Agenda:
Italy, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland
-Leaving Italy
-Shopping for crystals in Austria
-Picking up postcards in Liechtenstein
-Dinner in Switzerland
Our 4 country day started off in Italy heading for Innsbruck, Austria. You can tell we were no longer in Italy when the weather started to cool down a bit and mountains covered by lush green grass appeared. Innsbruck is probably most famous for several things: winter sports (it hosted the winter olympics twice), its Golden Roof, and its views of the Alps. It is the 5th largest city in Austria. I forget what is the big deal about the Roof, or the Golden Dahl as they call it. In fact, I don't even think it's real gold but gold paint on top of copper shingles. Most likely it is one of the oldest pieces in the city ages ago and built by a king for egotistical reasons to demonstrate his power or money - I think it's a perfect explanation for 90% of the artifacts, buildings and paintings in Europe.
One other thing it attracts tourist is for its Swarovski store. Three levels of crystal embellished sculptures, home decorations and jewelry. It's like a zoo of crystal animals from peacocks to lizards. It's not especially cheap (is there even such thing in Europe??) but there were lots of unique designs you probably can't buy elsewhere. I had a bit of time for some souvenirs. One observation I had was that I found the service in Italy to be quite excellent, but the people here weren't that nice. Maybe it's just I'm not used to service without all the syrupy fakeness they have in North America, but I thought the salespeople were a bit arupt at times. Blah.
By late afternoon, we had reached Liechtenstein, one of those places with a king and a country small as a large park. It felt like an American factory outlet to me. It started to pour like hell so we cut our visit short and hopped back onto the bus for Switzerland. In Lucerne, it rained the whole evening through but stopped by the time it got dark. It was a tiring day so I went to bed early in anticipation for a big day tomorrow.
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