A Day In The Swiss Alps!

I have been looking forward to today’s activity for the entire trip! We were going to go up the Swiss Alps to the top of Mt. Titlus and do some fun activities in the snow… in the middle of June! SO fun! After much debate about who would ride with Gee on the coach and who would volunteer to take the train (slightly more expensive, yet I volunteered), we left this morning around 8:00am. It was about an hour’s train ride out to the town of Engelberg where we then walked for another 10-15 minutes to the Mt. Titlus base lift. We met up with the bus crew and got our group tickets from Gee. He secured us a great discount! Gee is the best!

We then started our journey up the mountain. Imagine: its nearly 80 degrees at the base of the mountain. Yet, in just a few short minutes, we would be walking, playing in, and touching snow! The series of 3 sets of lifts took nearly an hour to navigate, especially when factoring in the INSANE lines from all of the Indian and Chinese tour groups. Apparently, Mt. Titlus is actually quite the popular tourist attraction… unfortunately for us. Seriously, there was probably nearly 500 Indians and 300-400 Chinese people. The Chinese people weren’t too annoying except that they were just in the way a lot. The Indian people however were a different story entirely! I swear to you I have never been more riled up and angry at a particular culture in my entire life! In Indian culture, it is not normal to stand in a line for things… no, really, they don’t… at all. All day long, I got pushed around, shoved, and cut in front of by the entire Indian population on the mountain. I was FURIOUS! We finally had enough as a group and started getting verbally angry at the line cutters. When we have been waiting in line for 20-30 minutes, and someone waltzes all the way up to the front and weasels their way in (and then it happens over and over), it gets really old really fast. We started calling out the line cutters and telling them to get to the back of the line. They would act confused, then say, “Oh, well we’re going the same place so just let us go in front of you.” UMMMMMM…. NO! I DO NOT THINK SO. BACK OF THE LINE! We may have come off as rude American tourists today, but I didn’t even care anymore. We had had enough! Just because we are polite, courteous, and orderly doesn’t mean you can walk all over us. It doesn’t work like that. It is customary that when one travels, they adhere to the cultural norms of the place they are traveling to. In Westernized countries, that includes learning the kindergarten skill of standing in a line and waiting your own turn! Let’s just say after today, I have absolutely ZERO interest to travel to India and experience their culture. UGH! I’m still fuming about the whole situation!

Anyways, back to the journal entry. We rode another lift down to the glacier park, otherwise known as the playtime area. There was an option to go tubing or sled down a hill using many different snow toys and sleds. It was all so much fun, but so crowded once again. The snow was quite slushy considering the temperature was somewhere in the 40’s, so it managed to find its way up my jeans and into my shoes. By the time we left the mountain, my jeans and shoes were soaked. Good thing I won’t have to wear them much more on the trip!




After going back to the top, eating my lunch that I had packed from breakfast (and by doing so saved at least 20 Francs), Sydney, Laura, Laura, Brittany, and I headed the hour back down to the base of the mountain back to Engelberg. We caught the train and rode it back to Luzern. We got back around 4pm, changed clothes, and met back down in the lobby to head over to Bucherer and buy our Swiss Army knives! I was so excited to do this, because I had been looking forward to getting this gift for a good majority of the trip. I bought a Spartan Lite style Swiss Army knife for Brad and Super Tinker style knives for Dad and Grandpa. I also decided to get a small pink one just for me. It was only 16 Francs so I figured why not?! The best part… I was able to get all of them engraved with the names of each recipient for free! I’m really excited about giving this gift, and I hope all the guys really enjoy them!

After shopping, we headed back near the hotel and grabbed a slice of New York pizza for dinner. It was only 7 Francs! But then the coke that I bought was another 4 Francs. Ugh. Everything over here is ridiculously overpriced. I can’t wait to come back to the USA and buy a $1 Dr. Pepper from McDonalds or Sonic or wherever. This trip has really made me appreciate so many things that I took for granted back in America.

Dinner complete, a few of us girls hung out and talked and then we all parted way, showered, packed up our bags, and went to bed. Tomorrow morning we are having our last two business presentations (yay!) in the hotel conference room! We don’t even have to leave to go anywhere! One more full day in Europe!