ALPINE COUNTRIES - 2010

16 days incl. travel, or 15 days from Frankfurt to Frankfurt (ZF)

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Vacation Overview

Be prepared for breathtaking views! Your journey begins in Frankfurt and travels via medieval Rothenburg to Munich, where you will visit the Marienplatz. On to Austria for guided sightseeing in Salzburg and Vienna. From Vienna, an optional excursion to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, is available. Drive over Semmering Pass into Carinthia and enjoy an overnight stay in pretty Villach. The Dolomites, Cortina d’Ampezzo, and Brenner Pass deliver you to Innsbruck in the Austrian Tyrol. St. Moritz, Lake Como, and Lake Lugano are next. Proceed to Lake Maggiore, Stresa, and travel over Simplon Pass back to Switzerland, where you board a mountain train to Zermatt at the foot of the Matterhorn. Via the Rhône Valley, Lake Geneva, Berne, Interlaken, and Brünig Pass, head to picture-perfect Lucerne for a relaxing 2-night stay. Your vacation is topped off with visits to the Rhine Falls, the Black Forest, and Heidelberg, Germany.

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A Vacation Story Lion Monument

“The Lion of Lucerne” (Lowendenkmal) is a compelling statue in the north section of Old Town dedicated to the 42 members of the Swiss Guard who were assigned to protect Louis the XVI, Maria Antoinette and their family at the Royal Palace. When the Tuileries was stormed on August 10, 1792 by rioting Parisians at the start of the French Revolution, the king ordered the soldiers to lay down their arms. They were subsequently slaughtered by the crowd and the royal family was captured. Louis had made a big mistake. In 1821 Danish sculpture Berthel Thorwaldsen finished the sculpture, a 30-foot likeness of a wounded and dying lion with a broken lance in its heart and his paw resting atop the fleur-de-lys shield of the Bourbon king. The Latin inscription translated “To the bravery and fidelity of the Swiss.”