Florence, Italy to Lake Lucerne, Switzerland… Pit stop in Pisa!

On this day of the journey, we took a lot of different pit stops and because of that we had to get up extra early to depart for the bus.  Our first stop was Pisa!  We were there early in the morning and the vendors were just getting set up with all of their trinkets and souvenirs displayed.  We walked into the city and through the gates to the courtyard and manicured lawns of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!  The tower is no longer moving and continuing to lean because a large stabilization project recently restored the tower's foundation.  We took plenty of pictures with the tower and made a fool of ourselves.  It was nice to be there so early in the morning to beat the crowds and people that were filing in as we left!

Leaning tower of Pisa!

Good thing I'm there to support this leaning tower!

After spending and hour at Pisa and running around through the souvenir shops we were on our way out.  We took the city bus in and were looking to get on a extension bus to take us back to Coach parking, but nothing was coming.  In the mean time everyone was getting some deals from the street vendors.  Fake coach purses were going for $10, a steep discount from what they were trying to get from us.  All of the people from Burma were buying umbrella's like it was their job, haha.  They walked back onto the Coach with at least 15 umbrellas, ahha, I have no idea why.  Paul and I were browsing and found a white bracelet I enjoyed.  They said it was 15 Euros starting which was ridiculous, so we walked away.  Paul gave him a stiff offer at 3 Euros and he was pretty hesitant.  We just walked because I wasn't too attached to the bracelet and the vendor decided it was better than nothing, so he coughed in disgust and took 3 Euros, put the bracelet in a bag and walked away without even looking at us.  He couldn't face us with that stiff price.  We were impressed that he even took the deal, ahah.  The other guy with the same bracelet came up to me and starting talking jibberish trying to sell his to me... I protected my purse and gave him many stern declines.

The best part of Pisa was getting back to the Coach, because the city bus didn't show up in time, our guide worked out a deal with a McDonalds train/trolley that hauled us back.  It was absolutely hysterical to see everyone bouncing around in that kiddy trolley!  Once back on the coach we were headed to Lake Lugano!

We had an hour or so to spend walking alongside the lakefront in Lake Lugano.  We walked downtown towards the shops and Paul hopped on some free internet outside an expensive Jewelery store.  It was a nice break to walk around and spend some time in the sun.

Lake Lugano, walking the boardwalk...

Back on the bus we were headed to the St. Gotthard Tunnel, the third longest tunnel in the world extending about 10.5 miles through the Swiss Alps!  You have to maintain space within the tunnel and the traffic waiting to get in the tunnel can back up significantly some times.  Luckily the wait to get into the tunnel wasn't too long and we entered the long tunnel.  It was an odd feeling to be in the tunnel for so long, but it was surprising well-lit and we reached the other end in about 15 minutes.

St. Gotthard Tunnel

After tunneling through the Alps we finally got to our hotel located outside of Lake Lucerne. The scenery around the hotel was beautiful.  We were across the road from the train station.  The tracks were running alongside of a beautiful lake which had mountains in the background.  I felt as if I had stumbled into Colorado or something.  It was absolutely wonderful and by far my favorite hotel spot.  Paul went for a run up the road and I took a quick jog. That night we had dinner with the group and were able to sit with the Australian family for a friendly chat.  My dinner was a little odd, but I couldn't complain about the free food.  Vegetarian options aren't plentiful in Europe, so you have to roll with what you get.

Church close to our hotel... Bells ringing every hour through the night!

View close to our hotel, pretty decent scenery isn't it?

After dinner we took an evening walk up to the cemetery and the church close to the hotel.  It was pretty uneventful because we couldn't see anything, but we bonded with our group.  Nighty night in Switzerland...