This is another very late log of my summer trip (it’s already snowing outside 
) to Zürich, Luzern, Lugano, and Como with my senior, Ferry. Now I realize that making logs aren’t as simple as I thought, especially when level of details are concerned. Well, I guess I’ll just write quite simple logs onwards (without considering timeline details very much).
We left Trento on Saturday, 16th August 2008, to Zürich by train. The main train we used for this first trip was the Cisalpino from Milano to Zürich, a cool train that can be tilted when turning left or right. My first experience riding a tilting traing 
After arriving at Zürich’s main train station (it was late at night already), we headed directly to the hostel that we had booked and slept.
On Sunday, 17th August 2008, we walked around to see Zürich’s famous spots (mainly around the city center), and also the botanical and Chinese garden. Well, actually not really walking around since there’s a cool free bicycle rental place, so we traveled around mostly by riding bicycles (one bicycle each).
Zürich – free ride in Zürich
Zürich
Zürich – Grossmünster church at the background
Our trip rule was still the same as the previous ones: visit famous spots according to the free city map (which we could get for free at the train station), Wikipedia, and Wikitravel. And since we were riding bicycles, we could manage to visit the spots even faster. The monumental event during our trip to Zürich was the lunch. We had a lunch in a restaurant to taste the Swiss traditional dish: the Fondue. What made it special was that it was the most expensive dish I’ve eaten…. €17!!! Well, I’m only a student who rely on the generous European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus scholarship for living (at least for the time being). €17 for a meal is pretty expensive But anyway, trying the Fondue was a nice experience
Zürich – the expensive-but-nice Fondue
Guess what? It was 17th August 2008…. Indonesia’s 63rd anniversary (independence day). Sorry but we just couldn’t really express our nationalism by gathering with other Indonesians. But we met 2 Indonesians as well that day. In the evening we decided to visit Luzern the next day.
On Monday, 18th August 2008, we took a morning train to Luzern. We took the free city map as usual and visited the major spots, including the Kapellbrücke and the lion monument, and the old city wall. Since I hadn’t been using a watch for several years and we were in Switzerland, I bought a Swatch watch here.
Luzern – Kapellbrücke as the background
Luzern – the lion monument
During the visit to the old city wall we found several clock towers and went to the top for each one of them (around 3 or so). It was so tiring and during our way back to the city center we found weird-looking bulls or buffaloes (I can’t really distinguish them ).
Luzern – weird-looking bull (or buffalo?)
After feeling enough with Luzern, we took a train back to Zürich, shopping for a while, then headed to Lugano with another Cisalpino train We arrived in Lugano at night and went directly to the backpackers’ hostel.
On Tuesday, 19th August 2008, we went downtown and strolled at the bank of Lake Lugano. It’s a bit funny that the train station is located on a hill above the city center.
Lugano – on the way to the city center
Lugano – Lake Lugano
Then we went to Melide by train to visit the Swissminiatur. It’s quite fun seeing the miniature of major spots in various cities around Switzerland. We had lunch there as well.
Melide – Swissminiatur
In the afternoon we went to Como by train, went to the city center, and went up the hill using the funicular. Didn’t do much up there.
Como – a view from the hill
Then we walked around Lake Como before finally departed back to Trento in the evening.
Como – Lake Como
It was another nice trip for me.
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