by Ethan Phoenix

Created on: January 23, 2009

My Europe holiday involved a 14 day Trafalgar bus tour and it was something I will cherish and remember for the rest of my life. I will cover the highlights of each city and include my top ten places in Europe.

My number one destination in Europe was Lucerne, Switzerland. After visiting very crowded and massive cities we arrived in Lucerne. It was a small, quiet and peaceful city surrounded by a lake and a mountain. Everything was in walking distance from our hotel and there was hardly any traffic. Switzerland was famous for watches, Swiss Army knifes, chocolate and Roger Federer. The locals were very friendly and spoke fluent English. It had the longest road tunnels in the world with one measuring about 30km.

We ascended Mt Pilatus in a cable car and spent some time on top of the mountain. We descended the mountain on a very steep train ride. It was lucky the train went pretty slow and had good brakes. We then did a cruise on Lake Lucerne. The cows in Switzerland had large bells around their necks and it gave a loud ringing sound. It must have driven the farmers mad. We had a bananna milkshake at Starbucks which overlooked the famous wooden bridge in Lucerne. We had dinner at a traditional Swiss pub where we saw flag tossing, yodeling and many other weird traditions. The dinner included a cheese fondue containing alcohol and for dessert a chocolate fondue.

Second on my list was Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam had the tallest population in the world. A large percentage of the population rode push-bikes. If you were walking and heard a bell ring from behind, you needed to get out the way or you would be run over by a cyclist. Amsterdam was memorable for many things but mostly the cheese and clog factory we went too. The clog maker was a very funny guy. While he was making clogs he entertained us with his dry sense of humor. Afterwards we noticed he was riding a children's bike with a joint in one hand and a beer in the other hand. As he rode past he said, "Watch out for the dodgy Dutchman!" Other good memories included being mooned by several University students while on a canal cruise and someone relieving themselves off a bridge. The locals there were friendly and spoke fluent English. We had a nice Indonesian meal there.

Number three on my list was Innsbruck, Austria. The scenery in Austria was spectacular even though we mostly only saw this from the bus. Innsbruck was a small city surrounded by mountains. We had a beautiful coffee there and were entertained

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