lords and Commons

Rigi: Rigi is know as the Queen of the Mountains.  It is a peak that is surrounded by the lakes of Lucerne, Zug and Lauerz. We went there not knowing how to scale this mountain, there are gondolas and trains in several locations.  We drove on a single lane winding road to a spot on the north side of the peak, and found a hiking trail.  2-1/2 hour hike, quite steep trail to the peak.  Here's where we started.  Looks easy?  That radio tower is where we're going: This was not far from the car: Cows! I'm telling you, it was steep! Pictures from the very top: That's our car down there: Lake Zug:

Burgenstock. Burgenstock began with a luxury hotel in late 1700's, teetering on top of a mountain ridge above Lake Lucerne.   It has been since restored to an ultra-modern, luxry hotel. What makes it an attraction for tourists is a very old elevator, built along a sheer mountain cliff, taking passengers to the top of the mountain.  It was completed in 1905, and is structurally unchanged since then, with some motor and passenger car upgrades.    It is a bit of a hike to get to the entry of elevator, and about 10CHF to ride up to the top.  We bought one-way tickets, and hiked back down.   . The hiking trails down from the peak back to the hotel had a nice view of Lake Lucerne