Went our separate ways for a bit this morning as Jill wanted to do some washing (code for sleepin and Facebook).

Bev, Jeff & I walked around the old town some more (really pretty) and then wandered along the lake shore away from the bridge .

Found a beautiful church that had such well tended graves around it. Nearly all of them had plants or creepers in bloom in pots on top of the grave coverings. Graves here often seem to be more of an interment under a slab of concrete or marble than a "dig a hole in the ground" type grave.

Also saw what appeared to be a friendly kitteh here but turned out to be a pissed off puddy. Nasty slash head.

After browsing the shops on the way back we met Jill and went over to the ferry dock to board our lunchtime lake cruise.

We sat down at our first class restaurant table on the top deck and then discovered that lunch wasn't actually included in our lunchtime cruise. Sorry?? Hmmm very good at the fine print these Swiss. No wonder people trust them with the "secret" bank accounts.

The lake cruise, which really is just the normal ferry, was nice and relaxing with great views of the flash houses, green hills and mountains in the distance.

On the way back to Lucerne Jeff & Jill disembarked one stop early so they could go to visit the transport museum (really cool according to Jeff). Jill seemed enthusiastic but later said it was mainly the "world of chocolate" exhibit there that she wanted to see . Because that turned out to not be so great she then decided she had never been that keen on going anyway.

Jeff said it was actually a whole lot better than he was expecting! There were heaps of things to look at & play with including a helicopter simulator (which he drove & Jill thought was boring) & a fighter simulation that Jill drove upside down for most of the flight (3 min) & gave Jeff motion-sickness after he kept screaming "We're going to die!"

Meanwhile, Bev & I looked around the new town and old town (which are both actually the same age) then went our separate ways for a bit. Bev went off to look at souvenir shops and I went back to my room to research things to do and came dangerously close to falling for the lure of the bed. Mmmm bed soft.

Instead of succumbing I found a chocolate factory tour where you can even make your own bar of chocolate. Sounds good!

Located Bev and we jumped in a taxi to the factory in a district called, ahem "Root" . My goodness .... the pamphlet said two stops on the train but it turned out to be a 25min drive and rather costly to get there! Taxis are definitely not as affordable here as they are in Kuala Lumpur!

Aeschbach Chocolate factory was cool though with lots of displays and bizarrely a mechanical donkey that would vomit out chocolate coins at you when you pressed a button on its head! I have no idea what that had to do with chocolate production!

Next came the bit we were most looking forward to - decorating our own bars of chocolate - whoooot whoot! We got to pick a base of milk or dark (or as they call it "black") chocolate and then decorate them with toppings from the huge sprinkles buffet.

After this our decorated bars went through a cooling tube for 7mins and then voila! they were ready. Fun and something a bit different to do.

Made our way back into Lucerne on the train for a much more reasonable CHF 8 . A long way between stops!

Meanwhile Jeff & Jill had finished at the Transport museum and were walking the half hour trail back into Lucerne along the lake.

Very scenic and lots of restaurants along there so we met up and walked back along the lake for a drink on top of an outdoor swimming pool.

If that sounds weird it's because it is. Basically they have fenced off a bit of lake and erected bathhouses for changing and a bar and roof terrace to have a drink. The water isn't heated and because it's sheltered, had a lot (like sushi factory farm quantities) of tiny fish spawn in the water. In fact not surprisingly the fish were the only swimmers in the water.

Sushi wannabes plus the 14C temp wouldn't be inducing me to test the waters. Having an Aperol on the desk was quite pleasant while the sun was up though.

After this we tried in vain to find a place to eat that wasn't too expensive and that everyone liked. After an hour we ended up eating at an ok Italian place near our hotel. All a bit hangry tonight.