European Invasion Part 1

Here it is. The moment of truth of our camera, and a little moment of terror for myself. If you've ever been to Europe before (especially the Swiss/Austria/Germany area), you know that the area is ripe with picturesque views, unintelligible signs (ausfahrt-I did that for Brennan), speed limits with no limit and a little bit of terror looking at a menu and not having an idea of what it says. What a great adventure. It was so good that I'm dividing it up. I'm going to cover day one this time and cover the other days later.
We flew out of Indy around 10:00 and connected to Atlanta before flying over to Zurich, Switzerland. Since we had a 4 hour layover, we decided to do various things...

We finally got on the airplane for our 9 hour flight, when they informed us it would be an hour before we got to take off because of thunderstorms.
Eventually, we took off. Have you ever tried to sleep on an airplane? I tried. We left in the evening, and with us arriving in Zurich at about 8 in the morning, I figured I'd better try to get some sleep. What a joke. You'd better take some NyQuil or something to knock you out. Beth said I got quite a bit of sleep, but I don't call 4 hours a lot. I was just getting settled into my seat to try and take a nap, when my legs got that feeling that they had to move. They weren't taking no for an answer, either, so, after walking around for about 5 or 10 minutes, I tried to settle again. With a little help from Mr. Tylenol P.M., I was able to fall asleep.
We arrived in Zurich around 8 or 9, then picked up our transportation. Here's dad getting the vehicle, and the vehicle itself...

We get in our van and head to Mt. Pilates, where we proceeded to stretch our stiffened limbs. Then, we headed to Mt. Pilatus, where we proceeded to stretch our limits of altitude sickness. At first it looked like a foothill. Mom, not being the one for going up gondolas, was hesitant at first, but her adventurous side took over and she went up as well.
Make a note of this...The Travelocity Roaming Gnome is revered in Switzerland.
Our beloved gondola. I know, I know, it looks small, but it's actually smaller than it looks.
It's a little high, but looks harmless, until...
It seems that we were only halfway up. This is what it looks like from near the top...
That's more like it. When the clouds are below you, your feet start to tingle a little.

I did a little research and found out it was a First Church of the Mountain Goat. The ones that go, strangely, never return.

We finally make it to the top. Then I notice the cog train. Poor fools probably didn't realize our way reeked of scenery.

I'm going to finish up for now, and do the end of Day 1 and all of Day 2 on Saturday. I'm like a preacher...very long winded.