Day 11 -- Munich to Lucerne

I felt it first thing in the morning – a small tickle in the back of my throat. Either I'd accidentally swallowed a handful of feathers in the night, or I was getting sick.

This filled me with shame – see, I've not had a good run of luck with my health in the last couple of months…so for me to get sick during out honeymoon was…well, it was pretty embarrassing.

So I tried to hide it from Erika. Quiet clears of the throat, the occasional muffled cough. But galdarn it if she didn't figure it out somehow (she said that I "swallowed a bunch of times, then felt my throat" which creeps me out a little that she watches me that closely). I'm hoping it doesn't get too nasty...but every time I do the "well, this is probably as bad as it's going to get" thing, I wake up the next morning with a throat full of razors.

Either way, I had to push through. Today was our day to go from Munich to Lucerne. Even though we were veterans of a day on the rails already, these travel days still make me nervous. Too many variables, and not enough fluency in the language.

But we managed somehow. We packed our bulging suitcases, and headed for the station (stopping briefly to take a final hit of leberkase, Shwarzwaldkuchenbrot for the road at the Marienplatz). and some

Our train arrived and we boarded. The only real snag we received here was a revelation from the train conductor that we were going to be (briefly) swinging through Austria on our way to Zurich. Why was this a problem? Well…apparently reservations through Austria are "compulsory," and our Eurorail pass didn't cover it. So we had to pay an additional twenty euro for the privilege of seeing Austria for 10 minutes outside of a train window.

We switched trains in Zurich for the final train to Lucerne…and the scenery just got really pretty. I don't know what kind of radioactive grass they use in Switzerland, but it's crazy green. It really seems unnatural…I don't get it…because it grows all up and down the mountains too. And their water…you can look into the water in Switzerland and (pretty much) see through to China. That's right – something not a lot of people know – China is under a bunch Swiss lakes. That's why very few people have ever been to China -- mostly scuba divers, and fish.

Eventually…inevitably…finally, we arrived in Lucerne. Stepping out of the busy train station, I looked around at our new city. This was not the quiet, bucolic, peaceful little town that I'd read about – it was more like a "thriving mid-sized city" with a "robust tourist trade." Cars and scooters whizzed by (as they seem to do all over Europe) as we tried to orient ourselves to our new city.

So we started walking, and something shockingly rare happened. We were looking at our map, squinting at street signs (with our two giant bags in tow) and someone stopped to ask us, in very good English, if we needed any help. Not that people in Europe were unfriendly...but this kind of unsolicited help was unusual...and things that are unusual make us (often unfairly) suspicious. He was obviously just trying to be helpful…but we're so terrified of scams that we politely turned down his offer for assistance. He shrugged and continued on his way.

Our hotel was named the "Bed + Breakfast Hotel." Funny, because it was in English (the literal German translation being "Bett und Fruhstuck"), which is when we started noticing some places around town using only English words in their names...either to appeal to tourists, or to sound exotic to the locals. You see this in America too...without knowing it. A hip bar in America could be called "Trinkwasser," and a German tourist would just look at it and read "Drinking Water." Same goes for our "Bed + Breakfast Hotel" – not an actual bed and breakfast per se (more of a traditional hotel, offering a bed, and a continental breakfast); more of a multi-lingual allusion to the English and American idea of a Bed and Breakfast.

During check-in, we noticed a much more personal touch than at our previous lodgings. The lady met us at the door, greeted us in accented English, and called me by name before I'd had a chance to introduce myself. The Bed + Breakfast has a total of 8 rooms, and we'd reserved the "Junior Suite" for the first two nights, and the last two nights (for one night we had to change rooms, since someone else had already reserved the room that night).

Anyhow, Evelyn, our greeter, led us up to our room, which was a converted attic (the house had been purchased in 2003, and turned into a Hotel). It was fairly normal, excepting that the bed had no headboard...but for an attic it was immaculately clean. Also, there seemed to be much more floor space than we were used to or expecting.

We dropped off our bags and went out to our first dinner in the land of the Swiss. Erika was on a roll regarding "recommendations," so she asked Evelyn if there were any good restaurants around the hotel (something "not too touristy"), and several locations were circled on our "free map of Lucerne." We went to the first, and it seemed a bit "upscale" for our tastes (and budget). The next place was good, but they only had paninis for food. But we were freaking starving at this point; one of the biggest problems in any new cities is "getting food that first night" (which is tough...because you haven't had the chance to scout around)...so the simple panini was not a problem. We drank the local beer (Eichhof – if you're ever in Lucerne, do yourself a favor and order up a glass), ate the local sandwich, and eventually retired to the local hotel.

Tomorrow is our traditional "walking tour" of our new city. These first couple of hours are always a little bit strange…everything seems to be going in fast-forward, and the names and places don't make any sense (even though I've playfully named Switzerland the "Poor Man's Bavaria"). That's why, tomorrow, we planned a day of acclimatization. The only big event planned is the "Picasso Museum."

When I first planned Switzerland, months ago, I'd intentionally left a lot of it blank, partly because there was not a ton of stuff to do in Switzerland, and partly because I liked the idea of the two of us just "winging it" a little bit. We'll see what that drums up. Until then…