Doh!
Today started out looking a bit bleak after raining overnight, but around mid-day the sun peeked out so I thought I would get my lazy butt out of the house and take a drive. I decided I would to the Rhine Falls, which I've never seen, and maybe continue on to Stein am Rhein if I was feeling especially ambitious. I was feeling good because I'd plotted everything out, brought a few CDs and the camera, filled up the tank...then I was near where I was supposed to exit and realised I'd forgot one critical item: my passport. Even though it's in Switzerland, to get there from Basel you have to drive through Germany.
So I could either: (a) turn around and go home and mope; (b) go a much longer all-Swiss route to get there; or (c) drive somewhere else in Switzerland. Needless to say, I went with option (c) and decided to go down to Lake Lucerne (or as it's more accurately known, the Vierwaldstattersee. The only problem is that I only had a vague idea how to get there, and consulting a map when doing 130 kph on the motorway is less than ideal. Oh sure, I suppose I could have pulled over to look at the map...AS IF! See, one of the nice things about Switzerland is that if you get lost, chances are you'll eventually find a sign pointing you in the right direction, and what the Swiss consider to be rough parts of town are laughable by big-city American standards. So I kind of improvised my way through Zurich, eventually found the road in the direction of Schwyz, and eventually found the lake outside of Brunnen. It was a pretty spectacular drive from Brunnen through Gersau, Vitznau, Weggis and Küssnacht, except for the weather. I only stopped once to snap a couple of blurry pictures, but I want to go back and see it again, preferably on a sunny day. So even though I didn't see what I had originally wanted to see because of my little passport snafu, I still have to give it a big thumbs-up.
So I could either: (a) turn around and go home and mope; (b) go a much longer all-Swiss route to get there; or (c) drive somewhere else in Switzerland. Needless to say, I went with option (c) and decided to go down to Lake Lucerne (or as it's more accurately known, the Vierwaldstattersee. The only problem is that I only had a vague idea how to get there, and consulting a map when doing 130 kph on the motorway is less than ideal. Oh sure, I suppose I could have pulled over to look at the map...AS IF! See, one of the nice things about Switzerland is that if you get lost, chances are you'll eventually find a sign pointing you in the right direction, and what the Swiss consider to be rough parts of town are laughable by big-city American standards. So I kind of improvised my way through Zurich, eventually found the road in the direction of Schwyz, and eventually found the lake outside of Brunnen. It was a pretty spectacular drive from Brunnen through Gersau, Vitznau, Weggis and Küssnacht, except for the weather. I only stopped once to snap a couple of blurry pictures, but I want to go back and see it again, preferably on a sunny day. So even though I didn't see what I had originally wanted to see because of my little passport snafu, I still have to give it a big thumbs-up.
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